You may have seen the post all over Facebook recently…

“You cannot pour from an empty cup. Take care of yourself first.”

Have you stopped to actually take that in? Or have you gone on thinking “it’s all well and good, but there are children to feed and clothes to wash and dishes to clean and counters to wipe and jobs to do and and and”

If that’s where you are… take a moment to stop. Breathe.

You can only do so much before you run out of energy – and if you never recharge your “batteries”, but keep taking from your reserves, how long do you think you can keep going?

How long will it take you to replenish those reserves? Will it have been worth it?

I can post pretty pastel quotes all night, but it doesn’t matter if you don’t stop for a moment and take it in. Right now. Look inward, and do a quick self check.

Have you slept enough lately? Have you done something just for yourself in the last week? Have you been eating nourishing, nurturing yummy things of more than two colours?

Your mileage may vary… and we all know deep down what we need to do to look after ourselves. We just need to stop making excuses. Most of all, we need to throw away the belief that we somehow need to run ourselves into the ground to satisfy everyone else’s expectations.

Breathe deep. Be selfish for a minute. Eat the biggest slice of cake. Make yourself a cup of tea, and sit down and drink it while it’s still warm. You owe it to nobody but yourself.

A little tiny bit of selfishness can go a long way towards your sanity… and the people you care about will thank you for it. 🙂