Altruism: the principle or practice of unselfish concern for or devotion to the welfare of others. Women, therapists and caregivers tend to be altruistic.
Are you always taking care of everyone else and forgetting to put yourself first. Throughout the week, how often do you put yourself first? What about over the course of a month?
It can be difficult to remember our own happiness in addition to everyone else’s. Givers can be terrible at putting ourselves first. We give, give, give but forget to give to ourselves.
Lesson #4: Give to yourself.
There’s a down side to putting everyone else’s concerns before your own.
When you relegate yourself to last place, you wind up exhausted, you don’t sleep well, your diet tends to suffer, you deal with more physical pain and the effects of chronic stress. How do you rate?
I’ve had a couple of months now to make changes in my life in order to ramp up the goodness in my life. Here’s a little exercise you can do to see how you’re doing: Write down 5 things that make you happy; then write down the last time you did each of those things.
As you review how you’re doing on your happiness exercise, never make yourself “wrong” for what makes you happy. (That’s something especially women do far too often.) It’s much better to just be honest. So, if shopping makes you happy, don’t beat yourself up, think your happy thoughts!
This week, sit down and figure out where you can begin to put yourself first by doing activities that you love. Even the little things like getting a manicure, taking a walk with your significant other or having a glass of wine or beer with your friends really matter and contribute to your overall happiness.
Have a wonderful and Happy New Year! See you soon.
Janet Lawlor, bctmb, MAT, cya 