Put On Your Mask First

I had a couple of conversations today with two different women about the same thing and it caused me to make it the subject of today’s meditation. When we are on the plane, and our lovely (or handsome) flight attendants give their safety spiel, at the point at which they describe the procedures for putting on your oxygen mask, they plainly instruct each individual that if they have someone who needs assistance to place their own masks on first, and then assist the person who requires assistance. The idea is, if you try to assist the other first, and something delays the action, such as the person is in distress or inconsolable... the more capable person would become incapable of helping themselves or the person for whom the help was initially needed. So I say today, put on your own mask first.

I speak to women mostly, because generally we are the nurturers, our energy is normally poured out. Anyone who serves others however may suffer from this infirmity. It is a sickness to think of yourself as so indispensable that you forget to take care of yourself. It is unhealthy and unwise to pour from an empty spirit. Many times we are coming up empty because we do not establish adequate boundaries. We don’t allow ourselves to tell people “no”, we don’t give our children bed times or set schedules for the smooth running of our households, we procrastinate or don’t make time for all the events we cram into our schedules. In the end, we are responsible for our over active lives. We could easily make time for the mental, physical and spiritual work that goes into having a healthy life if we’d take a long hard look at the commitments we make. A lot of those commitments look good on paper, endless rehearsals, games, recitals, concerts and even church functions fill our calendars and tell us how busy and important we are, but what are we really accomplishing with all those dates?

It is your decision to make whether or not you feel refreshed daily. Whether you take the time for meditation, whether you have an opportunity to talk to the Most High or whether you’re “too busy”. Complaining about being tired does not mean we are accomplishing anything. Take a long hard look at your commitments, and then begin to commit yourself to filling your well so that you may pour out into others from your own abundance. Stop scraping the bottom of the barrel. There is a life more abundant to live. Let’s choose to live it.