There’s a reason that flight attendants tell us to put on our own oxygen mask in case of emergency before helping others – even our young children.
Our instinct is to do whatever we can to help those whom we love. Especially our children that are like pieces of our hearts running around outside of our body. In case of emergency, we instinctively reach out to help them before helping ourselves.
The problem with helping your loved ones at the expense of your own well-being is that eventually you will run out of energy and capability yourself to be able to help them. Then they’ll be on their own anyway and that might be when they really really need you.
I have not always felt that way but I now strongly believe that it is our responsibility towards our loved ones to first take care of ourselves – both inner and outer selves. That means keeping our mind body and soul in shape to take on any challenges that come our way.
We owe it to ourselves and our loved ones to put our own oxygen mask on first. In fact, we need to do that not only at the time of an emergency but to do it regularly and proactively so we have readily available capability when our loved ones truly need us.