Take Time To Nurture Yourself

Women are often the primary nurturers. Women carry the pregnancy and breast-feed the baby. They are the epicenter of healthcare decisions for the family and are more likely to be the caregiver when a family member falls ill. They are often the limo driver, the chef and the chief financial officer of the household. And in addition to caring for kids and a partner, they are often the front line for caring and supporting parents as they age.

Does this sound familiar? If so, my question to you is this: Who is nurturing you? Who is nurturing the nurturer? Who is making sure that you are getting the time, attention and emotional support that you need and deserve?

If there isn’t a clear answer to this question, pause a moment and realize – the need is still there; the desire to be nurtured is still there; the impact of not being nurtured is still there.

So what can you do? First, realize it’s OK to have needs. Next decide who in your immediate world you can reach out to for nurturing. In some cases there may be no obvious choice to fill this role for you.

That’s OK, too. There is still you and you have a powerful position. You can allo­cate some of the time you are using to nurture others and reserve it for yourself.

Set aside some you-time for an ex­ercise or yoga class or a walk or for reading a book. Maybe it is eating lunch with a friend. Maybe it is two 15-minute meditations you do by your­self. Even talking on the phone with a woman friend can be very therapeutic.

What you do isn’t the goal. It’s taking time to restore yourself and your “self”; to focus on you and not onthem. Remember in the airplane, the person says, “In the unexpected case of an emergency and oxygen is needed, when the oxygen mask falls, place it on your head first and then place it on the head of your child.”

Every nurturer needs to be nurtured. Are you making you-time to nurture you?

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