You hear it every time the airplane is taking off.
“Should the cabin lose pressure, oxygen masks will drop from the overhead area. Please place the mask over your own mouth and nose before assisting others.”
It’s not selfish to take care of yourself first, in fact, It’s the best thing to do if you want to be of service to others.
If you are an entrepreneur and you want to be of service to your community, you have to turn a profit in order to secure your continuity.
If you have family, if you want to be there for your sons/daughter and spouse, you need to eat well, rest and have some fun. The best way to be your best with others is to be the best with yourself.
How to have social encounters if you are alone
I live alone, but I make a effort to have social interactions every day.
Right now, I am typing this blog post from my neighborhood book store. It’s big, with bright lights, and it has nice background music, it’s perfect. I share my love for books with the owner and she allows me to use her store as a place to read or write.
I go often to the local stores and know most of the cashiers by name.
These informal social encounters replenishes my need for social interaction. I am sure something of that nature is available to most of us.
Many of us are limited to Zoom meetings. One nice thing to do is to tell people that you will be there a bit earlier in case they want to chat, or that you can stay a bit longer after the meeting. That way, you can replicate in some sort, the kind of informal conversations people used to have by the water cooler.
If you never had a close connection with family members, COVID-19 is a wonderful opportunity to check on each other. Just make a call every now and then and say, “Hey, how are doing? How are things in your town (neighborhood)?” Those short phone calls or text messages can mean a lot to the other person.
Where do you draw the line on self care
So where do you draw the line on self-care? At what point do we care so much for ourselves that we become narcissists and self-absorbed?
The line is drawn where your main purpose of self-care is to be of service to others, whether it is your community or your family; whereas for the self-absorbed and narcissist, self-care is one more way to satisfy their ego. We have to be vigilant because sometimes there is a point in which it isn’t obvious.
When we think of self care, we imagine bubble baths with a glass of wine, or massages at the spa, but research has shown that we get a huge return on happiness when we do some social activity in community with others.
We can not change Covid, but we can change how react to it. In the beginning, we felt shocked, disbelieve, and fear. Now, we use Covid as one more reason to connect with those who we love, and even those we meet informally from time to time.
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