Monday, April 2, 2012

Making Time for Yourself

Are wives and mothers being selfish when we take time for ourselves? I am always struck by the fact that in an airplane parents are told to put the oxygen masks on themselves first before putting them on the children. It is so we will be able to save our children. If we want to be the best we can be for our families than we can't let our health fall through the cracks, and that means our mental, emotional and spiritual health. An elderly lady in the Carmelite order once confided to me that she felt selfish when she took time to put everything aside and pray. I asked her if she felt the same way about eating and she said "no." I  told her that as food was necessary to the body so was prayer necessary to the soul. Every person needs to take some quiet time to regroup, to meditate, to reflect on life and where God is leading them. This can be done best in a quiet place like church but it can also be done while soaking in a tub, taking a brisk walk, working out at the gym, sitting under the hair dryer or blissfully ensconced in one's special corner at home. Making time for yourself can also entail, on a more mundane level, giving yourself a manicure and a facial, writing a letter to an old friend, or working on that novel you promised yourself you would write someday. I do all of the above to re-energize; I especially love to take long walks in the country. When the batteries are recharged then the task at hand goes smoother.

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