Caring For Yourself: Selfish or Necessary?

Caring for others to the point of your demise is not noble, it is foolish.

I'm sure you have seen it, a leader who is constantly meeting the needs of those around him, but then spirals into a pit of burnout. Or, a friend who consistently pushes herself to answer her friends beckoning call until she takes off and runs in order to get away from it all. "What happened? He or she was the most caring person for others."

 

What happened is that those individuals truly did care for others, but they failed to care for themselves first. It's counterintuitive. Caring for yourself is one of the most selfless things that you can do. It's not only selfless, it's necessary.

 

As a leader, parent, pastor, family member or friend you think to be loving, giving, sacrificial, or selfless you need to be continuously pouring out, but what about pouring? You can't give what you don't have. You can't refresh others when your well is tapped.

 

Think about it financially. I'm sure if you had it you would love to give graciously to those around you. But, how can you be selfless in your finances if your bank account is empty? Unless you take time to intentionally plan for your financial future, save, invest, and grow in your wealth, you will constantly have nothing to give.

 

The same goes for your emotional bank account. How often have you felt like you just didn't have the emotional capacity to give to anyone else? If you don't consciously feed into your emotional bank account when it's time for any withdraws you will be having some 'withdraws' all right; yelling, shutting down, running. You get it.

 

One of the most selfless things you could do for others is set time in your daily schedule to care for yourself. What are things that fill your emotional tank? What things bring you joy? In what ways do you need to build your relational, financial, emotional, spiritual, mental, or physical reservoirs? Begin to discover these things and then begin to do them. Caring for others begins with caring for yourself.