ME FIRST, THEN THE SHOWER
Last weekend I took a shower, like I do every day. After showering I went looking for my towel. After I found my towel, I made the shower completely dry – purely out of habit. The shower? Yes, the shower hose and the faucet – otherwise minerals will naturally build up and create white stains. When I caught myself doing this, I actually thought this was quite a shocking discovery! Because how typical is this? Always helping someone else (or something else) before we help ourselves. This is very characteristic of me. Do you recognize yourself in this? However, shouldn’t you be warm and dry first before you dry off the shower around you?
In our role as a coach, healer, or teacher, we are always busy helping others. Therein lies the danger that we sometimes, or actually quite often, forget to be the first to help ourselves.
After this shower event, I called a friend of mine and told her what I had just realized. She laughed and said she recognized this very much: in the past, she always had to dry her mother’s shower first before drying herself off. She told me that she has since decided that this is nonsense. Because only when you take good care of yourself can you take good care of others and your environment. In that order and not the other way around.
I have become increasingly aware of this. First and foremost, it is all about being able to take good care of myself. Not only by drying myself off first in the shower, but also when it comes to sleeping, healthy eating, drinking, exercising, meditating, and starting the day in a good way. But it is also about asking for help. About allowing yourself to work with a coach. I have been doing that myself for years. In recent years I have always had one or more coaches supporting me: business coaches, shamans, healers, nutrition coaches, mindfulness coaches. All types of coaches that ensure that I feel good about myself and that allow me to continue to live and do well in this day and age.
Ask yourself honestly: how often do you ask for help?
