Taking Responsibility for Yourself: Promoting Your Happiness
You may have fallen victim to your daily routine becoming a series of tedious demands and unfulfilling obligations.
Kid’s soccer games, mowing the lawn, pick up the dry cleaning, visit your mother-in-law, do the dishes, take the dog to the vet, clean the house, buy a bunch groceries… We are all bombarded every day with tasks, people, work, and obligations that make demands on our time and energy. It’s easy to let these things dictate your existence.
Taking care yourself is something most preach, but have trouble practicing. We don’t take our own medicine. Your happiness is just as important as anyone else’s. You can be a role model to others, so they watch you and see you care for yourself, and they learn to do the same. But this is hard.
You need to put limits on your demands in order to care for yourself. Many of my clients will say that this is selfish, but it’s more about self-preservation. How can we care for others, contribute to the people and priorities in our lives, if we do not care for ourselves first. Who cares for the caregiver? Who provides for the provider?
It’s a good intention to put others first, but they learn that you will always be there to care for their problems, so they never care for themselves. It’s like when you were in grade school and someone cheated off of your test. They got the answers right, but have no understanding as too why. The more you solve others problems, the less able they are to care for themselves. It’s hard to watch people struggle, but that is how they grow.
Tags: Anger Management, Archive