Take care of yourself first!

Put your oxygen mask on first

Sandra Lutz
4 min readMay 14, 2020

If, in the event of a sudden drop of cabin pressure in an aircraft, we firstly want to help our panicking neighbors when putting on the oxygen mask, we will pass out after about 15 seconds. In a stressful situation, 15 seconds are quite short. This applies not only at an altitude of 10,000 meters, but also on the ground: if we try to help others, before we take care of ourselves, we risk losing power and being unable to act.

Applied to our everyday life, the oxygen mask means self-love and self-care.

Why do we always have to hit the bottom first and feel really bad until we finally do something about it? Or better: Finally do something for us? Why do we love wallowing in self-pity and pushing everything ahead of us when we are feeling bad or lack motivation?

We remain in dilemma or in „I don’t want. To do anything but lay in my bed“-mode because it is so easy, we feel no resistance, and we have practiced this behavior for years — if not decades. Somehow we like the situation of not having to decide what to do next to get going or to feel better. Sometimes we like to suffer. If we just like that lying there and blowing sorrow, we don’t have to act, we don’t have to pull ourselves together, we don’t have to muster any energy. These thought patterns have changed into habits and have become routines.

However, we can break up these patterns, habits and routines and replace them with other, supporting patterns.

You should approach this process gently but consistently. With a first, simple step. To overcome stagnation. And to get moving. We have to choose to put the oxygen mask on first.

We make decisions every day, every hour, every minute. Every morning we decide anew what kind of life we ​​live and what kind of start we want to give ourselves, but not entirely consciously. It’s a new morning every time, a good morning at the beginning of a new, good day. It depends on what we do with it. Therefore: do yourself a favor tomorrow morning and start it with a positive and grateful thought. Start your day deliberately with a positive thought or “I will do something good for myself today”.

An example of how I put on the oxygen mask every morning: I get up before everyone else — in my case, everyone else is my two favorite people and a four-legged friend.- I take time for myself. I get up with the decision to do something good for myself.

I meditate. Clarify my thoughts. Sit on the thought-toilet, so to speak. And I make this decision every morning anew. It is definitely not always a feeling of happiness to stand up before everyone else, especially when you are lying next to someone you love and could still cuddle for a bit.

But it’s worth it, because with this decision I put on my oxygen mask first, each and every morning. I make sure that I am doing well in the first place, so that I am as productive and happy as possible and consequently can give others more and can give better.

Without thinking too much or rethinking the situation, because we think too much and. And rethink what has been thought, rethink too often and do not take action. As long as we think, we will not make decisions and will not act. It only takes a tiny decision to get moving.

Therefore: make a decision and take the first step.

A few tools or techniques can help you with this. For example, the tool that we all learned as a child: count from one to three — and then go. Or use the words “Ready, steady, go!”

So, practically speaking: You lie comfortably in your warm and very comfortable bed, its early in the morning and you should actually get up and going. You have to go to work, and this thought alone is reason enough to turn over to the other side and hit the snooze button.

Now just say to yourself „ ready, steady, go!“ — and you already swing out of bed.

Here’s what happens: While you are consciously saying to yourself „ready, steady, go!“, your brain has no capacity to focus on other non-productive thoughts or on the “I don’t want to” voice. You actively stop your negative thought pattern, and before you notice it, you are actually already on your feet and on the move.

Consistently applied, this technique becomes a routine. You train your brain to concentrate on nothing else while saying „ready, steady, go!“ and to take action at one point. You can use this effective technique in all possible areas of life — when you have to carry out an order, do a job or do something in the household. Practice and internalize this technique on small, not so complex things, like brushing your teeth or washing your hands and it becomes a routine and you will also be able to use it profitably for larger projects.

It will change your life for the better.

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Sandra Lutz
Sandra Lutz

Written by Sandra Lutz

Happiness and Success Coach. All in for supportive routines, getting asap into the happy state and english bulldogs

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