Friday, February 23, 2007

Friday's Quote to Ponder

"If you must love your neighbor as yourself, it is at least as fair to love yourself as your neighbor." ~Sebastien-Roch Nicolas

This week's The Frazzled Female study is about taking care of yourself. How often do you do this? Do you wait until you're just frazzled out the whazoo, then get sick and be FORCED to rest? Stress is a major cause of illness, not to mention emotional and mental problems. We all have stress, but how we choose to deal with it is what's important. Many of us say, "I don't have time to take care of myself (exercise, eating well, etc, etc)." But if you don't make the time in the midst of the chaos, the chaos will eventually bring you down.

This sounds more like a Misty's Challenge, but please--find the time somewhere. Take a walk if only to park your car far away from the store and walk farther. If you must consume fast food, opt for grilled chicken (no mayo) or a salad. And you don't have to buy Cookie Crisp and Fruit Loops. My Kroger excursion today opened my eyes to the amounts of sugar in that stuff. Just a bunch of empty calories. Go with Cheerios or oatmeal or my favorite--Kashi Go Lean. "That healthy stuff tastes like... (rabbit food, sticks and twigs, grass, etc)" And that high-fat and sugar stuff will eventually kill you. And for goodness sakes, don't stay up all night to get more chores done. Figure out a system (Flylady is great!) and get to bed at a decent hour. Sleep deprived people tend to be unhappy, unhealthy, and overweight. Yes, even full time working mothers, fathers, and students can take care of themselves, even if it is challenging.

Love yourself as you love your neighbor--you wouldn't make your neighbor consume foods filled with high fructose corn syrup and partially hydrogenated vegetable oil, would you? And you wouldn't make them stay up til 2 am to get laundry done. So take care of you! And then you can better help your neighbor.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

you know mom told me that i need to start taking time for me. I never do, all I do is run around. I go until I am so tired I just hurt all over. I needed this advice. I really did. I think starting next week I am going to start taking time for me. :) I'm worth it.

Mysti said...

Yes, child of God, you ARE worth it! Keep me updated!

Joan said...

This is getting mushy!

Um, I thought the same thing, and I realized that my self care involved M&Ms and oreos at the moment...so I bought some. Okay, so not exactly where you were headed with this, but...

Mysti said...

Well, a girl just MUST have chocolate to stay sane now and then. I just finished the whole bag of Ghirardelli dark chocolates that hubby got me for Valentine's. A nice square of dark chocolate with a cup of decaf in the afternoon is like a little siesta!