Ladies and Gentlemen, We are going down......

Imagine, you are on an airplane, and just resting, or reading, and your child is happily sitting next to you, and you hear this over the intercoms...
LADIES AND GENTLEMAN, THIS IS YOUR CAPTAIN< AND WE ARE IN SOME TROUBLE.... 

You've flown before, you have seen the drill, how to buckle your seat belt, what to do when the mask falls from the ceiling..but do you really know what you would do?
If the plane is going down, and that mask drops...who gets one first? 
Most parents will say the kid, right? Wrong~~
If you don't put yours on first, in a true emergency, you might perish before you can even get theirs on them.
And then what...
Yeah.
There are several different analogies for this scenario in real life...
 ~Put your own oxygen mask on first,
 ~You have to look after yourself first in order to have something to offer others,
 ~There is a fountain inside you, don't walk around with an empty bucket,
 ~Sometimes you don't realize that you are drowning, because you are trying so hard to be everyone else's anchor,
 ~It all begins with you, If you do not take care of yourself first, you will not be strong enough to take care of anything in your life,
 ~You can't help others if you don't look after your self first, you get the idea, right?
 The bottom line in life is You can not fill someone else's cup, if yours is empty.
PERIOD
 So many times people want to do and do and do for others, but they end up neglecting themselves. This is so bad, and tragic. This is so very true when you have kids in your life. Or maybe you are a caregiver to a special needs child, or maybe its an adult, with memory care issues, my advice to you is find a way to give yourself ME TIME EVERY DAY,, away from your charges...take a drive, take a bath, read at bedtime, have a dance party alone, work out, go for a run, sneak into the pantry to have a snack, watch tv, have a glass of wine, read your Bible, call a friend.
 I get that they are always around, but that's okay, you need to prioritize finding time to just regroup and focus and fill that cup.
 You must...I hate to think of all of those out there who are on a crashing plane, who didn't put on their own oxygen mask first.