When the going gets tough, take care of yourself!

Whether you are a burned out parent of a special-needs or particularly challenging child, a caregiver of elderly or infirm family members, a full-time parent, a parent juggling work and home, a giver in your community trying to care for refugees, the homeless, or the hungry,   REMEMBER:

• You can only do so much. And much less if you don’t take care of yourself. A healthy lifestyle is essential. Get enough sleep. Eat well and regularly. Breathe fresh air as often as possible. Exercise regularly, whether it be hiking, biking, lifting weights at the gym, Zumba, walking your do, dancing your heart out.

• Help others when you can, but know your limits! Get help from others, either professionals, friends, or family, when you need it. Don’t wait until you’re in way over your head and become so sick and tired that you need help yourself.

• Love, nurture, support and care for your children, family, loved ones, but help others to help themselves. In many cases, it is far more helpful to teach others to fish than to catch the fish, cook it up, and serve it to them on a silver platter.

• Stay in the now. It is easy to dwell in the dead past or the imagined future. Fear generally arises when we catastrophize rather than grounding ourselves in the here and now.

• Life can be overwhelming unless you chunk down. Take small pieces and handle what you can, one piece at a time.

• Remember Richard Carlson’s Don’t Sweat the Small Stuff? He was 100% right. And much of life is small stuff. Do what you can and leave the rest alone.

• A study not long ago concluded that people who spent a lot of time on Facebook and other social media were LESS HAPPY than those who did not. Disconnect more often be real instead of virtual.

• A recent study showed that the single most important factor in being and staying happy is loving relationships. Not necessarily marriages, families, pets…. just close, ongoing relationships that you can count on. 

We have a chance to meet lots of different people from all over the world, and here is what we notice on a daily basis:

• Flexibility allows people to be happy wherever they are, no matter what is happening.
• Gratitude is the key to satisfaction with life.
• Sharing and loving are foolproof roads to a happy life.