This morning I woke up next to my dog, Coco. He heard me yawning and snuggled up to my face. He is a blonde and brown, ten-pound Shorkie, a cross between a Yorkie and a Shit-zu. He puts his teddy bear snout next to my face and gives me a kiss. I think, what a wonderful way to start this day. Especially, since I went to bed with the ominous thought: Am I taking care of myself?

Taking care of yourself means taking care of the entire body-mind-spirit paradigm. It could mean:

ü Am I eating the right food;

ü Am I eating the proper portions for my body type;

ü Am I exercising daily;

ü Am I hiding a feeling with food, drugs, or alcohol;

ü Am I hiding a feeling with shopping;

ü Am I taking time each day to get peaceful and quiet and listen to spirit;

ü Am I being compassionate to myself and others;

ü Am I doing something outside by box to grow;

ü Am I committing random acts of kindness;

ü Am I connecting with the earth somehow (walks, gardening, swimming);

ü Am I reaching out to be social;

ü Am I overworking and forgetting about myself; and

ü Am I sleeping enough.

The list could go on and on. You get the picture. I’m sure you need to ask yourself at least ten of the questions above daily. If you aren’t, something is wrong.

         I grew up with the idea that the self was the least important person in the world. To do for myself was being selfish. I either had to find someone who could read my mind and treat me with the things I wanted, or I wasn’t going to have them. Because my money and time were used to appease everyone else in my world, including the poor, the church, beggars on the street. Everyone came first, but me. I didn’t even have nice clothes. I bought everything I needed from the Salvation Army store or a second hand shop.

         In retrospect I feel completely different now. I get massages, facials, get a mani-pedi monthly, eat awesome food, have a wonderful social life, I go to the gym, I do yoga, I satisfy my artistic desires by singing and playing piano, and I garden to connect to the earth. I learned that if I wasn’t happy, no one in my world would be happy. I also learned that compassion to myself was paramount to finding true compassion for others.