Click for Shownotes

Ladies this is message to you, but the truth is it is first a message to myself because it is what I need to hear most right now.
You know how they tell you on a plane to put your own oxygen mask on first before you help anyone else. It seems so counterintuitive.
As women we are raised to think of others before ourselves. But if we don’t follow those very important instructions in an airplane emergency, we may endanger ourselves and our children.
I find the same true in day to day life. If we don’t take time to take care of ourselves, it impacts our whole world and may endanger our relationships and our own health.
My Breaking Point
In the last 3 years I have had two babies and launched a new business. That was on top of raising a teenager, running another business with my husband, running a home and being a wife. To say the least it has been a busy time.
Recently, I hit a breaking point. I had baby Jett almost 9 months ago and feel like my home, my health and even my relationship with my husband has gotten out of control. I started thinking about changes I could make and who I could use as a guide.
Guess what – the role model was right there in front of me. My awesome Mom, Roseanne Cook.
I realized my Mom had unknowingly passed on lessons on how I could “put my oxygen mask on first”, without ever speaking a word about it. She passed on this wisdom by how she lived, what she made a priority and what she did not.
7 Important Lessons from My Mom
How to Take Care of You So You Can Take Care of Others


Take Care of Your Body


My Mom has always taken care of her body by working out and eating healthy food. She has a slight leg up in this in that she was a combination English/PE major in college and was teaching middle school PE when she had me and later was an adaptive PE teacher (which means she is skilled in adapting activities to kids with down syndrome, autism and other special needs).
When I was growing up in the 70’s, there weren’t a bunch of gyms and yoga studios around, but my Mom would work out at the YMCA or speed-walk around the neighborhood. In the 80’s she got into Jazzersize and the last 10 years she has been doing a lot of low impact workouts like water aerobics and yoga.
What I realized is that my Mom makes working out a priority in her week. Even when we had a crazy busy schedule of after school activities, she would often walk the track at the school where my brother and I had swim practice.
Next Step: My takeaway is that I need to schedule workouts and mark them on my calendar. If I don’t plan them and arrange for childcare or my husband to help, they are not going to happen.  
 
I’m happy to report that I have gone to spin class 3 times in the last 7 days (twice at 5:45AM).



Maintain Your Friendships


Earlier this year I had a tear fest crying to my husband about feeling really lonely. I have a lot of friends “online” who I interact with every day, but have struggled to find time to meet a local girlfriend for lunch or coffee. The root of this is feeling that I need to use the time I have my nanny here to work (not workout or see a friend).
My Mom is huge on connecting in person with people and throughout my life I have observed her cultivating and making time for her friends. She used to have regular lunch date with her BFF Kay or they would just pop by each others houses for a cup of coffee and a chat.
She also would go shopping and out to lunch once in a while with her friend Mary.
My parents were part of a Bunco group that met once a month at each other’s homes. If you don’t know what bunco is you can google it.  But basically it is a dice game and they would share a meal each time and have prizes. I remember it being fun when it was hosted at our house because I got to hang out with my parent’s friends while they snacked on yummy appetizers and desserts, then see my parents having fun with their friends as I headed off to bed (make no mistake I often got snuck of bed to see more of