Welcome Back To School And ME TIME

Contributed by Sheryl Brennan

Ahhhh. Autumn is in the air. The time when the kids go back to school and I get my life back to myself. Ok, so not completely to myself, but mostly.

Don’t get me wrong,  I love my kids. (All five of them) But when my little cherubs are safely on their way to continuing their educations, I get my ME TIME back. Part of that time is just reveling in the silence of finishing housework and laundry without hearing the word “Mom” shouted across the room fifteen times.

Holistic medical practitioners have discovered over the course of hundreds of years that women who spend more time mothering and nurturing than taking care of themselves succumb to disease earlier and more frequently during their adult life. Evidently, sacrificing oneself for the sake of their loved ones is not exactly what nature intended. As the airlines say, literally hundreds of times per day,  “Put the oxygen mask on yourself, before helping those around you.”

So this school year, I have committed to nurturing myself.   Call it luxuryor stress release… I prefer to label it preventative medicine. A massage, facial, manicure, or pedicure and the short hour to hour and a half out of my day to have those services performed won’t kill me, but not taking care of myself  just might.

If relaxing at my favorite spa in Louisville gives me a little more patience to help my teenagers with their Geometry homework or to tolerate their eye rolls and head bobs with a little more grace, then it’s worth every single penny.

Do you know a woman who gives so much to others that she has nothing left at the end of the day to give to herself? Leave us a comment and tell us about her. Then check back each week where we will talk more about women, their sense of duty, and how to balance it all with style!