Take care of yourself first...
Take care of yourself first…
..otherwise, you might not have an opportunity to serve others.
Although I spend time sharing thoughts on self-awareness and self-care, sometimes, quite frankly, I drop the ball when it comes to myself.
To the point that I end up in the ER.
Oops.
The other day, I was working on content creation, and was racing to get the work done because I had plans later to have a friend come over.
In my mad frenzy to get shit done, I failed to eat much, wasn’t drinking any water, and I was pretty worn down, so, I was hungry, tired and dehydrated.
Compound that dehydration with about 5 cups of coffee throughout the day.
Compound the coffee with a cigar.
I was pouring gasoline on a dumpster fire waiting to blow up...and eventually, it did.
At one point in the afternoon, I went downstairs to grab another couple drags off the cigar - you know, standard fare for me throughout the day - but, this time, I felt different. That last drag I had hit me in a way I’ve never felt before.
Light-headed. Tingling from the top of my head to my toes. Hands numb. Legs buckling as I walked back to the front door. Barely could get the key in the doorknob. Barely able to make my way up the staircase. Breathing as deeply as I could to try and regain my senses.
As soon as I got to my front door, my hand was shaking and I couldn’t turn the doorknob, and then it happened…
I blacked out - for how long? No idea
When I came to, I was on the floor next to my neighbors front door and had absolutely no idea how the hell I got there - but, the key was still in the door.
Groggy and disoriented, I made my way to my feet, opened up the door, and then realized that my back was on fire and my right leg was sore as hell.
I could barely lift my arms - I was lightheaded and sweating profusely. I was in a bad spot...and I was scared.
Fortunately, my friend arrived and helped me throughout the evening, and the next day, I went to Urgent Care and eventually the ER to get tests on my heart and bloodwork, which all checked out fine.
That’s when I realized that all of this was completely preventable if I had just been hydrating myself the entire time. That’s when I also realized that had I fallen a different way, I could’ve bashed my skull against the staircase to my left, or the ceramic tile straight back behind me.
And that’s when I realized just how lucky I was because this could’ve been a completely different outcome.
I wanted to share this story with you because a lot of us who are working for ourselves often forsake a lot of self-care in order to get shit done. As we do it, we think nothing of it - it barely registers in our conscious minds as we work like lunatics in order to do what we need to do.
Don’t skimp on self-care.
Although my back feels like complete and total dogshit as I type this post, I’m so grateful that it’s just my back and not my brain.
Don’t let some completely preventable moment that happened to me happen to you. You have too many people in your life that count on you to show up in the world exactly the way you are.
You know the things that you need to do to take care of yourself - don’t fuck around and ignore them.
You’re worth it.