Attending To Your Oxygen Mask First

Monday 16 January 2017

When flying, you’ll always be told that in event of oxygen masks being deployed, you should put your own mask on first before trying to help family or others.  Makes sense, right? How can you help anyone else if you’re running on empty? We all know the answer – you can’t.  This crucial piece of advice is something that’s been pushing itself to the forefront of my consciousness of late.  I’ve been exhausted, run down, switched on constantly and tending to everyone else’s needs while neglecting my own.  It’s something us Mammies, in particular, are guilty of – making sure everyone else is O.K - fed, washed, warm, where they need to be, while often times we skip meals, leave hot cups of tea in various parts of the house to be rediscovered hours or even days later, shower with an audience of little people and multitask like no bodies business!

I was diagnosed with hypothyroidism in my early 20’s.  It’s an autoimmune disease in which the thyroid gland doesn’t function properly.  The thyroid is a butterfly-shaped gland in the front of your neck.  It makes hormones that control the way our bodies use energy.  And even though tiredness and weakness are just two of the very many unpleasant symptoms, so is insomnia and a lowered core body temperature, often bordering on hypothermic.  I’ve been taking synthetic hormones now for years, with varying degrees of success but even so I rarely sleep more than a few hours a night and sometimes it takes every ounce of strength I have just to get out of bed in the morning.  A change in medications over the last few months, coupled with 8 years tending to my family’s needs, means that I now find myself pretty close to the point of total burnout.

So, in a moment of madness this week, I decided to do a bit of a Thelma & Louise on it (happily without the murder, robbery or suicide pact) and I booked myself onto a three day Yoga Retreat in the Spanish countryside – I’m blaming the full moon! Possibly a tad excessive to flee an entire country just to get a rest but none the less, in three week’s time, I’ll be headed towards the sun for some good food, stretching, breathing, swimming and hiking and I hope to take stock of where I am, to connect with my desires for my future and to fill up my cup and hopefully return an improved version of myself – quite a big ask in just three days, I know!

To say I am excited would be an understatement. I haven’t travelled alone in years.  I’m so looking forward to the sound of silence, no demands, no routine, no cooking or cleaning, no talking unless I want to, no one in my bed.  I hope to switch off my phone, write poetry, take photographs, and take in some salsa (I’m blaming Dancing with The Stars for this one).  I’m putting on my oxygen mask and I know it’s going to feel incredible to breathe.