https://www.austinchronicle.com/daily/promotions/2007-10-11/549789/

Taking care of ourselves

, October 11, 2007, 6:31pm,

We're so different but we certainly share one important commonality; we're taking care of ourselves. It's such common sense to do so but I have neglected myself for much too long and have paid the consequences because of it. It's been 10 yrs since I moved to the US and married my husband. But... the challenges of moving 5 times, most of it from state tostate, having two children, trying to cope with daily challenges being sleep deprived has had a deep effect on me.

Like most parents, (I'll include the dads for now) you can easily lose yourself having to take care of infants and/or little children. And like many other Americans, family is not particularly nearby to give you a break when you need to sleep during the day. When you need to just crawl into bed being sick but you have to stay up to take care of the kids. It's amazing my body hasn't totally given out yet.

One of the biggest obvious consequences of all the stressors in the last ten years showed up big time, unannounced and with a BANG like nobody's business. And that is one of the reasons why I wanted to challenge myself to be able to run in a 5K. As always, my stories are long, so I will need to break it in seperate entries.

Taking care of yourself is a learned behaviour. Unfortunately, it is not until after you've suffered the consequences, that you figure out how to do it, and why it is so important.