Prioritizing Yourself: Making Sure You’re On the List!

Mindfulness, Self Development, Self-Esteem By Elisha Goldstein, Ph.D.

“Where are you on your to-do list?”

When I ask people this question, their response is usually one of confusion. While it may feel like a foreign concept to many of us, to be happy and effective in our day-to -day lives it’s imperative that we take care of ourselves.

So what can you do to start prioritizing yourself?

Here are a few things to try today:

Top of the list – Write out your to-do list (or if it already written out) put yourself on the top of the list. Write the word ‘ME’ in capital letters.

Pleasure and/or Caring– Find something pleasurable or caring for yourself to do and put it next to ‘ME‘ on your list. It could be something as simple as taking a gentle walk, cooking a meal, practicing a meditation, pampering yourself or just singing around the house.

Lovingkindness – Take a few moments to do the following 3 things.

1. Think of kind wishes for yourself and spend a few moments saying them – For example, a common lovingkindness practice instructs us to say things like: ‘May I be healthy, May I be happy, May I be safe, May I be free from fear.’
2. Well wishes for a loved one – Sometimes when we’re not feeling well, we become overly absorbed in our own heads and it’s good to step outside. We can extend similar well wishes to a loved one or friend.
3. Well wishes to your community and/or the world – We can even expand these same wishes to our family, or larger community, or the world.

Take a moment to try this out and see how you feel.

The point is to play with the experience of prioritizing yourself on a daily basis. A shift in taking care of ourselves, or even intentionally wishing ourselves well, makes a big difference in how we’re feeling in our day-to-day life.

As always, please share your thoughts, stories and questions below. Your interactions here provide a living wisdom for us all to benefit from.

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About the Author

Elisha Goldstein, Ph.D. Dr. Goldstein is the co-founder of The Center for Mindful Living in Los Angeles and has published extensively and is author of numerous articles, chapters, and blogs. These include Uncovering Happiness: Overcoming Depression with Mindfulness and Self-Compassion, the bestselling book The Now Effect: How This Moment Can Change the Rest of Your Life, Mindfulness Meditations for the Anxious Traveler and co-author of A Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction Workbook and MBSR Everyday: Daily Practices from the Heart of Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction. He has also created several mindfulness-based programs including the Mindfulness at Work program for eMindful.com recognized by the National Business Group on Health for its success in stress management, Basics in Mindfulness Meditation: A 28 Day Program and co-developed CALM – Connecting Adolescents to Learning Mindfulness with his wife Stefanie Goldstein, PhD. Dr. Goldstein’s unique ability to make complex concepts simple has led him to be invited to speak nationally and internationally with mental health professionals, educators, business leaders and lay audiences. Learn more about Dr. Goldstein here: www.elishagoldstein.com

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One Comment

saira Bano January 13th, 2019

its really fruitful for our personal growth. for so long I never focused on self- awareness and understanding. for balancing inner being and further growth we need to work on the above things.
thank you i realize how can i improve my lacking.

Comments are closed.