Celebrate Women's Health Month By Caring for Yourself

May is Women’s Health Month, so if you haven’t done anything to take care of yourself this month, then I ask you to take a moment to stop, breathe and be. My yoga teacher N sometimes reminds us that we are all human beings and that we should spend more time being instead of constantly doing.

Now that I am retired from my full-time corporate job, I am learning to adjust to a more flexible schedule however, I still often feel like I need to be doing rather than being. Maybe it’s because I spent 30-plus years doing taking care of my kids, taking care of my spouse, taking care of my mom, taking care of work, taking care of everyone everyone, everyone, everyone but myself.

Sound familiar? Most boomer girls are great caregivers to others but are not great caregivers to themselves. During the past six years, after losing my spouse, selling my house and emptying out my nest, I’ve tried to make an extra effort to take better care of myself. It hasn’t been easy, but I’ve learned a thing or two along the way.

The picture appears on Facebook and my heart catches in my throat. My older daughter is lying down, head resting on the back of a full grown tiger, holding its tail which is curled across her chest. The tiger appears to be sleeping; turns out, she explains later, that I should not have worried as tigers are nocturnal and apparently “more sleepy and laid back during the day.” My question to her: “What if this one had insomnia?”

As I peruse my younger daughter’s Facebook pictures I feel for her as she documents the last few precious months leading up to her college graduation. She and her friends are studying hard and playing hard as they grapple with the huge transition they are about to undergo. It seems like only yesterday that she was riding a pony at her third birthday party.

It never ends. We worry about our kids regardless of their age. We want to take on their pain and ensure their safety. We try to get them to eat right, get enough sleep, do their school work and make it to their doctor/dentist/orthodontist appointments. We’re constantly encouraging them to make healthy choices. 

If you’re the quintessential helicopter mom like me you actually try to diagnose and treat your kid’s bug bites via Skype from Albany to Malaysia. When we’re not texting the kids we’re bugging the husband to get off the couch and get a much needed health check-up. In our spare time we are keeping an eye on Grandpa. Occasionally we even make our own work a priority...... Read More.....