It seems no matter how early I used to get up in the morning, I always felt like I was lagging behind. Like I was playing catch-up. Late.  Days were spent getting lunches made, out the door to school, then work, then homework, groceries, practices, dinners and finally a shower after a late night with a science project and a grumpy child, just to do it all again the next day.

If this sounds like your schedule, and you’re caught in the spinning motion of life that never asks, but demands more and more until there is nothing left to give, you are not alone.

Millions of men and women have bought into the notion that they have to be everything for everybody and nothing for themselves. This is not the life God desires for you. There is so much more. There is rest. There is abundance. There is peace.

Here is an excerpt from my new book, Peace For a Lifetime, that shares the importance of cultivating the habit of self-nurture into our lives so that we can begin building a life of wholeness and harmony.

In reality, we were not created to be the Energizer Bunny or robots. We each have an emotional fuel tank, and for too many of us, the tank is below empty. We are running on fumes. As a result, prescriptions for anti-anxiety and anti-depression medication are at an all-time high.

While for some, medication is absolutely necessary and beneficial, there are many of us who use medication as an energy drink to keep us pumped up so we can grind out life for one more day. Too many of us wonder why, when we have everything we ever dreamed of, are we so depressed? Even though we love our spouses and our children, our careers and our friends, why do we still feel so empty inside? Why does everything feel so overwhelming?

The truth is I cannot be the best mother, wife, lover, worker, or friend until I have first become the best me. I cannot give anything to anyone around me unless and until I have first given to myself.

Furthermore, I cannot share an opinion in the boardroom, living room, or bedroom if I haven’t spent time alone connecting with and understanding my own thoughts and feelings. I cannot allow myself to be intimately known by another person if I haven’t first spent time becoming intimately acquainted with myself. Indeed, drawing healthy boundaries for myself in a relationship would be impossible if I didn’t know what I felt like when a boundary had been crossed.

Self-nurture thus becomes the emotional radar and rudder of our internal ships. Self-nurture develops the habit of knowing when something unpleasant or unsettling has happened and allows us to make minor, daily adjustments so we can achieve our goals and avoid as much unnecessary drama and conflict along the way. More importantly, as we are continually in the process of discovering new things about ourselves, self-nurture allows us to dream new dreams, to plot new courses, and to build the courage to live this adventure to the fullest, one day at a time, one step at a time.

That sounds exciting to me! That sounds like real living. We will never experience peace in our relationships if we haven’t first found peace with ourselves. Peace begins and ends with understanding and honoring God’s creation, you, and learning how to build a foundation for life the way God intended.

In my book, Peace for a Lifetime, I share simple, practical life steps that can help you understand the life God desires for you. This material can help you create and experience an indestructible peace – not just for today, not just for tomorrow, you can experience peace…for a lifetime!

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