.
It's the new golden rule for women: "Do
unto yourself as you would do to others."
"To keep
a lamp burning, we have to put oil in it."- Mother Teresa. This simple quote says it all. Do you put oil in your own
lamp?
Take care of yourself, you have heard it before, but are you doing
it? This book will inspire you to take care of yourself to live a better life.
Oil
for your lamp is the perfect book for women who want to glow, sparkle and shine!
.
Mother
Teresa said, "To keep a lamp burning, we have to keep putting oil in it." Most women are so busy filling the lamps
of the people they love that they let their own lamps run low. They spend so much time and energy taking care of their children,
husbands, aging parents, friends, neighbors, bosses, coworkers, and others, that they often neglect themselves.
.
This
new book, Oil for Your Lamp, is about women learning to take care of themselves first – not last.
Written by "Femail Creations" catalog founder Lisa Hammond and inspirational author, poet, and storyteller BJ Gallagher,
this wonderful new book speaks to women of all ages, from all walks of life. Here at Simple Truths, we celebrate women who
light up the world … and we want to lovingly remind them to keep their own lamps filled. Oil for Your Lamp
is the perfect book for women who want to glow, sparkle, shine, and dazzle! Read
on for an exerpt from the book. And be sure to watch the video clip at the end of the chapter.
.
.
An exerpt from
OIL FOR YOUR LAMP
by Lisa Hammond & BJ Gallagher
Virtually every woman we know has the same problem - she knows what's good for her,
but she often doesn't do it. She knows she should eat less and exercise more, but still she doesn't make healthy choices.
She knows she needs to spend her time and money more effectively, but good time and money management elude her. She finds
herself always putting others first, while neglecting her own needs and wants. She doesn't get enough rest or sleep and her
endless to-do list hangs overhead like the sword of Damocles. As our friend Brenda Knight laments frequently, "Why am
I always riding in the back of my own bus?
"We don't do the things we know are good for us because we are so
busy taking care of others that we neglect ourselves. The problem isn't lack of information - we have plenty of information
about the importance of sleep, healthy foods, and exercise. The problem is how we prioritize our lives.
Psychologists tell us that some people
are inner-directed and some are other-directed. That is, some people focus on their own internal guidance system for making
choices about how to spend their time and energy. Their own self-interest ranks very high on their list of priorities. "What's
best for me?" is a key guiding principle in determining where they focus their attention and how they make day-to-day
decisions.
And some people are other-directed,
which means that their primary focus is external, not internal. They are primarily concerned with relationships, especially
people they care about. "How can I help others?" is a key question in how they spend their time and energy. Building
and nurturing relationships with loved ones, family, friends, neighbors, and coworkers is the guiding principle in their lives.
Research indicates that, in general, men tend to be more inner-directed, while women tend to be more
other-directed. There are exceptions, of course, but as a group, men are focused on themselves while women are focused on
other people. Men like to build things while women like to build relationships.
This difference in psychological orientation
goes a long way toward helping us understand why we women often do such a poor job of taking care of ourselves. We run around
filling others' lamps with oil, but forget to fill our own lamps first. Then we wonder why we're often exhausted, frazzled,
stressed-out, anxious and/or depressed!
Awareness is the
first step toward solving a problem. So the first section of this book is devoted to helping us acknowledge the problem and
understand the reasons for it. Chapter 1 looks at how girls are socialized, growing up to be women who put others first. Chapter
2 examines the values women have adopted in the past 50 years, beginning with the feminist movement - leading us to believe
that we can have it all - all at once. And Chapter 3 explores the corresponding myth that we can DO it all.
But don't be discouraged. Help is on
the way - in Section II, we'll get into solutions for the problem. We'll learn the value of doing nothing, how to play again,
how to become more inner-directed, and most important, how to ask for help.
