“I can’t put myself first, there are too many people who need me and I have too generous of a heart to do so!”

The most selfless thing you can do is put yourself first in your life. Self-neglect makes you less capable of helping others. If your argument for self-neglect is so you can more effectively help others, then you have no argument and your actions are rather quite selfish than selfless, even if you mean well.

Without great health, vitality, and clarity of mind, you can’t be as effective as you could have been if only you had put yourself first. It may be hard for some to wrap their mind around but the honest to God truth is if you put yourself first, with selfless intentions, you will be able to act more selflessly in helping others than you could have otherwise.

It’s frustrating for me, as someone actively working in the world to help people live healthier lives, to hear someone say they are too busy helping other people to help themselves. They even denote pride in using their generous giving nature to justify trashing their own lives in the name of helping others.

Put yourself first so you can help the many.

Tom Birkenmeyer

Kenosha