We need to put our oxygen mask on first before we can help others

• A mother must put on her oxygen mask first, in order to be able to help her children’ – I see this instruction on airplanes as an appropriate metaphor for feminist mothering. Mothers, empowered, are able to better care for and protect their children. Andrea O’Reilly
• Be sure to fit your own oxygen mask first. The reason being, how can you help others if you don’t take care of your own needs first? It’s not about being selfish, but about being present and able to serve others. It also recognises that in order to be useful, we need to work from a position of stability and resilience ourselves. Roy Manchee
• Fitting our own oxygen mask first is about safeguarding those self-care strategies that sustain us even when life becomes increasingly time pressured. Dr Rosie Ross
• On an airplane, you are always told to put on your own oxygen mask first. The same way in life, you need to take care of your health first. If you are not happy and healthy, you cannot make anyone else happy and healthy. Rajashree Choudhury
• Our society teaches us that taking care of ourselves first is selfish and a bad thing. I think that’s a bunch of BS. On an airplane, we’re instructed to put on our own oxygen masks first, before helping a child do the same.  If you think that’s a crazy idea, realize that you’re not much help to anyone if you’ve passed out due to lack of oxygen because you tried to help everyone else first. Paige Oldham
• Putting your well-being first – like putting your oxygen mask on before you help the person next to you – that really benefits all your relationships. Gabrielle Bernstein
• Taking care of yourself is being there for your kids, like how on a plane, they tell you to put on your oxygen mask first. Gwyneth Paltrow
• That’s about 90 percent of my theological life – radical self-care. Put your own oxygen mask on first. I watch the self-talk that goes through my mind, and if I am being critical with myself, I shake myself out of it. ~ Anne Lamott
• What is self-care? I like to envision it like this: have you noticed that when you’re preparing to takeoff in an airplane the flight attendant demonstrates how to use the oxygen mask? They always say to put your own oxygen mask on first before helping someone else. This is exactly how self-care works. We need to invest in our well-being before we can help others. Lauren Cook
• When it comes to women, get your life together first. Put on your own oxygen mask first. Figure out who you are. Mature. And then go find somebody to share that life with. Elizabeth Gilbert
• Women need to turn their attention from saving their spouse, their mothers, their this, their that, their kids, to putting that financial oxygen mask on their face first. When they’re solid, they can pick up the whole world. Suze Orman
• You have to put your own oxygen mask before you put on others… It’s a good metaphor for parenting. Amanda Peet

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We can’t fill up the cup of others if our own is empty

• Self-care isn’t selfish (it is a gift to all concerned). You can’t serve from an empty vessel. Eleanor Brown
• Taking care of yourself = keeping your cup full. If you don’t do things to keep your cup full, you have nothing left to give or share with others. Paige Oldham
• To effectively help others, you must first look after your own physical, emotional and spiritual well-being. What use is a cup to anyone when there are holes in it? Don’t let yourself be drained by always saying yes when you mean no. This is a golden rule of self-empowerment. Aimee Davies
• When your cup is empty, you do not mourn what is gone. Because if you do, you will miss the opportunity to fill it again. Sarah Addison Allen
• You can’t pour from an empty cup. Anthony Lambert
• You cannot hope to fill another’s cup when your own cup is empty. Aimee Davies
• Fill the cup of happiness for others, and there will be enough overflowing to fill yours to the brim. Rose Pastor Stokes
• If you’re running on empty, then you can’t give yourself. If there’s nothing in the tank then everyone who’s along for the ride gets stuck along side you. You need to fill yourself up first. So let’s ditch the guilt that comes with self-care, taking time out or ‘me’ time.  Melissa Goodwin
• It is critical to take care of ourselves first in order to be able to take care of others. Robin Dance

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When our cup is full, it overflows and fills other cups

• Fill your own cup first. What happens when a cup can’t hold any more water? It overflows! Use that overflow to fill other cups. This is how you raise up yourself and others. Garrett Petticrew
• It’s self-full to be first, to be as good as possible to you. To take care of you, keep you whole and healthy. That doesn’t mean you disregard everything and everyone. But you want to come with your cup full. You know: ‘My cup runneth over.’ What comes out of the cup is for y’all. What’s in the cup is mine. But I’ve got to keep my cup full. Iyanla Vanzant
• I used to fear hearing the term “who do you think you are?” or “ you must be pretty full of yourself.” Now I work at being full. I want to be so full that I am overflowing…What you see is a woman so full that I’m overflowing with enough to share with someone else. I’m going to own the fullness without ego, without arrogance, but with an amazing sense of gratitude, that I’ve been born at a time when I am female on the planet and I have the great pleasure and freedom to fill myself up. Oprah Winfrey
• Take time off to give to yourself, in a sense to fill yourself up to fullness, to where now you can overflow in giving. John Gray

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Look after yourself and everyone benefits

• If I honour my needs first, I will be the best wife, the best mum, the best sister, the best friend. I have to come first, because then everyone benefits. Gisele Bundchen
• In my own deepening understanding of myself I find my capacity to serve others is deepened as well. The better I am at self-care the more genuinely nurturing of others I am able to be. Mary Anne Radmacher
• It’s my responsibility to take the time to do what feeds my soul – first. When I do this, the world won’t fall apart. People won’t hate me.  People won’t think I’m an incompetent loser.  People won’t think I’m selfish. When I do this, I’m happier.  I have more energy to care for my loved ones.  I’m calmer.  My body feels better.  My mind is clearer.  People want to be around me because I’m giving off good, positive energy. So the more I do for myself, the more I can do for others.  It’s one of Nature’s laws.  Paige Oldham
• Many self-help books have it wrong when they say complete selflessness is the best quality of a good or spiritual person. That you have to become so transparent and invisible that you only live to satisfy the needs of others. That may be considered a noble way to live your life by some but the reality is its damaging to believe others must always come before you. Aimee Davies
• Nourishing yourself in a way that helps you blossom in the direction you want to go is attainable, and you are worth the effort. Deborah Day
• Remember: your kids are watching everything you do. The only way your children are going to learn about their own self-care is from your actions. Nikki Cox
• Self-care is never a selfish act – it is only good stewardship of the only gift I have, the gift I was put on earth to offer others. Parker J. Palmer
• Selfish is caring for ourselves at others’ expense … Self-care is taking care of ourselves so that we can be there for others. Bill Crawford
• Don’t sacrifice yourself too much, because if you sacrifice too much there’s nothing else you can give and nobody will care for you. Karl Lagerfeld

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Fill up your cup with self-care

• Radical self-care is quantum, and radiates out into the atmosphere, like a little fresh air. It is a huge gift to the world. When people respond by saying, “Well, isn’t she full of herself,” smile obliquely, like Mona Lisa, and make both of you a nice cup of tea. Anne Lamott
• Stop expecting other people to fill your cup. Whether it’s considered half empty or half full, the only person responsible for filling it is you.  Madison Epting
• Be more splendid, more extraordinary. Use every moment to fill yourself up. Oprah Winfrey
• Radical self-care is quantum, and radiates out into the atmosphere, like a little fresh air. Anne Lamott
• Self-care is not about self-indulgence , it is about self-preservation. Audre Lorde

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Fill up your cup with joy

• Fill yourself with joy. Gautama Buddha
• When you recover or discover something that nourishes your soul and brings joy, care enough about yourself to make room for it in your life. Jean Shinoda Bolen

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Fill up your cup with wisdom

• Fill yourself with the power of wisdom and enlightenment. Morihei Ueshiba

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Fill up your cup with self-love

• Most people think of love as an energy between two people, which it is, but it’s not only that. When we think of love in those limited terms, we become what I call “love beggars.” We walk around looking for love outside of ourselves. We’ll go up to people as though we have a beggar’s cup in our hands and look to them to fill up our cup. Marci Shimoff
• The problem for most of us is that the cup has holes, so love goes out just as easily as it goes in. What happens when people are living in the unconditional state of love, however, is that they recognize they are the ocean of love; they know it’s their essence. And they naturally overflow in this love. So instead of being love beggars, they become love philanthropists. Marci Shimoff
• Forgiveness means that you fill yourself with love and you radiate that love outward. Wayne Dyer
• If you feel incomplete, you alone must fill yourself with love in all your empty shattered spaces. Oprah Winfrey
• Self-care includes anything that you love to do. What makes you feel recharged, well-rested, and happy? I especially love how Dr. Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi conceptualizes self-care with the notion of “flow.” Flow is the optimal state when we are so in the moment that we lose track of time. Lauren Cook
• Self-love, my liege, is not so vile a sin, as self-neglecting. William Shakespeare
• The more love you give the more you will get, and the only way you can give it is to fill yourself up with it, until you become a magnet. Charles F. Haanel
• To practice Extreme Self-Care, you must learn to love yourself unconditionally, accept your imperfections, and embrace your vulnerabilities. Cheryl Richardson
• We must be our own before we can be another’s. Ralph Waldo Emerson
• Saying no can be the ultimate self-care. Claudia Black