Alright, so let's get to it. Welcome back to Empowerment. Today we are going to be talking about prioritization. You know, why we don't prioritize ourselves, why we need to prioritize ourselves, and everything in between. And then how to actually, you know, implement that. Let's jump into why we don't prioritize ourselves. And this is something that, you know, you can, it's so easy to like turn to your friend and be like, Oh, you need to take care of yourself. You need to slow down. You need to, you know, Oh, you're sick. Like you need to take off work.
And what do we do when we, for ourselves we push through we skip ahead we put ourselves last we have like a list of all the priority people in our lives and we're like number six and this is a really it's like a toxic cycle that happens for us of continually putting ourselves last and what ends up happening is we are sacrificing our own well-being we will physically start to have manifestations of sacrificing ourself, of putting ourself last, of not taking care of our physical selves, our emotional selves, our mental selves, our spiritual selves. All of these things will start to reflect back in your life. And so what has happened over time, and this is generally, our belief systems are created from the age of zero to seven. So if you look back and see, okay, how were your parents like role modeling, prioritizing themselves? How were your grandparents? How were your teachers? How were, you know, friends and things modeling this?
How was school and magazines and the movies and the content that you consumed at a young age? Like what were those magazines and movies and things modeling to you when it came to taking care of yourself, when it came to prioritizing your health mentally, physically, emotionally, spiritually? What was it showing you? And this is why, truly, we don't have the level of self-prioritization that our bodies, mentally, physically, emotionally, truly need to be. thriving at their best capacity and be able to handle whatever the hell life throws your way. And a lot of that comes back to not prioritizing ourselves. So yeah, the things that were role modeled to us in our, you know, most impressionable age when our brain was developing and saying, oh, this is the way things are. We're not showing that, you know, it was important to prioritize ourselves.
And a lot of the times it was saying, oh yeah, put yourself last, like, Everyone else has to go before you, like take off your own shoes and give them to the stranger who's barefoot, that kind of level. And there's so much you can give and so much you can impact and I don't want to take away from that. And saying, you know, this is not about taking care of others, but if you actually take care of yourself, you have the capacity to take care of others at such a higher level and it creates such a bigger impact. And that's really what most of us want. Like we want to help people. We want to make that impact. We want to feel like we are making a difference on our communities, on our worlds. And when you are depleted, drained, exhausted, are you making that impact? Do you even have the capacity to make that impact? And I feel like for myself in the past that was no and for so many of my clients it's no because they don't have the capacity to even do that.
And so really what comes from prioritizing yourself is more capacity, more energy emotionally physically mentally to be able to even start the process of saying like okay who the hell am I like what do I even want how do I even want to show up how do I you know want to contribute to this world because there's so many people who have never even had the opportunity to ask themselves that because they're so busy going through the motions and maybe you've even got to that point where you're like I want to know I want to know who I actually am under all of these things, like all of these moments that the world told me to be. I want to know who I am under just like the numbness of going through the motions and just trying to get by and just, you know, getting through your next work shift and things like that. And so, how do we take this? You know, we have decades of ingrained behavior of seeing, oh yeah, I'm not a priority, I'm not where they put me last.
And that's really created a ton of our experiences in life. So how do we actually go through the process of shifting that? So to start with, like, what even is prioritizing you? Like, what does that even truly mean? And you can answer this question for yourself and take a moment of like, okay, like, what does prioritizing myself look like for me. And prioritizing yourself does not mean just go be selfish, tell everybody else to fuck off and like do your own thing. Sometimes you may need to do that, but that's not what actually it's gonna look like 99% of the time. Prioritizing yourself is not a selfish thing. What it is saying is I am pouring into myself so that I can pour into others, so that I have that capacity mentally, physically, emotionally. Prioritizing yourself is looking at, okay, what do I need to function at my highest capacity? And that could be, okay, I need to prioritize myself by choosing foods that nourish my body.
I need to prioritize myself by drinking water, you know, maybe with a little salt in there to help rehydrate you at a higher level. That could be getting enough sleep, that could be exercising, that could be going out with friends. And instead of like, sometimes, you know, if you go out with people and you might be in a crowd of people, but you're like, you're not having a good time, right? I'm sure that happens to you, but that happens to me sometimes. But even shifting of like, okay, before I go into this social interaction, you know, what do I want to get out of here? What am I bringing to the table Like, what is my intention going into this? And this is huge. Our brains thrive on intention because it gives your brain something to focus on. So if you're going out with your group of friends and saying like, okay, going into this situation, I'm going to prioritize me by saying like, hey, I want to, you know, have fun. So how am I going to have fun?
Well, I'm going to bring, you know, my goofy self and make some jokes when it feels right. Or I'm going to, you know, I would love to go dancing.
So I'm going to be the one who suggests like, Let's go dancing because I think that would you genuinely be fun and that's gonna help me show up the most authentically which is gonna You know help everyone else show up authentically and really have that like valid time That's how you can prioritize you in a social situation and that actually benefits everybody else Because the strongest energy in the wind in the room wins and if you're the one who is intentionally creating an experience and this is not like you're responsible for everyone else's emotions because i know sometimes we get in that like hosting energy where we're like okay i need to make sure that everyone's having a good time no you're like leading by example of like i'm just gonna be authentically me and like you know have a grand old time and make corny jokes or, you know, dance like no one's watching. Those are the kinds of things that let other people know, like, hey, like, it's safe to be me.
It's safe to be, like, it's comfortable for me to also, like, you know, be a little free and let loose and have all those experiences. So it is truly like you are setting the thermostat in the room and that is because you've prioritized yourself and set that intention and it shifts the energy for all those around you because we are truly energetic beings. The words that people say affects people so little it is so much related to the energy that they're feeling like and how like when they look at you they're picking up on body language they're picking up on you know, your electromagnetic field, they're picking up on so much that is completely unsaid. And if you go into a situation and you say, you know, I'm a priority, I'm choosing how I want to, what I want to get out of this interaction and how I want to go into this interaction, that shifts everything for everyone involved and makes it such a more genuinely enjoyable experience.
What are other ways that are prioritizing you or just little things of like, okay, if you work in healthcare like I do as a nurse, I can't go and do a 12 hour shift if I didn't sleep. So many people are like fueled by caffeine, but what's the quality of care that you're providing? How do you feel about it? Can you recognize that impact that you're making? Can you recognize the difference that you're making if you are literally struggling to put one foot in front of the other and like get through the tasking things? It's really, really hard to recognize that. So prioritizing yourself is like, okay, I'm going to spend a little extra time to take care of myself. you know, focus on my sleep hygiene so that I can actually get that good night's sleep so that I can show up in a way that feels better to me and I can better recognize the impact that I make because that makes me feel better overall. That is prioritizing you. That is literally prioritizing yourself while you're caring for others.
But you get to do it in a way that is authentic and aligned with, like, what you want to get out of life, what you want for yourself, what you want for everyone around you. And so, you know, these are all little examples of how prioritizing yourself can shift everything for everyone around you. And this is also what we have to start doing because you've got decades of, you know, put me last, I'm not a priority programmed into your subconscious brain. So we can't just wake up one day and be like, okay, I'm the center of attention.
Obviously we're not doing that in a selfish way, but this is how it starts to have to shift in order for you to start feeling that best and really be You know on a path that you're like, yeah, I feel good in my own skin I feel like I'm making a difference like I can see this impact I can see the light and you know everything be the on the way in the direction that I want and that all comes from prioritizing yourself and so We can't just snap our fingers and undo all of that old way of being. We have to gradually start to prove it to your brain. And this is something that takes time and I don't want you to, you know, do one thing and then give up because you're like, everything hasn't changed. It takes time to reprogram our brains. And I think it, you know, I've used this analogy before, but I really feel like it's so beneficial is like I want you to imagine your old neuro like brain programming like gravity.
So if you have gravity and you started to build a new neural connection and that new neural connection is like a piece of dental floss, like it is, you know, this tiny little thread. Would that piece of dental floss hold you up against gravity? Like if you were to try to like repel off of a cliff with a piece of dental floss, it's not going to work. The gravity is going to win. The old neural programming is going to win because it's so much stronger than your dental floss. But as you continue with the repetition and you continue to reinforce new neural connections and build those new belief systems of, you know, why is it so important that I'm a priority? Like, how is it better for everyone around me that I'm a priority? what happens is that neural connection, that dental floss starts to braid itself and it starts to become, you know, a thicker string now.
And now you have a string that's at the point of, okay, if there's gravity again and now you're trying to hang on that string and trying to repel, that string might actually hold your body up. But then, you know, what if there's a really strong wind or there's some extra chaos that happens and the string might break? That's the same thing that happens for us, is life happens, things unexpectedly come up, emotions run high, maybe that new neural connection can't overcome those things that have come up, but it's so much stronger than it used to be. But you continue to reinforce, you continue to daily practice and figure out how, you know, why is it better that you are a priority? How is it better for everyone around you? You keep reinforcing that and you keep like braiding new layers of that string that has now become like a really thick rope.
And that really thick rope is that new neural connection And now if you were to try to rappel off of a cliff against gravity, that rope is so thick that it can hold you. Even if the winds gust and come hell or high water, that rope can hold you despite all of those things. That new neural connection has now become stronger than the old one and it's going to be the neural connection that's chosen on repeat. This is how, so how do we actually change those and build those neural connections? The easiest way to do that is for finding evidence for your brain of when you felt this way in the past. And this is not just for prioritization, it works for everything. So you can use this process for anything. So if you're trying to find evidence of, you know, why is it important that you're a priority, you can look back into your life and say, okay, where was the time in my life that I was a priority and how did that make me feel? Now that's the key. Okay.
So we want to find a memory and it could have been today. It could have been 20 years ago. It doesn't matter. Just finding evidence for our brain is huge cause it's going to help you connect a lot quicker. So you want to find that memory and then what you're going to do is you're going to feel the emotion. This is key.
