We live in a very fast-paced world. It's often hard to find the time to develope those moments of inner peace we need. Pressures of work, family, friends, etc. often leave us with little or no time for ourselves. To make matters more difficult, many of us were brought up to put others before ourselves. We were taught that thinking of ourselves is selfish.

        Is it really selfish to fill our own needs before looking after the needs of others? At first glance we might think that is true, but look at it more deeply. Imagine you have a container of water with an inflow valve and three outflow valves. When all the valves are working properly. there is always enough water for the three different outflows. But let the inflow valve become partially clogged and suddenly the amount of water available for use is diminished. If the inflow valve becomes completely blocked, there is no water available for the outflow valves. It doesn't matter how great the need for the water is, there simply is none available.

        What we give to others puts a drain on our resources and our reserves of physical, mental, emotional and spiritual energy. If we don't replenish these energies, in effect clear our intake valves, we will have less and less to give to others.  As a result, we find our days full of stress. Keeping up with all that needs to be done becomes difficult. It gets harder and harder to be nice to people. Sometimes we get to the point where there is nothing left to give.Total draining of our own reserves cqn even lead to our own breakdown.

        While most of us stop giving before we reach a total breakdown stage, we allow ourselves to be drained by  substantial amounts on a daily basis. In order to give to others, we need sufficient inflow to keep our own energy reseves full. When you look at it this way, it really is not selfish to look after ourselves first, it's a necessity.

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