Why You Need to Prioritize Yourself

Why should you prioritize yourself? Because no one else will.

It sounds simple, but I want you to think deeper about what it means to truly prioritize yourself in today's world. You're not just having a say in how you use your time or who you give your energy to, when you prioritize yourself, you are showing the world how you want to be treated. Otherwise, you're leaving it to everyone else to decide how they get to treat you.

And while their version of how they'd treat you may not be malicious, it certainly isn't with your very best interests in mind.

I grew up in the generation that learned about women from movies and TV. Men and women were fed cues about what women were supposed to be like, dress like, and act like from the characters we saw on the screen and in the pages of catalogs. It was a damaging narrative that led to entire generations of girls and women developing eating disorders and confidence issues. It led to an age of women taking care of everyone else while putting themselves last.

Things are changing, the conversation about women is finally in the hands of women, but so many of us are still a long way off from prioritizing ourselves. If you don't set an example for what it is to be a woman in today's world, someone else will.

This is why I want you to spend a lot more time prioritizing yourself. For one: it's not selfish, it's essential. So much of what I've built on over the years through In Your Element and REVIVE and in every single yoga, spin, and group fitness class I've ever taught: You matter! How you treat your body and mind matters. How you treat yourself, how you let others treat you - it matters.

Think of everyone in your life who looks to you - your spouse, your kids, your friends, your employees. What you do can change how they perceive every other woman in their life.

Now how can that be selfish?