Have you ever heard the saying “you can’t pour from an empty cup”?
Well, it stems from the idea that you have to take care of yourself before you can take care of anyone else. Kind of like how you’re supposed to put your oxygen mask on first before you help the person next to you if there’s an emergency while on an airplane.
I’ve been hearing “you can’t pour from an empty cup” since 2014 – when I first started my personal development journey.
BUT a couple weeks ago, I was talking to my best friend, Adri, about a conference she went to and she totally changed this up for me in a way that I haven’t been able to stop thinking about ever since she brought it up.
We all know you can’t pour from an empty cup. You have to take care of yourself before you can take care of anyone else. So self-care isn’t selfish, it’s necessary. In fact, IT IS SELFISH of you NOT to take care of yourself! (Think about it, if your cup is empty, you’re negative, a Debbie-downer and no one wants to be around you.) But when you’re full and filled with life and happiness, everyone wants to be around you! People NEED more of that!
So she said, if your cup isn’t full, like, completely full, you’re taking away from your own happiness to give to someone else. It’s leaving you a little empty and them a little empty too because you can’t pour into them fully.
But if you fill your cup up all the way (meaning you’re at your personal best!) you can give your “overflow” to others. The more you take care of yourself, the better you can take care of others.
That changed the game for me.
Because it’s so true!
If you think about it, when your cup is overflowing, you don’t have to take anything anyway from anyone (including yourself) AND you get to help the people around you do the same! If you keep your cup overflowing and teach other people how to overfill their cups, could you imagine how much better the world would be?!
Maybe that’s the secret to world peace.
I mean.. idk for sure.. But I’m willing to find out. So that’s my personal mission.
How’s your cup looking these days? Do you think your life and the lives of those closest to you would be a little better if your cup was filled all the way up?