This road warrior aches all over.  Last night I taught my first Zumba class in three weeks and today I feel the need for unsustainable quantities of ibuprofen.  Twenty-one days of crummy sleep, hastily-consumed meals, and too many performances for this introvert to handle happily, much as I love my work.  So what did I do wrong?  The answers surfaced from reflecting on a conversation I had with my little niece sometime ago:

“What’s on your mind?” the doctor asked.  The “doctor” was Julia, my niece, who had just turned six years old.  I was the “patient” and we were playing make-believe, her favorite pastime.

“That’s the trouble, doctor.  There isn’t anything on my mind.  I have not had any good ideas in a long, long time.”

Her diagnosis:  “I think you probably aren’t getting enough sleep.  You should go to bed early at night and sleep until really late.  And you need to drink really healthy drinks and eat really healthy foods – lots of water and juice, fruits, and vegetables.  You need to get more exercise, too.”

Out of the mouths of babes, we hear the truth.  “Dr.” Julia’s advice brought home a central message to me that none of us can afford to forget.  Self-respect and being kind to ourselves come before all else.  If we do not treat ourselves and our bodies with respect and kindness, how can we truly and genuinely be respectful and kind toward others?

We keep our car running well by servicing it regularly – changing the oil every 3,000 miles, rotating the tires, following the manufacturer’s guidelines, etc.  We feel successful and confident arriving at an appointment in a clean, purring vehicle – a vehicle that reflects our respect for it.

Why, then, do we mistreat our bodies?  How can we possibly expect ourselves to be confident and centered, and thus effective, when we eat and drink the wrong things (and too much of everything), deprive ourselves of sleep, and when we act as if tapping a computer keyboard or wielding the TV remote control are substitutes for exercise?

Ignore your body’s needs, and your mind will suffer.  Stress will build up.  You will be easily irritated and distracted (an ugly state into which I recently allowed myself to descend).  I write this now to buck myself up so that I get back on track, because I know that my quality of thought is related to my physical health.

Dr. Julia, in her simple wisdom, knew what has been proven by science and medicine.  The lesson to be learned is that successful people know what to do, but sometimes life gets too complicated, and simple things (the things that make the most difference) get overlooked.  Be sure you can see the forest through the trees.

Honor yourself:  Drink healthy.  Eat healthy.  Get enough sleep and exercise.  Admittedly, practicing these lessons is not easy.  We live in a stressed-out, time-crunched, downsized, information-bombarded world.  Finding the time to do for ourselves is difficult even though we know what to do.  Ah, there’s the rub!  Successful people do what they know.  It takes discipline and focus.  And, if you don’t treat yourself with kindness and respect, you may find that you are getting fewer and fewer good ideas; you need to have a consultation with Dr. Julia.

In the spirit of “doctor, heal thyself,” I asked Julia if she did all the things she so adamantly instructed me to do.  I wanted to know if she ate all the carrots and broccoli she prescribed for me, and drank as much orange juice and water as she argued for me.  “No,” she quickly replied.  “But I always have lots of good ideas, so I don’t need to.”