The Oxygen Mask Principle

The Oxygen Mask Principle is simple. Everyone has heard it at least one time while flying in an airplane. But have you listened to what it means?

Should a sudden change in cabin pressure occur, oxygen masks will fall from above. Place the mask over your nose and mouth and breathe normally. If you are traveling with children please secure yourself first, and then assist the child. 

The Oxygen Mask Principle is one my preferred analogies to our social lives. An extension of that simple principle to life goes like this: we are unable to help anybody else if we are not taking care of ourselves well enough.

Some people devote their lives entirely to helping someone else, other people etc, but the only way of doing that as best as we can is making sure we are on a great spot in most areas that are central to our own well-being (say, our emotional, rational, spiritual, financial, professional and physical worlds, to name a few).

This general principle applies even more to families or groups that have to care for people with special needs. As a father of an autistic child, I for a few years forgot about the oxygen mask principle myself (although I would always share its wisdom with friends in need and in general), devoting day in, day out, every hour to providing a perfect place for him to live. That until I figured out that the only way of helping him in the best way for both of us, was to take up caring for myself again, making that a better place for me too, and feeding that inner feeling of strength and happiness back to him.

A simple idea that can make a huge difference to our lives.