May is here, and it is one of my favorite months of the year. Flowers return, snow is (mostly) gone, the grass is green, and we get to celebrate moms. And while my own mom has been gone a long time, I am happily married to my kids’ mom and that means I get to honor and celebrate her and all the hard work she put in to raising four great kids.

Mothers, grandmothers, stepmothers – they’ve poured their hearts and souls in to raising the best kids they could. All types of mothers are a great blessing, so this entire month, let’s celebrate moms! They work long hours, go short on sleep, and do their best to raise great kids – and that’s just the weekend! Because of their focus on caring for kids in addition to a job and many other things, moms tend to focus on taking care of themselves last. The average mom puts themselves behind everyone else, including self-care and health care.

For all you moms out there, don’t forget to make your own health a priority. Think of the instructions you receive when you get on a plane and they are explaining all the safety rules. When it comes to oxygen masks, they tell you to put yours on first! It makes sense; if you pass out due to lack of oxygen, you are no good to anyone else. The same goes to taking care of your family. If you are sleep-deprived, malnourished, and in desperate need of a good chiropractic adjustment, what kind of mom are you going to be? Probably cranky, exhausted, and less than you can and should be. I have seen too many moms come in to our office for chiropractic and functional medicine asking about supplements for their kids or husbands while ignoring their own needs.

Think of it this way: if you needed to be hospitalized long term, what kind of nurse would you want? Energetic, well-rested, focused. Not a tired, brain-fogged zombie finishing up the end of their third double shift in a row! How about your surgeon? Would you want someone tired and overworked or wide awake and fresh, focused totally on you and not his or her caffeine deficiency? You and your family deserve no less.

So remember to take care of yourself – not just to get by, but to feel totally alive, to actually thrive. Get the sleep you need. Take good, quality supplements; not just whatever you can find on the sale rack at your local drugstore. Get chiropractic adjustments to release the energy that’s bottled up inside by the stress patterns you have put up with for so long. See a functional medicine specialist for a new, healthy approach to any health concerns you may have instead of just medicating symptoms away. An energetic, fresh you awaits. You deserve it and your family needs it. You have a short time to prepare for a great Mother’s Day. Maybe even make it a great mother’s summer by embracing that inner joyful, healthy you.