How to Keep Your Sanity After Losing Your Job
Losing your job can certainly make you nuts, especially when you are the bread winner in the family; when a lot of people you love depend on you.
With the instability of the economy nowadays, you never know …
You might be laid off tomorrow regardless of how hard you work.
This means unemployment can be out of your hands some times.
However, keeping your composure after losing your job can be totally within your control.
Almost all emotional and mental struggles root from the inability or refusal to accept reality. If you continue to refuse the things life gives you, be it unemployment or other more depressing things, you can be stuck in the past and may not be able to move on.
This state is truly detrimental to not just one’s physical, but mental, emotional, and social wellbeing.
You must, in a way meet with and greet reality, however hard it may be. It is the first and foremost way to avoid the trap. Accept that you lost your job and that you may not be able to get it back. It’s hard. It hurts. But it’s the truth.
2. Go on and mourn
You will surely spend some if not many nights crying over it. But that’s ok. Allow yourself to “mourn.” It’s normal. It is better to let your feelings out rather than to keep them inside.
It would be very hard to hold on to a very strong feeling and keep it to yourself. If you do, you might explode! Once the bad feelings are out, you will feel a sense of relief.
You will feel that your burdens have become lighter. However, you must know when the crying, questioning, and mourning ends. You cannot spend the next six months lamenting. It will no longer do you any good.
3. Learn valuable lessons from the snake’s venom
It is pretty ironic that the only antidote to a snake’s bite is the venom itself. Learn from this very wonderful principle of nature.
When you lost your job, perhaps the very first thing that went into your head is: How will I be able to provide for my family? Just the very thought of your children, spouse, and other loved ones going hungry and homeless can make you insane.
But, do not let this ruin you, instead, make that a reason not to be weak and be overcome by this hardship. They will be hungry, they can go homeless, but only if you’d let it happen.
Make that fear an antidote. Convert that problem to a solution. Turn that nightmare into a motivation to go on with your life and find a new job or another source of income.
4. Assess and improve your way of thinking
People lose their sanity because of the way they think. The statement “It’s all in the mind” can be very powerful in helping you cope up with unemployment and keeping your composure.
You can and will be “destroyed” if you think of detrimental things.
On the other hand, you can be healed, be made full again, and cope up with life’s challenges if your mind is full of uplifting, motivating, inspiring, great, and other positive things. I know it is easier said than done, but at least it is true.
We truly mirror what we think of.
5. Be thankful for what you still have
You may have lost something very important to you but do not discount all the other important things you have – your family, friends, health, and you could go on and on.
List them all down and you may be surprised at how long your list can be.
That list will give you no reason to let yourself go idle and rot. As what they always say, “When a door closes, a window opens!” And take note; there are more windows than doors in a house, if you know what I mean.
6. Get moving!
After you have reflected on things that matter and given yourself some time to destress, there is only one thing to do – move!
Go job hunting again. It’s like going back to basics, but it’s part of the process. If you feel employment does not work for you anymore, try self employment. Discover other talents you may have.
You may land in a totally different field than that of your previous work, but it’s not a problem as long as you are happy and you are able to provide for your family again.
It can be tough to look for a good source of income, but just remember, for every tough thing we accomplish or achieve, a great reward awaits.
It’s ok to have a hard time thinking and looking for something financially rewarding because we are not given rewards for doing very easy things.
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Written on 12/21/2012 by Lesley Knowles is a young life coach. Her happy and positive disposition was one of the reasons Dynamic Productivity was born. She is a young woman who sees hope, beauty, and fun in all things, and perceives life to be a wonderful thing however hard and challenging it may be. She believes that anyone, even the worst can improve and change for the better. Visit her website, Dynamic Productivity and learn how to see life in a different and beautiful way, http://www.dynamicproductivityhq.com/. | Photo Credit: Matt |
