Habits are hard to break. When we lose our jobs, we lose our self-esteem. We must fight for ourselves and not listen to others.

Laid Off? Take Time & Birth A New You

When I was laid off years ago as a legal secretary and transcriber, I had a lot of doubts, guilt and shame. It took a while to fight back for my own worth. I found important to use this time to explore my options. I found it best that we hone in our natural abilities and let the past be considered only a stepping stone to our future. Each of us is special. We are all packed with unique abilities that can gladden the hearts of others whether we’re employed or not.

From every employment crisis for man and woman, comes a spiritual awakening. It is usually a surprise but an insight we would have stumbled on sooner or later in our lives. But, before we can recognize insights, we must be open to affirm we are of value, talented enough and naïve enough to rewrite our lives. We are so much better off if we listen to our hearts rather than our ego. A healed memory is not a deleted memory. Instead, forgiving what we cannot forget creates a new way to remember. Sometimes we just have to change the memory of our past into a hope for our future.

I’m always struck of how magical and satisfying change can be. Taking risks always includes detours, wrong turns, and repeat visits. For instance, so many of us are facing an identity crisis now because of unemployment. Humans are created with the instinct to work, excel and survive. We can make a mistake by judging our self-worth by the nameplate on our desk. Don’t let being laid off break you down or determine your self-worth. Getting fired from a job can be terminal if we let it; or it can be a time of rebirth. I went back to college, studied ceramics, clay sculpting, writing and poetry.

I found I had new talents nobody ever told me I had. Instead of typing my bosses’ words, I am typing my own words and authoring my own books. It is so much more satisfying. It never occurred to be that I could be a writer when I was fired so long ago. I had to learn to redefine myself. I find so many others out there like me or worse with depression and unhope. We should not listen to companies who drag us down and then kick us out because their finances aren’t good. We can do many things. We must love ourselves enough to let go of the pain of being fired. We are not useless or untalented.

We must, many for the first time in our lives, accept unemployment as a new opportunity for growth and adventure. William Shakespeare says, “You take my life when you take the means whereby I live.” I agree. Still, I imagine the hardest work in the world is being out of work and many of us get desperate and fall to drugs or alcohol. All healing is first a healing of the heart not the gut. A lot of people say they want to get out of pain, and I’m sure that’s true , but they aren’t willing to make healing a high priority. We have to look inside to see the source of our pain in order to deal with it. Nobody can help us do this.

The universe has plans for all of us. Delight in each new challenge. Listen for the ecstasy of understanding the blessings of changing jobs, meeting new people and challenging ourselves to try to do new things. We can’t find ourselves by looking for our self-esteem and/or identity in another’s eyes. We need to learn to make our lives more successful, and it takes time and a little selfishness to do this.

Women and men have to support one another not tear each other apart because of unemployment and hard financial times. We are like children and can be naughty with too much empty time on our hands. Humans need to be connected to achievement. We’re all deserving of the American dream of house, family and love. To get there, we need to stockpile all our personal innate talents and our assets; and draw on them day-by-day until we find ourselves a new definition of who we are or want to be. I’ve heard it said we are healed of suffering only when we’ve experienced it fully. You must make your mind both keener and more flexible to birth a new you for a new future.