The Most Important Thing You Can Do to Thrive in the Midst of Career and Global LIfeQuakes™
In April of 2020, a UN study reported that 81% of the world’s workforce of 3.3 billion people has had their place of work fully or partially closed because of the outbreak.
According to the managing director of the IMF ( International Money Fund) Christine Lagarde, “Today, we now project that over 170 countries will experience negative per capita income growth this year.”
She added: “In fact, we anticipate the worst economic fallout since the Great Depression.”
Your mind has to steady itself in the face of words from the media such as job loss, divorce rate, foreclosure, catastrophic and pandemic illnesses, climate disasters. These are all the heavy words that are drenching the airwaves and, at times, putting Americans into an even deeper depression. Many people are justifiably worried and have found themselves glued to media reports, desperate for the first sign of hope on the horizon.
Today’s world is saturated with the fear of a collapsing economy, political divides and individual issues that have led to a petrified collective nation and global crisis. On a daily basis, every person is battling both internal and external forces that have the power to consume them with negative and depressing viewpoints that have recently become embedded in our American psyche. Nothing reaffirms these fears more than the loss of a job, which is something that many identify themselves by.
We are in a time when businesses are not only going under en mass but the very nature of society is being restructured. How we play sports, educate our children, and where we can travel with safety may be extremely altered for some time to come and that includes entire industries disappearing or for example, the airlines, severe layoffs.
It may look dismal if you are the one who has lost your job. What I know from having been both a psychotherapist and career coach through three, yes, three economic upheavals in the last 30 years is that it can be an awakening into a career transition that becomes a vocation of meaningful purpose, not just a job. I’ve witnessed it with my clients and workshop attendees first hand.
The sense of reawakening that can be connected to being in the unknown (as scary as it is) can bring not only positive change but soul rejuvenation, even during what seems to be the most disparaging of situations. I’ve seen in my practice and through interviewing hundreds of people while writing my book The LifeQuake Miracle: Awakening to Your True Purpose in Times of Personal and Global Upheaval that those who resist change and neglect their spiritual needs find themselves paralyzed with fear and it can have damaging effects on their bodies. Increased reliance on addictive behaviors is often used to numb out the overwhelming emotions we begin to feel during times of chaos.
Much like our homes and offices, the soul becomes muddled with accumulated garbage.
I believe that getting rid of life’s mental and emotional clutter are necessary first steps for moving to a healthier spirit and a more complete being and on the macro level, lead to a cleaner world, globally. If you’ve recently been the recipient of a proverbial pink slip or your business is in transition, here are 7 tips to get you back on your feet again (saved the most important one for last):
- Taking an inventory of everything in your life that is defunctional or obsolete. Suddenly, many “needs” will become needless wants. When we refuse to shed what is outmoded, defunct, it then leads to dysfunctional patterns of behavior.
- Creating small changes where you can see improvement immediately. Say, you want to become a writer. Write a letter to the editor about some issue in your town you feel passionate about. Set a goal to send out a minimum of 10 resumes each day. Celebrate your small achievement.
- Getting rid of dead weight. Is a relationship holding you back from the new career of your dreams? Pay attention to what kind of people make you feel lighter to be around. Give yourself permission to spend more time with those who expand your well – being and support your positive changes.
- Eliminating habits that are not providing constructive outlooks and outcomes. During times of stress and chaos, we frequently turn to bad habits. Whether yours is social media addiction, online shopping, alcohol consumption or over eating, these addictions are clearly not going to help you find a new career!
- Cutting out news that only makes you feel fear. What sells newspapers and news shows is the same thing that sells horror flicks. Unfortunately, revving your adrenals in the evenings especially, will also cause insomnia.
- Find a fairy tale or myth to identify with that which empowers you to experience yourself as a hero or heroine. I happen to love Jack and the Beanstalk because it teaches you to believe in your dreams even when those in your family think “your magical beans” are a pipe dream. This can be the first step in re-telling the story of your life so that it reflects a courageous journey.
The most important tip that makes the six above even possible to act on is a practice of checking in with your emotions every three hours. I call it “The Emotional Pulse Check.” Set an alarm on your phone to go off and remind you. Take a breath. Now, what are you feeling and where in your body are you holding it? When fear comes up, do you feel it in your gut or your heart? Some people carry it in their shoulders because change represents more responsibility than they want to take on.
The key is to direct your breath down into your body right into where the emotions are surfacing rather than trying to numb them out. When we surrender into our bodies, the pain gives way to intuition. There’s a reason the expression, “trust your gut” is around. When your guts are not enveloped in anxiety, you are able to listen more effectively. The breath slows the nervous system down and makes it more observant to your outer world. This allows you to pay attention to the synchronicities I call divine coincidences guiding you toward your new purpose. Sometimes, those divine coincidences come in dreams.
I knew that a massive transition was coming in 2020 from messages coming to me in my dreams, so 2 years ago I began updating my first book The LifeQuake Phenomenon: How to Thrive (not just survive) in Times of Personal and Global Upheaval for a 10th anniversary release this year. I renamed it The LifeQuake Miracle: Awakening to Your True Purpose in Times of Personal and Global Upheaval. Although one definition of phenomenon is a miraculous event, I wanted people to get the spiritual meaning of a LifeQuake and to inspire those who cannot work with me in person or through my Zoom programs to discover the miracles in such uncertain transitional times.
Yes, it is possible to find your life’s calling amidst a time of global economic contraction if you have the right “stage coach”, evolutionary change based roadmap, and a tool box for the journey with the courage to dream bigger than your history.
