Nancy’s whole career has been in pharmaceutical communications. After watching round after round of layoffs at her firm over the past two years, her ticket finally came up in February. She went from a high level, lucrative management position to unemployment overnight. Stories like this are playing out across the country by the thousands. Good skilled workers lose their jobs and find strong competition for lesser positions. Seemingly secure financial futures based on real estate and stock investments disappear overnight, leaving uncertainty and worry.
But listen to Nancy:
“Ironically, this may be one of the greatest gifts I have received in my life — not because unemployment is a gift but because this gave me a forced opportunity to evaluate where I am in my life and if I want to continue on this path. In fact, I had been increasingly stressed out by and unhappy with my job for some time.”
Is it just blowing self-help smoke to say this was a good thing? Is Nancy just some crazy exception? Not in my experience.
Suggestions for finding the ground
Pray for God’s guidance, not rescue. I’m not saying you shouldn’t pray for relief, but focus on praying for the willingness and strength to accept what comes and make the best of it. Perhaps no prayer is more perfectly suited for this than the Serenity Prayer, attributed to Reinhold Niebuhr: “God, grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, courage to change the things I can, and wisdom to know the difference.”
Meditate. Use daily meditation to practice acceptance and to clear the mind to better discern God’s Will. See my last column for more about meditation.
Ask for help. It’s hard for many of us to ask, but admitting you … Continue reading What Works: Losing your footing and finding the ground
