Laid Off - Pain Management in 3 Steps
The platitude in healing circles is that we Americans have a tough time admitting that we are in pain.
However, that isn't the
reality in the current plague of layoffs. Those I coach and provide Tarot
readers to know they are in pain. Lots of it. That ranges from
anxiety about landing comparable work to shame about losing a job.
For them the situation
is how to manage that pain. Here are 3 proven steps to begin that journey.
SELF-COMPASSION
The first and most
important step is an ability that most in America don't have. That's
self-compassion.
In "Tarot for Change" by Jessica Dore
that's assigned to the Strength card. It takes strength to love ourselves
enough to take care of ourselves when The System says we haven't measured up
(at least not enough to keep that job). So absent is this trait from our menu
of healing that there is even the guide "Self-Compassion for Dummies" by
Steven Hickman.
Sure, we can detail what
we might have done or could have done in our overall career and that particular
job to have prevented this reversal of fortune. Most career experts would
recommend such an inventory. But along with that has to be the gentle embrace
that as a human being we are myopic creatures. Much of what we see is by
looking in the rearview mirror. In the Tarot the Two of Swords captures the
reality of those blind spots.
SEEKING TO COMFORT
RATHER THAN BE COMFORTED
The next step is getting
out of ourselves. Pain tends to push us into withdrawal. We are driven to hide.
What also falls away is our willingness to be there as a human being. During
what was up to then assessed as the worst of times - the Industrial Revolution
- novelist Charles Dickens recommended that what would get the society through
was the milk of human kindness.
Centuries before Dickens
Saint Francis of Assisi articulated that ethos as consisting of reaching beyond
our own pain in his "Prayer for Peace." In that prayer
is a plea to allow the self-absorbed human being to seek to comfort rather than
be comforted. In the 12-Step program Alcoholics Anonymous newcomers are
assigned service work. Through that giving they position themselves to receive
the gift of sobriety.
CLEAR THINKING, DON’T KNOW
The third step is to
recognize that we are probably already changing - as we need to do. A change,
such as the loss of a job, triggers more necessary change. Usually, as the
Tarot's Wheel of Fortune card captures, that begins in the subconscious. Dore
points out:
" ... change often
begins with precontemplation, which is before you know that change needs to be
made, and moves from there to contemplation, preparation, action, and
ultimately through to maintenance ..."
The challenge is to let
go of the past so the future can get underway. Not easy. That's because the
past is all we know.
A useful ritual is to
light a small white candle and three times a day say three times the Zen mantra: Clear
Thinking, Don't Know.
Full Disclosure:
Post-9/11 my industry collapsed, with it my business. I found mysticism to lift
me out of the pickle I was in and be able to spot hope.
Tarot Card Reader. Medium. Intuitive
Career Coach.
No-pressure complimentary
consultation about what you want. Then, fees custom-made for your budget.
For an appointment, please contact
janegenova374@gmail.com.
Comments
Post a Comment