Step 3/Week Three : Quieten The Mind And Think Sideways
Here, in Week Three of the AECI blog, we are focusing on some practical measures that we can take when we face a change in employment circumstances. Any person who finds themselves out of work is going to need a lot of patience and determination in the period ahead and a keen eye on what opportunities might open up. And, of course, the human mind can make things difficult for us. It can race away with all sorts of unfettered stresses and unhelpful distractions. What the writer, Eckhart Tolle, calls, 'an accumulation of psychological time'.
Patience and simplicity can make for a 'healthy space' in our minds and gradually help our 'Primal Gifts' to surface once again. This is easier said than done when one is preoccupied with real worries around one's job. It requires a level of 'consent' or 'readiness' perhaps to allow those moments of 'simplicity' and of 'stillness' to arise, especially if we are not so used to them. To allow our mind to 'empty' is difficult. We hold onto things mentally as we do physically. Silence and gentle breathing can provide good preparation, but compassion for oneself needs to be worked at!
When you find the right moment, then in your relaxation, and in turn, begin to empty one's mind (thoughts and concerns), heart (emotions and feelings), body (tensions and any aches), and - what we might call - our perceptible soul (our identities and our experiences or histories). It might be as if you are turning a tap on to release some of these volatile and uncomfortable elements within. Even in this - sometimes very long drawn out - process of looking for a new job, we must keep seeking out patience, serenity and simplicity in new ways, even if you become distracted, disturbed or irritated.
Remember one is aiming to keep a check on all aspects of your health at all times, to value all that has shaped you and to avoid what the AECI term as the four A's - 'Anger', 'Addiction', 'Apathy' and any feeling that you are totally 'Adrift'! You are not! Keeping those 'Primal Gifts' close will help retain purpose, a sense of self-worth and an optimism that you will need.
'Thinking sideways' might mean exploring avenues of employment that you would have never considered before, looking closer at ways of galvanizing energy behind your hobbies and your interests (past and present) and considering possible options working for a voluntary or a charitable organisation as a means of networking and developing new skills. 'All real life is meeting' wrote the Jewish philosopher Martin Buber, and that applies as much to a situation of unemployment as anything else. You have lots to offer. Be brave and imaginative in the way you approach the future.
To spark our 'Primal Gifts' into new life we might even explore our options for further study and education locally or online that are out there, some possibly with funding sources attached. Keep talking to family and friends and check the necessary publications and employment websites. But remember - take regular breaks. keep refreshed. All these things will guard those 'Primal Gifts' and prevent one from feeling isolated.
Check out the link below with some useful bits of advice and suggestions:
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/av/embed/p08kq1mp/52660591