Laid off or liberated?

At this time, the country is experiencing 9.5 percent of folks being unemployed. More and more people are out of work for longer and longer. The number of people out of work for more than six months rose by 169,000 to 6.9 million, which is 45.9 percent of all the unemployed. 

With so many people not working, people are starting to rely on themselves for their own security, and tapping into skills they have not used. There seems to be a movement of “I can depend on myself to take care of myself.  I want to control my own destiny”. 

Being laid off can be used as a time of relaxation, reflection and freedom. Not having to concern one’s self with setting the clock, upper management issues, and fighting traffic, one can become free.

After being laid off, I had an opportunity to meet up with some former employees who had also been laid off. After not seeing them for a while, I noticed how relaxed everyone’s faces looked, and I realized how much the stress had shown itself on all of our faces while employed and going through the motions of being downsized before our layoff came. After being laid off, we were all fresh faced.  

There is a term being used now call “funemployment”. People are starting to not let the stress get to them and are realizing there is something better waiting for them, whether they create their own job or find another. Being unemployed has caused a spiritual awakening in some and a lot have found they are not out of work, but on a spiritual journey.  Unemployment can open up our creative selves.

During this time, have fun, do some things that having a 9 to 5 job would not allow. Pull out those crochet needles, write your book, pull up whatever it is that has been buried inside you and create.  

Unemployment is not an end, it is a beginning.