Individuals aren’t the only ones dealing with the range of emotions that a job loss can ignite: shock, fear, paralysis, disappointment, anxiety, and more.
These potent emotions affect the individual initially, but quickly affect the spouse, and certainly the children.
Here are some strategies for helping relieve that anxiety for you, your spouse/significant other, and your children. But first things first – you need to be ok before you can assure others.
YOU FIRST: Only when you are centered, confident and ready to move forward, will everyone else in your family be ok. So you first need to concentrate on finding that inner courage to move forward. Being unemployed should be treated as an objective problem because it doesn’t define you. It’s an event / something that happened, which in turn, redirects a lot of your energy. Treat it as an experience. I know – this isn’t easy - but do what you can to not take it personally.
Another way to decrease your stress is to review your finances, and determine how many months of cushion you have financially. If there isn’t much of a cushion there, take action NOW: decrease expenses, sell things on ebay, tap into a HELOC if possible, take on temporary employment.
Perhaps this perspective will give perspective: Truly, you have a job. Your JOB is to find a job. So set aside 3 – 5 hours a day to WORK on your job search by: researching companies, networking, and following up.