Losing your job due to Covid, and becoming redundant in your career, can really throw you off balance, and shake your confidence to the core. If this has happened to you, you’ve literally had your comfort and security rug pulled out from underneath you. Your professional life and your personal lifestyle, as you’ve known it, is now altered by fear of the unknown.

The harsh facts are that many people worldwide have lost their jobs during the pandemic.Pew Research reported in April 2021 that 9.6 million Americans had lost their jobs, with younger people more at risk.

Pew Research Data

Losing your job is a big challenge

As in any of life’s challenges, it’s as easy or as hard as you make it. You can think of it as a catalyst from the universe to allow for reinvention, or you can add it to your inner list of failures. When we think of ourselves as a failure, we are less able to think and may revert to instinctive behavior. We can become stuck in fight, flight, or freeze mode.

While it’s important to push forward and take action to find another job, it’s equally important to take pause, be kind to yourself, and acknowledge you’ve been through a loss. Once you recognize this, you can navigate your unemployment with the least amount of collateral damage to your self-esteem.

A friend of mine, Alicia, enjoyed a high-profile position as a corporate event planner for a multi-national corporation based here in the United States. After over twenty years with the company, her job became Covid redundant. The large events she was expert at organizing with hundreds of people gathered together, were no longer safe.

According to Alicia, the corporation has an excellent reputation for being advanced and very evolved in their protocol for laying off employees. She assured me that their HR practices the utmost sensitivity in the process, giving every employee their dignity even if they were fired from their position. It was nice to hear there are big corporations who actually give a damn about people's feelings.

But even though Alicia said they gave her plenty of warning ahead of time to get her “ducks in a row” in reality, it didn’t prepare her for the “unexpected grieving process” of losing her long-time position.

In fact, she now recognizes that she underestimated her emotions about losing her position altogether. 

Becoming jobless involves a grieving process

For your own emotional health, it’s better to acknowledge that you’re actually going through the grieving process. The kindest way for you to handle this situation is to give yourself permission to lean into the grief and allow yourself to feel the feelings you feel.

You may want to stop yourself from feeling any hard feelings, determined to push forward and find another job as quickly as possible. While this is completely understandable, I know from working with thousands of clients that you need a safe space to acknowledge those feelings. It doesn’t mean you’ll be stuck in them indefinitely; I promise!

In fact, if you don’t give yourself this space to grieve your loss, you’re more than likely to find those feelings pop up when they’re least wanted and knock you off balance. It’s not a good head-space to be in for a job interview.

What do you lose when you lose your job?

The obvious loss is that there will be no money coming in earned from your hard work and dedication. There are social and security losses too. No more daily conversations with coworkers about your shared experiences, as well as having no known tasks for you to accomplish. Even if you were sometimes guilty of referring to your job a “daily grind” your work gives you a known rhythm that structures your day.

Shock and disbelief about losing your job

The shock and disbelief of losing your job can take a while for it to set in. So it’s not unusual to go through a denial period. Denial is a self-defense mechanism that helps us to get through the day as painlessly as possible. It’s because the bad news feels too “big” to think about, so you spare yourself the overwhelm.

So whether the full impact of losing your job has hit you, or whether you have been coping through any fear, I invite you to take 5 minutes right now. I’ll show you a physical activity you can do that will boost your emotional well-being and help release the fear and anxiety about losing your job.

With two fingertips rapidly tap 7-8 times firmly (it shouldn’t cause pain) on your Stomach Meridian point. It’s located under the eye, directly beneath the eyeball on the edge of the bone, not on your eyeball itself.

While you’re firmly and rapidly tapping on this point with two fingers, say aloud or think it to yourself; “I can’t let go of this fear and anxiety.” That’s it, just tell it like it is! Keep it simple and uncomplicated. Repeat the process twice for good measure. You’ll feel better.

When you can address the initial fear and anxiety of losing your job, you’ll be able to think more clearly about your future. Without your fear of the unknown lurking in the background, you’ll be able to discover what you really want to do, and what you’d really love to do instead!

You may even be surprised to find that being removed from the stress of your old work environment is exactly what you’ve needed all along. Your heart of hearts may have known, but maybe you were afraid to make a move? When you reframe the situation with a positive spin, they actually saved you the trouble and made the first move.

When you truly feel gratitude for the experience of your past employment and previous accomplishments, it becomes a transformational energy that heightens your self-worth and increases your value energetically to others. And that’s a terrific energy to vibrate and maintain when you’re interviewing for a new job!