Making Sense of Transitions Through Spiritual Reading
Great Reads to Help You Find Answers.
As you are processing through the transition cycles, it becomes necessary to find emotional solace from the range of feelings stirred up by the change. Very few of us take to change gleefully. It is natural to look for want to find comfort and begin the healing process. Putting in place coping structures that can help support the navigation of the next states of healing is critical. One such supportive resource is spiritual reading. There are a vast number of resources to help guide you through troubling times. In the book world, for instance, there are thousands of titles on the mechanics of job search. However, most do not address the issues of how to cope with the emotional turmoil that is affecting the human spirit. Therefore, turning to spiritual reading can be very uplifting and quite often offers just the right words at the right time. In the midst of chaos, spiritual reading can give your soul a place to rest and reflect on the life change that is currently unfolding.
Putting Transitions into Perspective
Perspectives such as the following from Daphne Rose Kingma in her book The Ten Things to Do When Your Life Falls Apart can be very insightful. “Difficulties teach us, among other things, that we’re not in control, at least not completely, and that the ways in which we’ve handled our lives until now may not be enough. In fact, part of the purpose of a crisis is to get us to stretch in new and completely different ways. Major life events are profound opportunities for emotional healing and spiritual development. Something, a force larger than us, is inviting us to change. The presence of pain is the promise of change. If this crisis weren’t meant to be part of our life, it would not be happening. These are precisely the experiences through which our emotional body is being healed, our soul is being refined and enlarged, and our life itself is taking on a new meaning.”
Kingma continues on, ” It’s about becoming a greater expression of ourselves, stepping into alignment with who we truly are, getting on the path that is ours to walk in this life, and connecting with the purpose that is ours uniquely, to fulfill. Human life is a journey of evolution. It is a journey of possibilities, a call to awakening, a path of expansion, emotionally and spiritually. The energy of life itself is constantly teasing, inviting, cajoling us to become more of who we really are; when it meets with continued resistance, it will start urging and insisting. Tough times, radically changed circumstances, pain and illness-these inspire us to do something different, to become more, better other than we have been. These disasters are all the ways the cosmos has of saying: we’ve been wanting you to do something different.”
Kingma goes on to describe what can feel as a very long negative experience by saying “when you are in the middle of the mayhem, it doesn’t feel like a process of expansion. It feels like changes are going in the direction of less. It is actually only by doing something different that one can move themselves through the eye of the storm of their crisis and actually come out with more, more time, tranquility, awareness of their purpose, sense of connection, gratitude, peace, hope, and love.”
When going through the pain of a job loss, it is easy to forget the big picture of “why” the loss occurs. Typically, you need to let go of the past and move forward to what is beckoning you. Hanging onto the past is fear and letting go is hope for the future. One of the greatest gifts of crisis is that is calls you to the awareness of your life and thus to make the necessary changes.
Finding the Silver Lining in Crisis
Losing a job is traumatic, and many people would consider losing a job a major crisis in their life. In her book Welcome to your Crisis, Laura Day has an interesting point of view on crisis as defined by the ancient Greeks. “The word crisis derives from the ancient Greek word meaning “to decide.” A crisis is a situation that compels you to make a decision. You cannot avoid a crisis by not deciding, for even deciding not to decide is a decision.” Typically, when a crisis occurs in one area of life, the impact flows over into every other area. Profound change works like that. If you have lost their job, it’s not just the livelihood that changes, every aspect of your life that changes.
Laura Day continues, “Crisis is a violent blow to your world. When your life reaches a crisis, you have no choice; you evolve or you remain crippled. Endings are beginnings – if we allow them to be. because we find it so hard to let go, however, bringing ourselves to a better place is uncertain. Living is about learning how to let go of things – fears and dreams and people and situations – in order to get to a better place.” Understanding more about the role of “crisis” in your life can help to put in perspective the troubling event. Ultimately, the crisis can eventually present a blank canvas for you to create the next part of your life’s journey.
Change Can Be a Gift
The concept of recreating yourself is a very valid one to ponder while recovering from a job loss. Marianne Williamson in her book The Gift of Change writes about the idea of us accepting what has happened and look to the future. She writes, “when we accept ourselves exactly as we are, and where we are, we have more energy to give to life. There is a plan for our lives – God’s plan – and it oversees exactly where we are and where we need to be going.” By moving on to the new chapter of your life, you can also gain visibility to the type of contribution you would like to make in the next chapter of your life. Job losses or career changes typically push people to re-evaluate their goals and aspirations as they take inventory of their skill sets and decide what they want to do next.
Williamson continues, “Our greatest contribution to the world at this time is not just what we do but who we are becoming. It’s the nature of our thinking that is forging a new consciousness. Let’s forgive the past and who we were then. Let’s embrace the present and who we’re capable of becoming. It’s the nature of our thinking that is forging a new consciousness. Let’s forgive the past and who we were then. Let’s embrace the present and who we’re capable of becoming. Let’s surrender the future and watch miracles unfold.”
When a person makes a decision to accept what has happened and move on, they begin to create what is next. The bottom line is that spiritual reading can offer various perspectives to help make sense of the crisis, and give the reader greater peace and understanding. These inspirational books help you understand that you are not alone and that others have been on the same path. Spiritual reading also help you begin to close the door on the past and start to prepare for the new future that is coming to you.
Check out our other blogs on career transitions and coping with the emotional side of job transitions. Be sure to sign up for our email list to receive a free copy of our Top 10 Things to do when Downsized and Supportive Reading Resources for Transitions. As always, please feel free to reach out to us with any questions or thoughts at support@mindfuljobalignment.com. Also, you can leave your comments below. We’d love to hear from you!
By: Diana C. Stephens, PhD