Even if this is the toughest ever time to be alive...
It strikes me that in the grand scheme of things right 'now' takes its place at the top of the podium when it comes to emotional upset and an all-time low in our emotional well-being.
Anti-depressants are being handed out like sweeties by over-pressured but well intentioned doctors. Society as a whole has never before been in such need of 'help' or in such a state of flux and uncertainty.
Who'd have ever thought that we'd be reading about actual countries, places we went to on holiday and learned about in Classical studies going bust! Who'd have thought a big city hospital would ever run out of money or that an actual currency might not exist very soon... Change, we don't like change!
But it's not the change itself that causes us to melt down faster than a Greek ice cream shop - it's the lack of choice and stability. Even if it's in a bad place we do like to know where we stand but if what we're standing on is shaky the emotional fallout can be more damaging than anything we ever face on the outside.
In times of war we tend to pull together, in tough times with pull resources, in the face of challenge we rise to it but faced with this kind of sustained uncertainty and without choice, we fall apart, and that's what we are observing all across the globe right now. But as my good friend Tim would say 'Campbell, do buck up, you owe it to yourself!'
So when everything we thought we knew for sure is up for debate and when everything we though was solid is actually fluid and changing fast how do we keep ourselves flexible and adaptable and define ourselves in a way that helps instead of one that keeps us stuck and scared...
We all have the habit of checking in with something outside of ourselves to just make sure we're ok. Whether you consciously do it or not I'll bet you do. It might be your job that let's you feel 'secure' or your children that make your life 'worthwhile' or even your bank balance that tells you that you're 'successful' but one of the things I'm going to show you here is that you can be ok with but more importantly without those things. Of course you can still have and want them but you can be ok AND have those things bit BECAUSE of those things.
The first thing we need to do is find the real part in you that let's you know you're ok and that is yours to keep. No matter what's going on around you.
You can't get fired from the role of 'whatever it takes'; you can't get laid off from the role of 'creator', or get swept aside from 'doing my absolute best in the circumstances' by the broom of another corporate downsizing.
The world is changing fast and one thing is clear, the difference and source of your happiness and success will be found in 'who you are' not 'what you do...'
How many bankers and other 'professionals' are now unemployed? How many 'good' graduates from 'good' schools who were good at playing by one set of rules and now learning that the game is changing fast and that they are not as desirable as they once were? It doesn't really matter if you know all about 'Hedging and Forward Contracts' if your company is bust and the government is paying your rent. But what will make all the difference both in terms of your employment prospects and your sanity is 'who' you are, not 'what' you are...
How you define yourself and your sense of identity sets the course of your beliefs and values by which you live your life, cascades down into your skills and capabilities which then dictate your behaviour and then obviously your physical environment so it's very important to make sure you know where you are starting from and then obviously where you are going.
Find and reconnect to your true identity and what you personally check in with that lets you know you're ok, your true starting point if you like and your true values, it's like re-laying the foundations of your future.
Once you have that bit right and clear the rest is relatively easy and has a much better chance of standing up for a while no matter what life throws at you. The world can be going to hell and you can still be ok, but only if the source of your own self worth and wellbeing is inside you and not linked to anything on the outside...
Easier said than done? Yes... and no, because when you think about it, the emotional pain comes not from the thing itself but from the thoughts 'about' that thing and when you stop telling yourself scary stories you stop being scared, it can be as simple but not easy as that... The only way out of this will be because we all want it. When our collective heads are down our emotions and actions soon follow... so it's time to stop, and think, then stop thinking and then 'buck up'... we all owe it to ourselves!