Working 9-5 (or Existential Angst, whichever descriptor works best for you)

Last week I had the privilege of retaking the wonderful Thetahealing®classes Manifesting and Abundance and Soulmates with a group of talented and vivacious women (and one awesome man). This weekend, for the first time in months, I have free time so I sat down to write a list of what I want to create in my life in the short, medium and long-term. You’d never guess that such a simple task could lead to some big realizations. The first, and I’m shocked to say this, but I felt a little lost without having work to focus on.

❓ What do I do with my time if I’m not teaching, preparing or creating a class?

🧐Who am I without having work to focus on?

❓ What would I do if I retire or am made redundant?

🧐 Is work really the cornerstone of my life and personality or have I entered some strange Stockholm Syndrome relationship with a necessary evil?

These are big questions and I invite you to explore these aspects of yourself and suggest that you do so for the following reasons.

🚢 Many people get sick the second that they have a break; there has been a great deal of research done about this and there’s so much consensus that it’s been named. It’s called ‘leisure sickness’.

⛈ Ditto for leaving a job, no matter how stressful that workplace was, or how much resentment you have towards the workplace or certain colleagues. No matter how stressed the workplace makes you, it can create a sense of identity and purpose. Without that, you can be left feeling lost and incomplete.

🌞 It’s never too late to give yourself purpose outside of the workplace, free from responsibilities and duties. What is it that you really enjoy doing? Who do you enjoy spending time with? What gives you an overwhelming sense of pleasure and purpose?

I should say that the ThetaHealing technique and the people that I’ve met in that space have fulfilled that role for me for many years. So what’s changed now? Well, this year I’ve really dedicated my time and energy into making my business my full-time income. So the hobby is now work. And this is the point that I really want to make here; we’ve been trained to think of work as something that is onerous and difficult- probably because many of our ancestors spent time working in fields or mines to make somebody else rich and earn just get enough money to scrape by (or that just my ancestral story? Come to think of it, is that ancestral story even true? My great-grandfather owned a stone quarry in St. Ives so he probably profited from other people’s labour…food for thought).

In order to make peace with work, we need to change the narrative from one of hardship and sacrifice to one of pleasure and joy. Because the fact is, I love teaching ThetaHealing to enthusiastic students. I even love teaching Scientific Thinking to enthusiastic students. In both cases, there’s something fabulous about watching people really engage with the material, learn new skill sets and discover things about themselves and the world they live in that they didn’t know before. I love giving and receiving healings and seeing people move forward with their life with a renewed sense of confidence and self-assurance. So I guess my short, medium and long-term goal list is going to include work. As well as time spent in nature, quality time with good friends, making the time to start and maintain a relationship with my most compatible life soul mate, spending time in the garden with my fur babies, travelling and experiencing new things with people I trust wholeheartedly, time to watch movies, read and write. The list goes on, but a lady has to have some secrets. 😉

And yes, the fact that I’m writing a blog post about work for my website to promote my business during my downtime hasn’t escaped me. I’ve just embraced the pleasure of work rather than feeling uncomfortable about it. And that feels great. 😊