Unemployment Laid off Pink Slip Depression Twitter Bad Economy Recovering Economy Blogging
Jane is a typical American woman. She is an over worked, over stressed wanna-be Superwoman whose self worth is directly linked to the size of her paycheck. But unfortunately, like many other heroins Jane is defeated by the evil villain “The Bad Economy” and soon finds herself stripped of all her superpowers by his dreaded sidekick “Pink Slip”. In no time, the life and self image Jane has worked so hard to create for herself begins to unravel in a whirlwind of self doubt, idleness, and social isolation. This leaves Jane vulnerable to the bloodsucking monster “Depression” who appears out of nowhere and wraps its tentacles around Jane in an effort to suck the life out of her mind, body and soul. Now, the future looks bleak indeed for our heroin! Jane's only hope of regaining her formal glory lies in her ability to slay the bloodsucking monster “Depression” by cutting off its three main tentacles: self doubt, idleness and social isolation. The following is a list of arsenal Jane can draw upon in her quest to slay the evil monster “Depression” and regain her formal glory.
Blog About Your Journey
Can you identify with Jane's plight? Are you, too, trying to regain the future you had planned for yourself? Don't know how to deal with the boredom of unemployment? Well, though it might feel as if you're the only one in this situation the truth of the matter is that there are hundreds of thousands of other people who feel the same way. Instead of despairing quietly in some dark corner of your house blog about your journey in and out of unemployment. Blogging is the modern equivalent of journal writing. Through blogging you can not only fine-tune your technical skills but also break the social isolation that often accompanies long periods of unemployment. There are a number of websites that offer to host free blogs for you including blogger.com, thoughts.com, and blog.com. Many of these websites are made up of a community of other bloggers who will read, review and help promote your blog. This feedback will not only give you perspective but it will also provide you with a new network of friends whose acquaintance might even lead you towards a new career.
Tweet Your Frustrations Away
Nothing sucks the joy out of life as efficiently as self doubt. Whenever you begin to doubt yourself the best thing to do is to vent your frustrations. However, you may not feel comfortable venting to friends or family from fear of sounding negative. Twitter.com is a free online community used by millions of people on a daily basis. All you have to do is log on and create a personal profile by following a few simple steps. It only takes a few minutes and before you know it you're well on your way to tweeting your frustrations away. On Twitter.com millions of people connect to or “follow” millions of other people they do not know. The goal is to gather as many “followers” as you can by tweeting as much as possible. You can rest assured that unless you're a famous celebrity no one will be reading your tweets simply because no one can keep up with all the tweets being posted. Therefore, posting your frustrations as tweets on this website is the cyber equivalent of writing them on a sheet of paper, stuffing that paper in a bottle and letting it float gently away onto the open sea of cyber space.
Expand Your Horizons
Use your ample free time to learn new skills; skills that are “outside the box”. For example, if you're a man who prides himself on his engineering or mechanical skills take a cake decorating or pottery course at your local community college. Likewise, if you're a woman who prides herself on her “womanly skills”, take a woodshop class and proudly display your handiwork throughout the house. Taking such courses will not only help expand your horizons but it will also provide you with a sense of accomplishment, the number one reason most people are so fond of their jobs in the first place. These classes might also help you discover hidden passions and talents and help lead you towards a new career.
Exercise
We all know that exercising releases endorphins and endorphins make us happy. Therefore, people who exercise are better able to cope with the effects of mild depression. Just one hour of mild exercise a day can do wonders for our health and happiness. You don't have to pay an expensive gym membership to exercise. Just take the dog for a long walk, play a game of basketball with your kids or go on a leisurely stroll with your loved one.
Stay Disciplined
Just because you're unemployed it doesn't mean that you have to abandon the discipline that goes along with being employed. Make sure that you go to bed at a reasonable hour, get plenty of sleep and still wake up early enough to make the most of your days.
Indulge in a Warm Cup of Tea
Numerous studies have proven that drinking something warm in the mornings is highly comforting. However, most people make the mistake of drinking coffee. Most coffee drinks are often not only high in sugar and unwanted calories but their long-term effect is one of sluggishness and depression because caffeine overstimulates the system and then creates a sense of “crashing”. You'll be far better off drinking antioxidant rich teas including white tea which is believed to also be a natural anti-depressant.
Turn on the Lights
Let's face it...You are unemployed, which means that you're going to need to spend a fair deal of time looking for employment. These days this is mainly done online so chances are you'll be spending endless hours glued to your laptop surfing various employment sites in search of any and all postings for whom you qualify. This can be a daunting and depressing task. This is also prime time for self doubt to loom its ugly head and lead you towards that inevitable conclusion: depression. One way to combat this is to turn on the lights. Numerous studies have shown that people tend to be more productive and satisfied with their task when that task is performed in a well lit environment.
Look on the Bright Side
Be optimistic! So what if you are laid off? So, are hundreds of thousands of other people! So, what if we are in a recession? This country has seen other recessions before and we, Americans, have always managed to pull out of them stronger than when we went in. So, look on the bright side of things! Try to make the best of your new found free time for when the economy recovers you'll be looking back on these days and missing the luxury of having all of your time to yourself.
