Ask the therapists: Loss of business
I’ve lost my business over the last few months from the COVID 19 shut down. I know I need to get back on my feet, but I just don’t have any inspiration to do anything. Feeling lost and hopeless.
I can relate, it’s frightening when our drive to thrive fades. Sometimes over the last few months, I’ve felt so lost that I’ve scared myself by my lack of motivation toward my work endeavors, which were previously a source of great interest. I realize now that this inability to do or create anything was nothing to fear, I just needed to press pause on production. It wasn’t the time for business as usual. It wasn’t the time to create something new. It was the time to acknowledge my losses and attempt to let go.
Sounds like you too need to spend this time being gentle with yourself and grieve the loss of your business. It’s our challenge and our invitation to stay present and give our life experiences the attention they deserve.
As I said in our column a few weeks ago, fall is a time of letting go of all that has lived out its life cycle and must now fall from the branch. So much has changed for all of us, we’ve all lost something in this pandemic, and it’s vital that we take some time to be with whatever feelings we have about that.
Oprah recently quoted her friend Richie Jackson, who writes “During this pandemic, we all have been confronted with bitter disappointments and shattered expectations. These losses require mourning too. Sadness isn’t reserved solely for the dearly departed. Grief is for everything we lose.”
With the equinox just behind us, and nature shifting into fall, I hope you can join me in taking some quiet time to reflect on what is calling to be released. When we’re ready, we can gradually let go, grieve our losses and then move onto new beginnings when the timings right.
Blair
If you can afford the time, I recommend you take it. If you’re feeling lost and unmotivated, know that these are symptoms of grief. We often consider grief to be a feeling assigned to the death of loved ones, but a loss of any kind can prompt feelings of grief and it’s important to process it at your own pace. I encourage you to take the time to feel your sadness over the loss of your business, and as Jenny said above, to press pause on life until you’ve done the proper healing. If you jump in too soon, you might carry your grief and disappointment with you into your next venture, tainting it’s potential. If you can afford the time, why don’t you spend this time to talk to friends about your feelings of loss, write about your COVID experience in a journal, engage in a pastime you enjoy, or explore the vast beauty of our Atlantic provinces.
For us, we’ve enjoyed our sojourns to the valley, picking berries in the summer and sunflowers in the fall. Inserting new and different experiences have been deeply healing and have helped us shift out of our somber emotions, if not for a day or two. My motto to life has always been to work hard and play unreservedly, and this approach has certainly helped to buoy us up amid so much emotional heaviness and heart ache.
If you can’t afford to press pause and lick your wounds, I suggest you take a position with another company so you can experience reliable income without the pressure to start your entrepreneurial engines again. Once you’ve got some success under your belt and you’re feeling more hopeful about life’s possibilities, you can start to allow your entrepreneurial spirit to come forth and explore what options lay ahead for you. Many successful businesses have multiple iterations and rebirths so don’t let this setback define you.
Have a question for Jenny and Blair? Send your inquiries to info@BreathingSpaceYogaStudio.ca