Teresa Jimenez’s Post

How to survive the first 48 hours of being #laidoff? On Monday at 6pm, our CEO sent out the dreaded email announcing that #layoffs were happening and if you receive a calendar invite in the next hour, your role has been impacted. Within 10 minutes, I received the invite and my heart stopped beating for what I'm sure was an entire five minutes. I've now had 48 hours to process the news (and my emotions) and I wanted to share what's helped me feel grounded again in the event anyone reading this needs some #help. Step 1: Have a blowout pity party. Feel your feelings. All of them. And share them out loud with someone close to you. As a #yogainstructor, I've come to understand the importance of honoring your emotions. If you don't allow the space for the emotions to exist, they fester and don't have the chance to leave your body. If you don't process, you can't move forward. I felt ashamed. I felt embarrassed. I felt rejected. I felt like I wasn't good enough (even though I exceeded quota every single quarter this last year). Once I truly dug into the emotions that were coming up, they evaporated.  Step 2: Once your pity party has concluded, do something that lights your spirit up. Engage in one of your passions. Book a little getaway. Do the thing that makes you feel like you again. When the news came out, a couple immediate thoughts were 1.) Sh*t I need to buy a laptop right now and 2.) Should I cancel the yoga class I'm scheduled to teach because I might be in a bad headspace? I quickly decided not to because teaching is the thing that makes me feel whole and #empowered. I walked into the studio, calm and grounded, and I shared what was going on in my life in front of 40 people. I talked about themes of #impermanence, #change, #grit, and learning to embrace life's curveballs and by the end of class, I felt like me again (and had multiple job leads from my amazing students)! Step 3: Inform your #network and ask for #help. I was and am still blown away and so #grateful for the support I've received from friends and former colleagues. So much #kindness exists in the world and people are happy to help. Let them. Step 4: Get your resume and your #LinkedIn profile updated. This is a giant pain in the a*s but now you finally have time to do it. So do it!  Step 5: This one is HUGE. Reconnect with you!! So many of us tie our worth to our #work - what our job title is, what our salary is, our power, our status, etc. Once that changes, it's easy to feel lost and worthless. I have spent years learning to disassociate my value from jobs, titles, relationships, etc. ... And let me tell you, that was the most impactful work I've ever done. If you don't know who you are without your job, this is your opportunity to figure that out. It's all gonna be okay. Keep your head up. The best is yet to come. Off to find some #newbeginnings ... And have some #fun along the way! #opentowork #techlayoffs #freeagent #mindsetmatters