For most of my working life, I’ve been in the field of health and well-being.
For many years, I ran my own Stress management practice teaching and guiding people to practice Mindfulness, Meditation, QiGong and Tai Chi. I was available for people one-on-one plus I ran groups privately and in welfare and corporate settings.
In other words – I was busy.
I needed a reliable source of income (don’t we all!) so I had to work hard to ensure my income was consistent, and enough to pay the bills.
But sadly, it wasn’t enough.
Within the space of two or three years in the 1990’s, both my parents died (within 18 months of each other), I experienced the loss of my five adopted/rescue dogs due to old age, (thankfully they all lived long, happy lives), my best friend’s mother died, my next door neighbor died, and I found an elderly lady dead in the entranceway of her home.
Soon after that, (just 8 weeks after my beloved mother died) my long term partner of 13 years left our relationship almost overnight, going interstate and taking up residence with a girlfriend of ours. Her long term partner was just as shocked as me. Neither of us had any idea our much loved partners were having an affair behind our backs.
My grief was deep and raw and never have I needed my own stress management practices more!
I lost the three people who meant the most to me (and my darling dogs) in the space of 18 months.
My father died first and I was going to stay with my mother (about 90 mins away) as many days of the week as I possibly could, fitting in all my clients and groups on my return, working harder than ever. Both my income and my health suffered.
Eventually, I felt the need to move on from my work caring for other people and of course – my income dried up and my savings ran out. I had to find other ways to make an income and as I’d had my own businesses since my mid 20’s, a job, working for someone else, was not my preferred choice!
So the moral to this story is – always make sure you have work that pays you when you need time off for grieving and health issues. And the truth is – you get some sick pay, but not many jobs pay you long term if you’re not there.
Learn to generate your own, ongoing stream of income online and Every Day Gets Better. 😀❤️
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