Quitting Your Job, Coping With Mental Health And Finding Your Freedom

Quitting your job can be the easiest thing to do or the most difficult thing to do in you life. There can be various contributions to decide your fate, such as, you’ve been offered a new job or you want to go travelling or you want change in career. But what about your mental health? How do we find our freedom from what seems to be holding us back?

Your Mental Health

As mentioned in previous posts, self-care and self-awareness is key in finding the higher good in yourself. This can be very frustrating at time, trying to understand who you are and what you are.

If we think away from work/job aspect for one second. External and internal factors can contribute to one’s mental illness. Everyone has mental health but to different levels.

Mental health can change our characteristics and behaviour, which in return can be reflected in actions. Such as, communicating with people; how you react to different scenarios or how you respond to certain events. Now, in return, this could be reflected in different environments, such as work, at home or in public spaces.

Quitting Your Job

Quitting your job can fluctuate your thinking, it can either heighten your mood or the complete opposite. Quitting your job is usually a reason for looking for something positive because you always want to better yourself.

People often can be judgemental when leaving a job, whatever the reason could be. This is can be caused by various reasons, such as jealousy or remorse. People can also judge the fact you also have multiple jobs… so what?!

Finding your path in life is only catered for you and no one else. Society these days seem to have things mapped out already and if we don’t follow it, we are judged.

Again, another factor to bettering yourself is admitting your rights and wrongs. Knowing what was done was done and to learn to move on from it. Certain life circumstances can be a sudden realisation and almost like “an awakening”; self-discovery. This is finding your freedom.

Finding Your Freedom

Freedom can be an epiphany, finding your lowest point to your highest. It means trying to guide yourself to happiness (i.e moving on from a job). It is also okay to not to try too hard as well and having too high an expectation in certain things in your life, such as your job or how well you fit into society.

Freedom can lead to enhanced expression of creativity, original thinking and increased productivity.

So, why did I put quitting your job and finding your freedom in the title of this blog post? It’s because sometimes your work tends to come first before yourself and that is not right, but it is what most us do.

We should be recognising that in order to find our freedom first, we need to think about ourselves, whether that be our own mental health or own well-being.

Is It Escapism?

Certain life choices can be made that seems like you are running away, such as quitting your job. But, is this to find something more worse of? No!

Finding freedom can be seen as an escapism in a way, as you are no longer chained to what was restricting you. However, freedom always means going towards something positive and escapism means your are escaping to seek distraction from reality.

It is also having the ability to act or change without constraint. Being able to the pursuit of happiness without external constraints or restrictions.

Escapism means the avoidance of anything negative such as, fear, boredom and banal aspects of life. People who often use escapism is seen as usually depressed and unable to deal with their issues.

Escapism can sometimes often referred to individuals turning to activities to subside their unhappiness, such as smoking, drinking alcohol, gambling, etc.

Erich Fromm, a psychoanalyst, states freedom is a way “that many people, rather than using it successfully, attempt to minimise its negative effects by developing thoughts and behaviours that provide some form of security.”

Security such as Authoritarianism, Destructiveness and Conformity.

Freedom can express a clearer mind and the ability to know that the decision you are going to make is for the greater good.

In Conclusion

So, overall, we can say that what ever the situation you are in currently within your life, such as quitting your job or coping with your mental health. Having the self-awareness and acknowledgement within yourself to know you can have the freedom to make the decisions you know is right.

So, you are trying to find clarity, security, comfort and understanding of one’s self. Because, you are not trying to escape or run away, you are finding the path towards your own happiness.

Reference: Funk, Rainer (2000). Erich Fromm: His Life and Ideas. New York: Continuum. pp. 169, 173.