Life Change/Career Change:What can I do?

07-28-2005, 06:14 AM

Hi everyone,

I'm 23 years old and I live in Sheffield, UK. I'm Canadian and will be
moving home with my boyfriend in a few months to Toronto (woohoo!).

I'm going through some confusion and stress over my life at the moment, I'll
explain:

Until May I had been working in sales for over a year. I found it soul
depleting and difficult to cope with. Sales, in my opinion, was one of the
most empty jobs I could have done. My co-workers were all disrespectful men
who spent every day discussing their female conquests, staring at girls and
commenting on their bodies as they walked by, etc. I finally had enough and
quit. As a result I was asked to leave with pay for the remainder of my
notice period which was a month.

I got a job in a call centre for a cable company. I went for 4 days and my
boyfriend begged me to quit after I came home every night stressed out and
cried at night.

In the month that I was off work I allowed myself to explore my
spirituality, which had been numbed and ignored for years until then. My old
job turned me into someone that I didn't like and I've reclaimed myself. I
can't bear the thought of returning to another job that forces me to
compromise myself. I emotionally and spiritually feel like I can't allow it
to happen.

I've opened my own website selling cat products that are quite high end and
difficult to find in the UK, catserenity.com - it's only been open a couple
of weeks now but I've only made about £200 not factoring in my advertising
costs. I invested a lot of money into the business and felt like it would
allow me to have freedom from working in soul-less jobs and allow me to
pursue a better life. I don't expect it to do amazingly, just enough to get
by would make me ecstatic.

At the moment it's not generating enough money to live on. My boyfriend
works full time but he doesn't earn a big wage so we need another income.

My question is how can I have the life of those people who are corporate
dropouts? How do they do it? What can I do? I haven't been practicing
Ashtanga very long so I doubt that teacher training would be something I
could do.

What do people do when they want to lead a spiritual life and not a 9-5 in
an office doing something they find gut wrenching?

I know there are people out there leading the life I'd hope to be leading.
Are any of you?

Any advice or wisdom is welcomed. Please send good energy my way, I'm
feeling very confused and I can't seem to find the way.

Namaste.

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08-06-2005, 12:53 PM

I'll tell you a bit of my story, and give a bit of advice.

I was raised in a very poor environment. I am primarily self-
educated, thanks to a couple of excellent free library systems. I
became a successful businessperson, involved in commercial real
estate and government contracting. Did it for years, never cared a
whit about the job but was hypnotized by the big cash. Walked out a
couple of years ago, started a little dogwalking/kennel/dogtraining
service. Am writing this as 6 chihuahuas are jumping around me.
Sounds like fun, but don't forget those days of walking thru the
freezing rain, and this business doesn't stop if you happen to have
the flu or a twisted knee. At the end of the day, its a job too.
So just take that for what it is worth.

My advice, easy to give and hard to take like most advice, is to
prepare to be surprised by twists and turns you can not predict or
control. What you can do is have a fearless attitude and faith.
That is part of what yoga teaches you, by (literally) putting you
into positions you've never been in, and perhaps could never imagine
being in, and teaching that it is fine, breathe and live in the
posture and the time, soon it will all have been a dream.

--- In ashtangayoga (AT) yahoogroups (DOT) com, "cheryl davies"
wrote:
> Hi everyone,
>
> I'm 23 years old and I live in Sheffield, UK. I'm Canadian and
will be
> moving home with my boyfriend in a few months to Toronto (woohoo!).
>
> I'm going through some confusion and stress over my life at the
moment, I'll
> explain...