Ideas for Living with Uncertainty
These days, millions of people are faced with living in uncertainty as a result of the recession. We are so afraid of living with uncertainty because we have not learned how to do it. The key to remember is that we can live without knowing what is going to happen to us tomorrow. We can find a way to be happy, even during times of great uncertainty. Our happiness is an inside job--our happiness can never be based on external circumstances and events that are beyond our control.
In my own personal experience, I have learned how to live with uncertainty. Naturally, I prefer to live with more certainty, but I know that uncertainty is unavoidable. So here are some ideas that I hope will help you to live with uncertainty with grace and humility:
Idea #1: Make peace with uncertainty. Making peace means accepting the fact that we do not know what is going to happen next. When we are dealing with uncertainty, our lives seem out of control. We may even feel powerless and helpless. We may also believe that we did something wrong that has now created all this uncertainty. Relax and stop resisting uncertainty, which is a normal part of living. We are always going to face times when we experience great uncertainty and other times, when our lives operate on a more predictable pattern. Uncertainty is not a punishment or sign that something is terribly wrong with our lives. It is simply a normal phase in living that we can learn how to cope with.
During uncertain times, I work hard at reminding myself that my life may be filled with chaos in some area, but there is a divine order even within the chaos. Somehow, this uncertainty has placed me at the right place and right time. There simply is a rightness to everything that I have experienced, even during my greatest times of uncertainty. I simply lack the full understanding of how I am benefiting from uncertainty yet. It will become clearer at some future point. I work hard at learning to simply trust and believe that everything happens for my greatest good. Uncertainty is not the time to judge our experiences or ourselves.
Idea #2: Dealing with uncertainty always requires us to let go of something old and embrace something new. Uncertainty creates an opportunity for an ending and a new beginning. We might lose a job and have to entertain training for a new career that we never would have comptemplated before. We might need to let go of old limiting ideas or habits so that we can embrace new ones to help us in this new phase of our lives. Relationships may come to an end so that we can be open for newer relationships to develop. A business may close which requires us to start over again. Uncertainty is like a tornado which may leave a path of destruction, but it always gives us the chance to start over again. The sun will come out again after the tornado has passed through our lives. However, we often resist the gifts of uncertainty by attempting to recreate the way our lives were or hold onto what we had. It is wise to remember that the natural flow of life is birth, death and rebirth. Uncertainty may be creating the opportunity for major change to happen within our lives. We have to willing to abandon the plan we had for our lives and open ourselves up to the new plan that the Creator has for us.
Idea #3: Uncertainty creates only a temporary crisis. When our lives are falling apart, our circumstance seem like permanent fixtures in our lives. We may not believe that we can work through the circumstance, which is creating so much uncertainty. Our thoughts focus on how these terrible circumstances will continue to create problems for us well into the future. It is wise to remember that the Creator never keeps us stuck in difficulty forever or without a way out.
We have to remind ourselves that our circumstances are temporary regularly. We have to catch ourselves when our thoughts are drifting off to what misery might be ahead for us. We have to work at keeping our thoughts firmly planted in the present moment and not worry about the future. Projecting into the future is only creating more worry and fear. We have to remind ourselves that the way out of the difficulty will become clear to us at some point. The Creator will help us to work our way out, but we have to be patient. A quick and easy resolution may not be for our highest good. Our circumstances are temporary learning opportunities tailor made for what the Creator believes we need to learn. Our circumstances are here to help us to learn and grow as a person. Once we have learned what we need to learn, then our circumstances will shift. Focus on finding how your circumstances are helping you instead of hurting you.
Idea #4: During uncertainty, you can still be happy. We tell ourselves that everything has be working well in our lives as a condition for us to be happy. If we are dealing with a crisis in any area, then we believe that we cannot be happy. Happiness is really unconditional. We cannot link our happiness to any circumstance, any material possession or anything else. Even during our greatest moments of uncertainty, we have opportunities for happiness every day. Our lives come filled with unlimited sources of happiness that are open to us at all times. We can be financially broke, but still find a small reason to be happy. Our sources of happiness come from the small experiences or moments that we ignore or take for granted. Being able to see the birds can be a source of happiness. Spending time with a pet can be a source of happiness. We can experience these things right now, even if our lives seem so uncertain. Challenge yourself to make a list of all the little experiences that create happiness right now. We always have countless reasons to be happy, regardless of our circumstances. The trick is to count all the reasons why we can be happy instead of think about reasons why we cannot be happy.
Idea #5: Stop looking for a fast, easy escape from uncertainty. The more we seek to rush our way out of uncertainty, we find that our efforts come up short. We cannot bulldoze our way through uncertainty so that we can find relief from the discomfort. We simply have to surrender to the situation and allow it to work itself out on its terms--not our terms. Surrendering does not mean that we do nothing, instead it means that we stop resisting and trying to force a quick resolution. We have to be patient and find the lessons in our circumstances. We have to learn to live with an uncomfortable situation where we cannot anticipate when it will move out of our lives. We have to find happiness, even when we do not know all the answers of when the crisis will be over. We do not need to stress over the details of how everything is going to work out. All we need is faith and trust that everything will work out for our highest good. Even in the midst of personal losses and major changes within our lives, we can believe that everything will work out. We will be shown the way if we stop trying to fix the crisis quickly.
Idea #6: Dealing with uncertainty means allowing ourselves to make missteps as we learn our way around our new circumstances . Uncertainty often plunges us into new circumstances that we have never faced before. We have no frame of reference of how to handle the situation. We are afraid to make mistakes in this new terrain. We tell ourselves that we cannot afford a mistake or that we cannot rebound from a mistake. As we are dealing with new circumstances, it is not the time to pile the pressure on ourselves to get it right. We have to accept the fact that we may make some missteps along the way as we figure out our way around this new terrain. A misstep is not fatal. We can rebound from a misstep. We simply need to give ourselves permission to make the best judgment call. Later we might discover that our earlier judgment call was a misstep. Now we have to get over it and keep trusting ourselves to make decisions. Some decisions are going to work out while others will not. Missteps are all part of the process.
Copyright©2009 Jeannine Robinson All Rights Reserved
Email us with any comments about this newsletter. Please click here to give us your opinion.
Newsletter reprints available with permission. Email reprint requests to jeannine@gowithin.net.
**Newsletter #103 will be posted by 12Noon E.S.T. on Monday, July 13, 2009. Read back issues of our newsletters on our archives page.
*** Check our Empowerment Library page for other insightful and helpful books.