Entering Uncertainty: How to Embrace What Is
When was the last time you felt certain? Where do you even find certainty?
In the last seven months, the short eternity of 2020, we have lost footing in so many aspects of our lives. Schools are grappling with whether, or how to reopen. The debate about mask wearing is dividing families. Bread breaking continues, but new bakers are watching numbers rise on the bathroom scale and wondering if it’s worth it. Nearly 5 million people are on unemployment. Protests for the safety and well being of Black lives have sparked a new call to end systemic racism. We are examining how we want to be policed, or don’t. Our leaders are voting about how we will be voting in November’s presidential election. Things are just different. The world we’re living in is quicksand.
There is an old story that in ancient Persia, a good king, knowing the complexities of leadership, sought insight to guide his rulership. Knowing the impermanence of life, he asked his wise men to seek guidance, to find one sentence that would always be true. What one seed of knowledge would outlast him, his children, and his children’s children? Could anything be that certain? It took years, and they went to the ends of the earth to come up with an answer. The sentence was And this too shall pass. The only certainty here is uncertainty. It’s comedic in a way.
But how do we navigate these uncertain times? How do we own the moment when the moment looks and feels so different from all the others that came before? How do we invoke ease when the world is shaking beneath us? It doesn’t look like there’s a secret passage out of this, so we have to find a way to endure.
We flip the switch. We pull back, reset, again, and again. Andrew Bennett said “The longest journey you will ever take is the 18 inches from your head to your heart.” That means stop thinking about it. Most of the time we are cautioned not to disassociate, but in times like this, over one hundred days into quarantine, you are allowed. Also, it means to follow your heart, do the things you love – yes, still. This is not a sprint my friends, and your ability to lead in times of uncertainty is directly related to your courage, or your heart.
Certainty is a being, a feeling, not a knowing.
Here’s How to Cultivate It
1. Accept. The world around you is not wholly your responsibility. Parts of it, sure, all of it, no. The life you’ve led up to this point is a mix of circumstance and choice, and you have done the best you can. Right? Nix judgement, of self, and of others. We don’t have to agree to love one another—in fact, that’s a hallmark of courage. Contextualize this moment in terms of the eternal. There is a reason the wise men found the one truthful sentence to be that this too shall pass. Pull out a micro-lens on the now, and let that be enough.
2. Affirm. Affirmations improve psychology, health, mental acuity, executive functioning and compassion. But it’s essential to sit in acceptance before taking this step. Affirmations work on an open mind, and that requires acceptance. One way to discover what you need to affirm is to look at the parts of your life where you feel lacking most, and envision how you’d feel if that was different. If you keep having knee or shoulder issues, your affirmations might be for perfect health and easy movement. If you feel stuck inside during quarantine, your affirmation might be for freedom and adventure. You can find affirmations anywhere, Instagram and Pinterest for visuals, and Insight Timer and Youtube for audio, but I still love the album Meditative Affirmations for Peaceful & Positive Living by J. Lee Kraft. To really capitalize on a set of affirmations, write your own, with pen, on paper. Remember, spelling is it’s own spell!
3. Embody. Consciousness is more than a mind, it’s the whole person. In the 1950s, Albert Mehrabian studied the importance of verbal and nonverbal communication, and discovered that 55% of what we communicate is through our body. Our truths live in our bodies. Our traumas live in our bodies. Our joys erupt through the body. I teach yoga and dance because I have learned the body can reset the mind. Turn up the volume on your favorite jams, and just let your body move how it wants to. Get quaking and shaking. Don’t script it, let the music move you, let your body decide.
4. Art. Recent studies have shown that uncertainty is not a liability, but an asset to creativity. Disruption of participation and procedures it turns out, requires new thinking, and aids in the process of invention. But it’s helpful to shift mediums from time to time. To truly harness the fruits of the time, try working with temporary arts, order a set of colored chalk sticks, and sit on the sidewalk in front of your home. Go to the beach, and build a sandcastle near the waves. Or use that chalk to color sand, and make yourself a mandala that you blow away after it’s done.
My Eclectic friends, the world is dynamic and available. Suffering is part of it, but so is joy. Give yourself permission to see what is not directly in front of you, and make that your truth. Take a page out of the old king’s book of wisdom, and know that this too shall pass.