Why Is It That Uncertainty is Always So Certain?
How can you recognize, accept, and even find positivity in uncertainty?
I’ve written time and again that the one and only constant in the Universe is change.
It’s the only constant, but by no means the only universal truth.
There are others. These include the fact that every single person on the planet – you, me, and everyone – will experience these three things: Birth, life, and death.
The simplicity of this notion can feel harsh to some. But on the other hand – it’s a matter of useful perspective. Particularly when you take into account that life – and what it is – differs drastically for everyone.
Environment, education, nationality, skin color, sexual orientation, gender, and tons of other tangible and intangible factors will impact you and what your life will be. You have some control over how this is – largely via active conscious awareness – i.e., mindfulness.
Both passive and active conscious awareness are products of the present. They are the here and now. You can only be consciously aware in this moment.
The past has come and gone. What’s left behind is imperfect memory. You can’t specifically know what or how your past feelings were. And it’s dangerously easy to have nostalgia and romanticize the past in such a way that you strive to return to it – though it never existed how you remember it.
The future is unwritten. Numerous factors utterly outside of your control will make it what it will be. Thus, it is massively uncertain.
It is the certain uncertainty of the future that causes conflict, anxiety, distress, and other unpleasantness. People go to great lengths to find certainty in uncertainty.
But accepting uncertainty is all you can truly do.
Recognition and acceptance
No matter what you plan, what you set in motion, or what you’re doing here and now – the future is uncertain.
And uncertainty can be extremely distressing and disturbing to people.
If the pandemic taught us anything at all – it was that people have no idea how to handle uncertainty. When the world shut down – albeit briefly – the uncertainty of what was coming next did a real number on people.
And it’s never really been addressed. The mental health crisis that this sparked has hardly been dealt with. The world has worked to move forward – but to “return” to what was: perceived (but not genuine) certainty.
If anything, the world is more uncertain than ever, now. Yet recognition and acceptance of this isn’t much addressed. People pretend it never happened – or in some cases are still deeply afraid of what’s next.
The United States, at least, acts like COVID is mostly gone. Less, yes, gone, no. And frankly – like influenza, it’s most likely with us for every season to come.
If you do more to recognize and accept the certainty of uncertainty – you can better handle it when it comes up.
The future is made of uncertainty
No matter what you plan for the future – nothing is certain.
You can plan every detail of an event – say a wedding – and no matter how detailed your plan, it can all come apart via uncertainty. What if the bride or groom runs? What if the caterer drops dead on the way to the wedding? Does anyone ever expect someone to object if that question is posed?
You can’t be certain any of this will or won’t occur. And that’s the truth about the future. Uncertainty is the only certain thing.
You have zero control over the weather, other drivers on the road, people’s thoughts and feelings, how much charge a battery will hold or lose, and the list goes on. Uncertainty is certain in all these.
What do you control? Your conscious awareness. But even here – there can be uncertainty.
You can be utterly and actively consciously aware – mindful and ready for anything – except the unexpected and uncertain. Maybe you’re driving down the road, mindful of yourself and everything within you, set to be present when you reach your destination – and BOOM! – an asteroid hits the hood of your car and flips it.
I don’t care what the odds of such a thing happening might be – but the certainty of the uncertainty is unquestionable. It just is.
Is there anything you can do about this? Is there any positivity inherent in this? Absolutely.
Mindfulness is like half an octopus
As a friend of mine once said – forewarned is half an octopus (the saying is forewarned is forearmed – get it?) But applying this to mindfulness is apropos.
Why? Because mindfulness makes you present, here and now. You’re not working subconsciously by rote and routine, unconsciously, or focused on the future or the past. You’re present in the only time that’s truly real. The now.
When you are mindful – actively consciously aware – because you’re present, uncertainty is less disruptive. You weren’t looking back or thinking ahead when unexpected uncertainty hit – you were and are present. In the here and now.
That means you can adapt and adjust in the moment. You don’t need to get caught up first.
Yet uncertainty tends to be focused on the negative. It can also be positive.
Winning a lottery is not certain by any stretch of the imagination. Some promotions at work come out of the blue. If Netflix or Amazon Prime approached me to turn my sci-fi into a show, that would be positive uncertainty (AFTER the WGA/SAG-AFTRA strike is resolved in favor of the unions). Thus, uncertainty can absolutely resolve as positivity.
That’s the key to all this. It’s not uncertainty that’s so uncertain – it’s what will come of it. Good, bad, amazing, awful, negative, positive – it’s all uncertain.
But part of living in a fear-based society – where collective trauma and mental health are largely disregarded – of course, uncertainty tends to lean negative.
Recognition and acceptance of uncertainty – plus active conscious awareness – is a choice. A choice you, and you alone, can make. And I’m certain that that’s incredibly empowering.
Recognizing that there can be positivity in uncertainty isn’t hard
It’s all about working with mindfulness of your thoughts, feelings, and intentions to direct your actions.
When you recognize and acknowledge that uncertainty is always certain – and you actively work to be consciously aware of that – you can find less to fear, and even positivity in uncertainty. Knowing that uncertainty is always certain – but not always bad/negative – you can choose to be wary without being afraid and take control via mindfulness to better handle the unexpected when it occurs.
This empowers you – and in turn, your empowerment can empower others around you.
Taking an approach to positivity and negativity – from the vast cylinder that exists between them – shifts life in a way to open more dialogue. With a broader dialogue, you can explore and share where you are between the extremes and how that impacts you here and now.
Choosing thoughts, feelings, actions, and intentions for yourself employs an approach and attitude of positivity for realizing amazing potential and possibilities for your life.
The better aware you’re of yourself in the now, the more you can do to choose and decide how your life experiences will be. When that empowers you, it can spread to those around you to their empowerment.
Don’t you think that’s a worthwhile endeavor to explore and share?
Thank you for coming along on this journey.
This is the four hundred-and-ninety-fourth entry of my Positivity series. I hope that these weekly messages might help spread positive energies for everyone. Feel free to share, re-blog, and spread the positivity.
Please visit here to explore all my published works – both fiction and non-fiction.
Please take a moment to sign up for my newsletter. Fill in the info and click the submit button to the right and receive a free eBook.
Follow me here!
