It is not the times that are uncertain, life is uncertain
Throughout history times of war, pandemics, economic crisis, and the like have been referred to by the media and politicians as ‘uncertain’ times. The term uncertainty evokes deep rooted feelings of fear to surface in people; our brains like predictable situations that are similar to other things we have experienced in our life, when confronted with new stimuli our brains look through our memory bank and call forward a memory or experience that is as close as possible to the new stimuli. Thus, we are never reacting to the current situation we are reacting to a past experience. Uncertainty breeds fear, and fear often carries with it hate, anger, and frustration. These sensations are more likely to lead to division and resentment which can lead to even more fear and the cycle continues. I am not one to censor based on words, I am simply interested in understanding the emotions that certain words can evoke and the repercussions of those emotions.
The more we can make peace with the fact that life, no matter what is happening, is always uncertain, the more we can make peace with uncertainty and put our fear reactions to bed. You can plan and use probability to produce potential outcomes; however, due to the massive amount of moving parts that exist within this life you can never, with 100% certainty predict anything. The more we become attached to the idea that we can somehow turn the tides the more being faced with the true uncertainty of life evokes fear.
When we are in a fear-based reaction, we are not coming from a place of higher cognitive functioning, we are operating out of the basal ganglia, or the reptilian brain, the part of our brain that controls innate and automatic self-preserving behaviour patterns. This part of the brain is concerned with survival not higher thinking or processing, its main objective is how to survive. When we are operating out of the reptilian brain, we lose sight of the stimuli that is actually present and get lost in our deeply rooted behaviour patterns.
In making peace with uncertainty we can release our grasp on the outcomes of situations, this is not to say we stop making goals, we simply release the expectations we have on the way to achieving the goal. At the end of the day all you are in control of is your own thoughts, words, behaviours, and actions AND you are only in control of your thoughts, words, behaviours, and actions when you have enough awareness to be present in your life.
Life is uncertain and the only thing promised is death. This does not mean that life is bleak, this means life offers us a great many opportunities to grow, to learn and to become a more aware version of ourselves; however, we must release attachment to outcomes in order to see these opportunities and grow.
The next time you hear someone say the times are uncertain, or see uncertain times as a headline in the news, gently remind yourself life is uncertain, not the times we are in. Take a moment to acknowledge the sensations this uncertainty evokes within you, and move forward with the knowing that life unfolds as it is meant to.
