Certainly Uncertain
Uncertainty is a certainty. It always will be. We can never be truly certain of being certain.
Enough with the wordplay. These are uncertain times we live in. What do we do? Do we lash out at each other and radiate negativity? Do we find people to blame and forfeit our own responsibility? Hopefully not. Allowing the current to take us where it may is seldom favorable. Choosing ourselves and our direction is a better option.
Can we work on becoming a better version of ourselves? Are we someone who is ready and capable of dealing with uncertainties or less than favorable scenarios? Both these questions are directions to go in times that lack stability.
Finding certainty in uncertainty requires discipline. Not overreacting. Not contributing to the destabilization of the collective morale by spewing redundant rhetoric. Things may get worse, they may not. Do we need to argue about that? In the time we spend arguing we could all be working to improve ourselves instead.
If we do not trust the market, we should trust the investments in we can make in ourselves. If we are apprehensive about the future, we can prepare. The idle shouting of opinions and fear-mongering cannot be the default. Defaults are tricky. Where do we go automatically? What responses are we letting happen without thought? What happens to our reactions in states of powerful emotion? Default behaviors do not always highlight us at our best.
If we don’t agree with someone or something on the internet, what is it that we do?? Jump in? Spout off? Knee jerk comments and critiques?
Rather than stating what we believe in the comments on a soon to be forgotten post on the internet, why do we not work to embody our supposed superior beliefs more in actions? Less passive-aggressive words, less hypothetical, and more concrete. The goal should be to live the virtues we aim to project in our online debates. Not to argue for argument’s sake.
Besides, anyone who thinks they can improve the government, society, or the economy with online comments alone is delusional. Without the ability to manifest improvements in our own lives and the ability to live our values, we are not part of the solution.
We can all posture like we have the answers, or that our beliefs matter most, but what are we actually doing about it? Facing uncertainty around us do we let our fear get the better of us?
Being fearful is part of human nature, that is certain. However, the more we focus on our fears in our external circumstances the less we realize what is happening. We are giving up our power. We become terrified of so many things, but most of them are beyond our scope of control. We have power over our own inner worlds, but such a small amount of power over the world at large. Yet, rather than developing our inner strengths, capacities and capabilities — we bemoan the things that surround us.
Fear and uncertainty are not synonymous. Not all fears are external in nature either. But, as a generalization, the energy that is sucked from us comes from our fears, real or imagined, about what could happen “out there.”
An antidote?
Cultivating our strength from within. Becoming better physically, mentally, emotionally and spiritually can help us to put our fears in perspective. Our perspective shifts as we become more integrated humans, as we evolve. What used to scare us suddenly doesn’t have the power it did. The uncertainties that surround us are no longer where we focus.
Self-improvement, personal development and the mastery of expressing our full potential have a way of bringing us through uncertainty and what scares us. We aren’t running away, we aren’t navigating around, we’re plowing ahead and beyond.
Accept uncertainty, accept your fears and understand the shortness of life. The only certain thing is that if we’re focused on all the noise, rabble and possible horrifying events that could arrive we can become paralyzed. Staying still and stuck in our thinking is not the way to live.
The ultimate way to deal with the certainty of uncertainty is adopting a bigger perspective — one that transcends the ways we are normally programmed to think. Since things, in one way or another will always have uncertain aspects that we cannot control, why worry? Why bring ourselves down to the base levels of humanity?
Why not look up above us, and notice the vast expanse that surrounds our planet? The night sky is filled with more potential, more uncertainty and more matter than we can comprehend. It is impossible for us to fathom the depth of uncertainties in the universe itself. So, the uncertainties of our little stock markets, political systems, and daily lives are minuscule in comparison to the fabric of time and space. The perspective shift that accompanies seeking to understand our place amongst the universal is refreshing. We are very, very, very small in scale and scope as a species.
All the problems in our lives that we say are “out there” are not even the problems that are really out there. Beyond our atmosphere, beyond our solar system, beyond the edges of what we can even hope to grasp, lies the most uncertain. The nature of our reality itself is far from certain. Out there, the fears of humanity do not matter. The way we experience the fear of the unknown and all the potentially bad things that can happen is all in our minds. The universe will keep expanding, contracting and changing with zero effect from our fears.
Since that perspective permits us to realize that both what causes us to be scared, and what causes us to be strong are both inside us. All that is left are choices. Choices on where to focus, and the actions we will take. What do we want to do? How do we want to feel?
A certainty is that our lives are short, small, and largely insignificant in the grand scheme of things. A certainty is that if we waste our time arguing with each other, worrying about what might happen, we waste what we’ve been given.
We’ve been given a chance. Each one of us. Our chance is to make the most of our lives. That’s what I’m trying to do — and one of the only things I’m really certain of.
Thank you for reading!
This is the 78th installment of Writing Wednesday. A commitment to myself to actually pursue my dreams of becoming a writer. I have resumed this practice after almost an entire years absence.
I am a writer.
Let me know what you think, and follow my journey on Instagram/Twitter (@multitude27)
