The Privilege of Uncertainty Anxiety
Image by Roberto Rubalcava
The uncertainty of 2020 has, in some ways, been a great leveller. For the millions of people all over the planet living in poverty, war and other forms of unjust suffering, uncertainty is the soundtrack to their lives. If we consider anxiety towards uncertainty from that viewpoint, it becomes hard to ignore the privilege of uncertainty anxiety. Having the time to ruminate, obsess and conclude is a privilege. That’s not to say it’s easy to be in that position. After all, human suffering is relative, however irrational that seems. Some of us will already live hand in hand with uncertainty; we have had the unexpected happen before, the rug pulled from beneath our feet. For others, this year has been the first time that they feel great uncertainty and a glaring loss of control. And even then, the uncertainty we are facing isn’t as devastating as they would have us believe. Imagine what the world would be like if news reports considered the fragility of the human mind and if they offered solace and tools to help absorb the information presented. Imagine if the news provided a comprehensive perspective for us rather than placing their energy toward click-bait headlines. Instead, we are thrown information and figures, often taken out of context, and we are left to use what spare time we have trying to find our own ways to digest and assimilate.
Uncertainty isn’t something we can avoid. According to quantum physics and the Heisenberg Uncertainty Principle, we wouldn’t be here without it, so why do we find uncertainty so uncomfortable and why are so many of us using our energy to control the uncontrollable?
The way that the world bruises us as we go through life can wear us down; it can make us seek solace in the knowing and keep us nestled in our safety zone. One of the 4 Noble Truths of Buddhism can be translated to ’life is suffering’.
Can you find freedom in that truth?
If we can accept that life is suffering, then can we be free from trying to use everything and anything to avoid suffering, and by freeing ourselves from that futile endeavour, can we begin to feel more at peace with all that life has to offer?
Anxiety and Uncertainty
When we look at our defensive behaviours, our inability to open ourselves up to other points of view and the possibility of being wrong, we are attempting to live in certainty. This closes us off from evolving, discovering and connecting deeper. As a result, we begin to miss out on a generous aspect of life.
The desire to make certainties where there are none, to know what is unknowable, seems to be the path to success and status in this current reality. The need to project yourself as all-knowing and superior because of that has been the strategy of the so-called elite. We have created a culture driven by the need for simplistic answers, in denial that almost every time, simplistic answers are not the answer, only part of - if there is an answer.
We have abdicated our own lives — desperate for someone else to tell us how to live, what to think and where the boundaries are. We have lost our deep inner trust, and given up on listening to our instincts.
The time to wake up is now.
Can you accept that you don’t know; finding the occasional grain of truth awash in a great field of confusion requires vigilance, dedication, and courage. If we don’t practice challenging our habits of thought, we cannot hope to feel safe when serious issues arise - as they will. Instead of anxiety, can we feel levity and fun towards the unknown and celebrate the unfolding rather than the landing.
Can we embrace meaningful activity without getting so hung up on the why?
Embracing the Unknown
Can surrendering to uncertainty open up our space for awe and wonder?
What if, instead of feeling overwhelmed and melancholic in our realisation of the incompleteness of human knowledge, we felt energised at the expanse of this. Our shoulders could relax, we don’t know, and that’s ok.
Can we embrace a scientific way of thinking when we look at uncertainty? Which is at once imaginative and disciplined.
Can we accept that we do not know but that we can learn from our mistakes if we are willing to ask the right questions and remain open to new ideas? Scientists spend their careers dancing with uncertainty. They invest years researching a theory which could be baseless in the end.
“Humans may crave absolute certainty; they may aspire to it; they may pretend, as partisans of certain religions do, to have attained it. But the history of science — by far the most successful claim to knowledge accessible to humans — teaches that the most we can hope for are successive improvements in our understanding, learning from our mistakes, and an asymptotic approach to the Universe. But with the proviso that absolute certainty will always elude us.
We will always be mired in error. The most each generation can hope for is to reduce the error bars a little and to add to the body of data to which error bars apply. The error bar is a pervasive, visible self-assessment of the reliability of our knowledge.”
– Carl Sagan
We live in times of escalating uncertainty, complexity, ambiguity, choice and individual responsibility. So instead of linear thinking, of trying to live a strategy aligned with your predictions for the future, let’s create a flexible and adaptable system open to all possibilities. Or better still, leave our plans behind and take meaningful action instead, trusting where it will lead us.
There is freedom in accepting the unknown and the uncertainty of the Universe.
Practices to develop your relationship with uncertainty
1/ Write the words ‘I don’t know’ at the top of your journal every time before you write. This might help relax the desire to control through writing. We use journaling to structure our thoughts and make sense of our world. Try not to do that; try to write freely and with abandon.
2/ What if we didn’t use our energy to dispel uncertainty? Instead, we could inquire; we could ask questions. Will this provide certainty? No, but it will offer up understanding, and understanding is freedom. It will help us to establish what we can control and let go of what we cannot.
When feeling overwhelmed and anxious with any situation, bring it back to facts. Accept your whirring thoughts, acknowledge them, sit with them but ultimately bring them back to the realities of a situation.
Ask the following:
What can you control in this situation?
What can’t you control?
**Clue - the answer to the first question is almost always yourself and your reactions.
3/ Focus on gratitude grounded in reality. Find those fundamental things, and be grateful for them. Express that gratitude outwardly and wholeheartedly -- not as a wellness practice, but as a way of living.
Living in deep gratitude.
“The only thing that makes life possible is permanent, intolerable uncertainty; not knowing what comes next.”
— Ursula K. Le Guin