Nobody enjoys feeling uncertain, to begin with. We're all walking on earth looking for answers, and when we do find them, admit it, we'd prefer them to be a straight 'yes' or 'no' instead of a 'maybe'. I hate it when people including myself answer with a 'maybe' because that basically means homework. It means that we have more questions to answer, puzzles to figure out; that we are miles away from getting closure; that we need to go through the uncomfortable stage of fear and worry all over again.
Not to mention, it is often hard for us to escape the gray area, not knowing whether the route we're taking leads us to the right place, not even knowing whether we could get out of this tangled mess of all the best and worst possibilities without hurting ourselves. Right now, I'm in a position where it is hard to turn left nor right, where both the land and the sky refuse to bat an eye. I am currently trying to find my way out, and even so, I'm not quite sure whether I am truly making my way out or just walking in circles, getting right back to where I started.
One thing for sure is that everybody wants something to hold on to in the wake of uncertainty. It's like when you first learn how to swim and you keep wanting to hold the handrails, not trusting yourself enough to let go, too afraid of drowning when in fact, the harder your grip, the harder it is to stay afloat. So, just like swimming, the first thing we need to learn to do is to loosen our grip and eventually let go.
Loosening our grip means acknowledging the fact that life is never a certain thing. Changes happen every now and then, sometimes without our consent, because the world keeps moving even when we decide to stay still. Imagine being in a public pool with people swimming around you, kids kicking their feet messily as they learn how to navigate themselves on the water—and there you are with your body submerged up to your chin, swaying back and forth, left and right, following the current, even though you're doing absolutely nothing. Rather than staying still, it is better to just move along and swim.
Sure, uncertainty can be scary. What's scarier than not knowing what to expect, not knowing where to go, not knowing what to do? In fact, the pandemic has created so much uncertainty that a lot of people fall into the bottomless pit of stress and anxiety. Turn on the news and you will see major businesses failing, unemployment rate rising, the number of cases increasing, panic and worry slowly disappearing as people descend into the state of apathy fueled by desperation. Our planet right now is a scary place to live in, but hasn't it always been one?
Whenever it gets too scary and our mind too blurry, we need to be there to remind ourselves that uncertainty is always temporary. Yes, it might take a week, a year, an immensely long period that feels like an eternity for the uncertain to complete its life cycle and turns into a decision, an answer, a new opportunity. If we can just relax and keep our body afloat, kicking our feet a little, swaying our arms for a bit, eventually we'll get to the other side. Maybe with a gentle knock in the head since our eyes cannot see well underwater, or maybe too fixed on something above if we're swimming backstroke in an outdoor pool, and then we'll realize that we're actually getting somewhere all this time.
When you think about it, the moment of uncertainty spares us some time to read the situation, to map out all the possibilities that may happen, to mentally prepare ourselves before taking our next step. It is the calm before the storm, the moment in any kind of game where you wait for your opponent to make their move. I mean, the storm is not always a bad thing if you know how to handle it the proper way. Above everything else, uncertainty is a moment to reflect, really a blessing in disguise. It's not every day that life gives you a chance to pause for a while.
So, I guess we can say that uncertainty is a luxury not everybody can have. But how do you stay afloat when the current seems too strong to handle? We may have little to no power over what's happening around us. Our hands are too small for the whole world to fit in, so the only thing to hang on to that is within our reach in this pool of uncertainty is ourselves. Instead of looking elsewhere for a surface to grip, it would be easier to just swim.
In my case, for example, my workplace is putting me on a partial furlough, which means that I am only required to work several days a month instead of the usual Monday to Friday. That also means I'm getting paid significantly less than normal, plus the inevitable possibility of losing my job anytime. Yes, it was pretty upsetting and I had all the right to be bitter about it, but I decided to skip the initial four stages of grief and went straight to acceptance. I've been through this before so this time, I welcomed the uncertainty with open arms.
I have to admit that it is pretty difficult to transition from my daily routine of an eight-hour shift to what I refer to as an 'extended weekend' that lasts for weeks, but as I loosen my grip and start swimming, I learn to build my sense of certainty amidst the unknown. Despite having no work, I still wake up at the same hour, take a morning shower like I always do, wear my perfume the way I always do. See, I can't control the world, I can't control the current, but I can take control of what is on my power.
I can always swim.
Note: If the uncertainty of the current situation is letting you down right now, head to this page to read some tips that I personally find useful and find more information on how to deal with uncertainty.
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