Dear Jessica Brennan,
I am not good at uncertainty. I write about it a lot and can tell just about anyone what to do within it; and it is generally good advice, but I don’t do it well myself, not at all.
For someone like me who likes things to be tidy and working, and running the way we have all neatly agreed they should run, this can be tough.
What do I do to combat uncertainty? I do yoga, as it helps me breathe. Stretching the body reminds me that I am strong. I ask myself what I would tell others to do; I try to determine what part of the uncertainty is really grabbing me in the solar plexus. Often it isn’t the thing that is obvious. So I have to explore what my real fears are.
I start there, but as I said, I’m pretty bad at it; uncertainty that is. But, here is what I know to be true.
Things will break that are supposed to stay together. Pandemics will hit out of the blue. People will die who are supposed to have decades longer to live. The unthinkable will happen and you will have to give up control. This will not happen every day, but at times it will feel like it is happening all at once.
It will be awful, just sickeningly sad.
So, my advice is to really relish the many days that the dark things aren’t happening all at once. Don’t live in fear of it coming for you, or it might as well already have captured you.
Good things can happen too. The phone can ring and it’s a new baby. The job you applied for is yours. The day is quiet. The sun shines. Up and down. Down and up. Such is the seesaw of life.
Love,
Mum xo
