Navigating Uncertainty: Insights on Embracing the Unpredictable
Author: Bhoomi Shah
Editor: Jasmeen Kaur
Don't we all want to skip to the part where things are as we had hoped and dreamed them to be: beautiful and perfect? We want our relationships to be just as excellent as they were when we first met our partner. We wish for our careers turn out to be exactly like we had imagined them to be when we first chose them, the one that gives us financial stability, prestige, and success.
We look forward to our family always being happy and content. We function in a way that we mostly know what is coming next in our life.
However, very recently, the unexpected did happen. We went through a pandemic, and our lives changed overnight. Ever since that time, uncertainty has been all around us. Yet as human beings, we desire security and stability. We want to feel safe and have a sense of control over our lives and well-being. Fear and unpredictability can leave one feeling stressed and helpless. It can drain you emotionally and trap you in a downward spiral of endless “what-ifs” and worst-case scenarios about what tomorrow may bring and make us anxious about the present as well.
I have a question for you here: do you like being surprised on birthdays, anniversaries, or weddings with surprise gifts, proposals, or promotions?
I love to get surprise gifts on my birthday. There is an element of unpredictability involved in these surprise gifts; however, why is it that we embrace this happily and not the other uncertainties in our lives?
By now, you know I’m writing about unpredictability, something that changes suddenly and sometimes without good reason.
We got by the unpredictability of the pandemic by acknowledging that this is now unavoidable and learned to take action over things we could control. We became overwhelmed with emotions of fear, sadness, loneliness, etc., but we allowed ourselves to experience these emotions and took the courage to ask for help wherever required. Opportunities arose from the unexpected, we learned to adapt, overcame challenges, and became more resilient than ever. This incident let us experience the discomfort of uncertainty, and we came out of it as stronger individuals despite the losses and challenges faced.
Oscar Wilde once said that if you know exactly what you want to be in life, a teacher, grocer, soldier, a judge, you will become it, and that is your punishment.
Actually, not knowing what you want to be, reinventing yourself every morning, not being a noun but being a verb, moving in life, and not being fixed in life is a privilege.
If you let your perception of how tomorrow should be, dictate your behavior, you will never grow as a person. But if you leave yourself open to experience despite what tomorrow looks like, you will learn and grow.
I’m, however, not saying that we should not plan how our future should be and spend every penny of our hard-earned money in the present, but we should live in the present and stop worrying about what will happen tomorrow. Try and let tomorrow surprise you.
In the face of uncertainty, instead of telling that things will be back to normal pretty soon, what if we say that the future might look different, but that's okay.
When you planned an intricate function, and there was an abrupt change in the weather, instead of saying, “All my plans are ruined, we can try and say that plans change, and I can adapt. All I need is a tarp.”
When you feel like an event is never going to end, try and remind yourself that no season lasts forever, and this, too, shall pass.
Things without a structure are the most beautiful structures in this world. Haven't you seen water? Do you know what's so special about water? If you try to hold it, it will slip away from your hands. But when kept at bay and free, water can hold a marvellous and humongous ship together. Let your mind be free from the worries of the life to come or of tomorrow and see the wonders it does to make you feel happy right here, right now.
The world may burn into ashes someday, or the galaxy might come pouring down on us. Irrespective of any catastrophe that hits us, our heart always finds a way to reach the things we love. I've heard how wounds of the heart are what makes it prettier. Thus go through life with a big heart, embrace all the difficulties, uncertainties, and unpredictability that come your way, and let these experiences shape you into a better human being. Live one day at a time.
When things get overwhelming because of all the unpredictability, take rest. Find your moments of peace in the chaos. Know that even when you get to the good part, there will always be something you didn’t see coming, so savour the present moment.
I wish that in this sea of unpredictability, you find your anchor in music, in a person, or a book and find yourselves to be always sane.