Raise your hands if you are ok with uncertainty, not knowing what’s next, what’s round the corner. What does uncertainty mean to you?
I want to take a moment to celebrate with you if living with uncertainty is not a concern for you and ask you, how does uncertainty support you?
I personally have a hard time being with uncertainty. I thrive on structure, knowledge and control. Becoming a mum almost five years ago, running my own coaching business and having had some extremely tough challenges this year with my family’s health has thrown me into a pool of uncertainty. Not knowing what the future holds, what direction it is going to take, will I get through it and how. If I were to go back in time to a year ago and look forward a year to now and know what was coming up for me, I would probably have said ‘no, can’t, drown, give up, too much’…all the words that make tough challenges even tougher.
When life becomes very uncertain and you are living through the uncertainty, where do you turn to for guidance, who do you go to for support?
While I can’t be with uncertainty, well that is something I also tell myself, I have also looked for the gift when life takes a direction I was not expecting. What can I appreciate about what is happening right now? What message am I being told here? Instead of focusing on the negativity, why is this happening, becoming stuck, I have learnt and invite you to first give yourself permission to be with whatever emotion you are feeling, good or bad. Just be with it, feel it, notice where it is in you and acknowledge it’s there. From this place look around at what you do have, your own health, a roof over your head, a loving partner, friends etc. whatever it may be. Hold onto the good stuff and make it bigger to fully connect with it. Savour what you do have and those precious moments of holding your child’s hand, their soft skin against yours, the way they smile at you, a phone call with someone you don’t see often, a skinny cappuccino!
I also invite you to go past the sludge and focus on what you do know, what you can control. Ask yourself what do I need right now that will serve me to get me through the challenging times? What role do I need to play, what space do I need to create? What can I do each day to keep breathing and let go of the tension? Holding onto the thought, this is now and it’s not always going to be like this .
The suggestions above are some things which support me in dealing with uncertainty and life’s challenges. If you would like support with your life uncertainties, i would love to hear from you.
If you have your own suggestions on how you deal with uncertainty, I would also love to hear from you and support others that may need it.