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Managing Uncertainty
If there’s one word that has been overused in the past few weeks, it is this.
Uncertainty about the virus, how it spreads, its cure, our safety, the end of the lockdown, the world after the coronavirus, our survival – everything is uncertain. This has lead to anxiety and depression as we lose hope, while the world digresses further and further away from what we had planned for this year to be.
So how can we manage this uncertainty?
1- Acceptance: It is the first step towards dealing with anything, and uncertainty is no exception.
But if you were to look at it objectively, all of these uncertainties existed in our lives before. Uncertainty about our jobs, uncertainty about where life was headed, uncertainty about tomorrow, uncertainty about the economy – almost nothing is new. We have all been there. But now with life as we know it being turned upside down, the reality is hitting us hard. We had enough distractions before to not think about these uncertainties, but now without them, we are unsure of what is next.
“To accept the uncertainty, we must learn to accept the unknown and the new reality”
Identifying the uncertainty triggers- There could be some specific aspects that this uncertainty brings to the fore. It could be an irrational fear of losing our loved ones, watching too much news, the lack of companionship, or just following the wrong people on social media. We must take time to understand what the root cause is and dive deeper into how we can overcome it. And if we are unable to resolve these triggers by ourselves, we must seek professional help to find resolutions.
“In the face of uncertainty, there is nothing wrong with hope”
2- Focus on things you can control: As much as there are things beyond our control, there are a lot of things that are still within our reach. The external circumstances might not be in our control, but our internal actions and reactions very much are.
For example, we should focus on things like washing our hands, deciding on which disinfecting products to buy; stepping out of our houses only when there is a necessity, educating our loved ones and our teams, maids, drivers to be safe, doing our work from home to the best of our ability.
If this leads to us losing our jobs, we should try to apply online, send resumes, and reach out to more and more people. These are things that are still in our control. If we do not want to do this and have more time in our hands – we can always read books we’ve always wanted to read, do that course we’ve been eyeing, take that leap of faith we’ve been waiting for.
Live in the now, rather than spend life anxious of what comes next.
At the end of the day, realize that there is only so much you can control, so let go of that possessing need to feel certainty. Allow yourself to feel vulnerable but bring yourself back to the present moment.
Meditate, center yourself, come back to the present, and do what is necessary. If you still feel like your days are intolerable, you can always tune in to my longer podcasts on Being Meraklis where I speak about coping with bad days.