In the spring of 2020, we all observed the wonders of human ability to cope with uncertainty. A pandemic at the very beginning gave rise to wild ideas about the virus, physicians, politicians and their countries. People responded in different ways. Some directed their alarm outwardly, therefore crime grown sharply, protests were raised around the world. Others, on the contrary, inward: the number of suicides and depression also sharply increased. People worried, buried and went crazy. Someone tried to be distracted. Video games, alcohol, drugs - anything, if only "discharge the situation."
It seems that the pandemic is almost ideal for the struggle with the greatest psychological weakness of mankind: fear of unknown.
Every time we do something, not quite understanding the result, we go to risk. And since in life there is always some uncertainty, there is always a risk. It is important to be able to correctly weigh his potential pros and cons. If uncertainty seems controlled, we retain calm and sanity.
When we do not know than the risk of - when the uncertainty is so great that it is impossible to calculate the pros and cons of risk, "we don't know a short circuit in our heads, and we do not know what to do with them. In such situations, animal instincts are triggered, and we assume the worst. We consider all our immediate surroundings as a threat.
Fear of unknown can lead to mental illness, cause strong experiences. Because of it, we accept incorrect financial decisions, poorly work and feel unhappy. And when this fear applies throughout the culture, this leads to the appearance of dogmatism and authoritarianism. When society is collectively afraid of an unknown, people will obey authority, and not to rock the boat.
But confidence is an illusion. In life, it is not enough, and maybe not at all. Therefore, we try so try to streamline our life - we make graphs, form habits and regulations, follow the rules. But sometimes this desire to order is too far. So, during a pandemic, many people quickly came up with "confidence" in what they know what is happening. Some found the virus no more than the "heavy flu", others believed that the world was about to change forever, and even even no longer exist! The theories of the conspiracy spread at the striking speed and eventually became more and more ridiculous.
And the truth was - and remains - in the fact that we just do not know what the hell is happening.
To be healthy and happy, you need to find a golden middle. It must be recognized that there are uncertainty in the world, because it allows us to change, learn and adapt to challenges. But at the same time, we need some degree of certainty to feel safety and at least pretend as if we know what we are doing. The question is how to gain this balance.
How to live with uncertaintyTo grow and flourish, we need at least some tolerance for uncertainty. So how to cope with it? How to confront the fear of unknown?
1. Self Try to negative emotionsThe central postulate of my philosophy is that the more we avoid negative emotions, the more they at some point they knock out from the rut.
When you ignore your anger, it accumulates, and then explodes at the most inopportune moment.
When you ignore the offense you are experiencing to parents, and pretend to be everything in order between you, this wound continues to be fed and creates tension in your relationship, which can last for years, if not all life.
And ignoring anxiety and discomfort that you experience in the face of uncertainty, only aggravates them.
There are several interesting studies that link the use of mobile phones with increased anxiety about uncertainty. So far, it is impossible to talk about the causal relationship, but there is something reasonable in it. Scientists believe that when you run away from reality, hiding in the phone, your exposure of everyday uncertainty decreases. But when you have little experience in overcoming such everyday uncertainty, with each subsequent case to cope much more difficult.
You can draw an analogy with immunity. If you never faced infections in life, your immune system could not fight with them, because she could not do it. Therefore, it is possible to increase resistance to uncertainty if you test it regularly.
2. Generate thorough habits and ritualsTo cope with uncertainty much easier if you show the will in those parts of your life that you can control. For example, the formation of habits and regulations in the most important areas of life can give some stability and balance the uncertainty that we feel.
However, stability is not the same as confidence. Man, group or even society can cope with great uncertainty, which ultimately will make them more stable and stable. But stability and stability do not guarantee confidence in this stability and stability.
I would say that the real benefit from healthy habits is that they allow you to see what you can and cannot control in your life. And this, in turn, allows you to feel more comfortable in conditions of uncertainty.
For example, almost all studies show that when creating and maintaining healthy habits, the force of human will is much less important than the surrounding situation.
You cannot control what you want a cake and ice cream, but you can control your purchases at the grocery store. If you do not buy unhealthy food and fill in the refrigerator only a healthy food, you will have much less chance to eat cake and ice cream in the inevitable moments of weakness.
This non-watering shift in thinking has a huge influence: we are weakly controlling our feelings, but we can control the context in which they arise. So try to create an optimal setting for yourself. As soon as you rebuild thinking in this direction, you will begin to talk to yourself: "Well, I can't control X, but what can I do to achieve the best result with a greater probability?"
Over time, you will begin to take uncertainty as another part of life, because you will see that "ignorance" is not a dead end that you control something, even if you do not control something else.
Another example: I can never be sure that I will be at the peak of creativity when I sit in writing something.
But I can control that I will sit and start writing. Muse can visit or not to visit me, and it is outside of my control.
Perhaps I will have only 30-40% of the probability to create something worthwhile, but this probability will fall up to 0%, if I don't take it at all (I think this can not be doubted).
Therefore, when I have a shit day, I'm not too worried about uncertainty - that I may never write anything worthwhile, - because I know: if I continue to try to do my job, with the times it will turn out that -In good.
By the way, about writing ...
3. Creating creative affairsA more tolerant attitude to uncertainty is associated with a more creative approach. It is unclear whether tolerance does to the human uncertainty more creative or creativity helps to cope with uncertainty, but I suppose it is almost certainly a bilateral street.
When you create something new - even if it is new only for you, - you are forced to encounter uncertainty, as you do not know what happens like those surrounding this will be perceived whether the start will be successful or not.
Thus, more creative people apparently relate to uncertainty; But I would say that it works in the opposite direction: the fact that they expose themselves more uncertainty also makes them more creative.
I come across the unknown every time I sit down. This gives me the opportunity to experience uncertainty every day.
Then, when my ass turns out to be on the chair and I am writing, I immerse my deeper into the unknown. I say: "Hmm, there is something that I have never seen, did not feel, did not feel. I wonder what it is ... ", and I plunge into it.
It was in this foggy unknown area that ideas are mixed in our consciousness and mixed, there are connections between distant concepts and real creativity occurs.
Each creative work begins with the question of an unknown and subsequent attempt to find an answer.
Abilities related to the unknownWe live in a strange time: now we have more information than ever before, however, this information confuses and often causes even greater uncertainty.
You might think that the opportunity to find out, anything, brings confidence. But the problem is that whatever you know, there will always be people who will say that this is not true. Therefore, the constant need to get rid of uncertainty, oddly enough, becomes the problem of the XXI century. The more opportunities and the higher the speed of social change, the more confusion and uncertainty arise.
That is why now it is more important to learn how to cope with the fear of the unknown and learn to be tolerable to it.