No, it's not your imagination--uncertainty is a special kind of hell. For many of us, it seems as though all we do is wait for something bad to happen—an unpayable bill, a health scare, losing our jobs, losing our loved ones. We brace ourselves for the next blow, always in a constant state of pre-readyness for disaster. If it strikes, when it strikes, we gull ourselves into believing we’ll be better prepared to handle the gut punch, but that’s not true. We’re never prepared. Bad news ambushes us the same way, whether we’ve tensed our abs or not.
Rule #1: Shit happens. We don't know what, where, when, and/or how...but it WILL happen. And it will be something you didn't see coming.
Rule #2: That shit may not necessarily be bad. Sit with that for awhile, why don'tcha??
Rule #3: The ghost is under the bed. Or in the closet. The ghost is ALWAYS under the bed or in the closet, so you might as well learn to live with it. Befriending it may not make it less malevolent, but it might make it easier to understand its motives.
Rule #4: People get sick. Or die. It's called the circle of life. Yeah, it sucks...but we all get dragged out feet-first eventually.
Rule #5: Enjoy the ride. Don't spend so much time fearing your ultimate demise that you forget to live. Memento mori.
Rule #6: All advice is ultimately bullshit in the moment. Nothing can prepare you for what will be.
Rule #7: Breathe. Live in the moment. It's all you have.
Thank you for reminding that this is how the world works! Sometimes it does feel like waiting for the accident to happen...and having to remember the definition of accident as an unplanned event. The non predictable absence of certainty is a cloud we all stroll under.
I never had a consciously developed "trick." But at some point -- decades ago, now -- I simply stopped attending to things I could not affect. This ties in with some of what you were saying above, about focusing on work or other things that you can have an impact on. Where it catches me is when my attention is more generalized, as when I'm driving, and the problems at hand are all at a sub-verbal level. Then I'll often get caught by a moment of "what the fuck am I doing?" But then I just let the question pose itself and move on. Fighting such worries only gives them energy.
Rule #1: Shit happens. We don't know what, where, when, and/or how...but it WILL happen. And it will be something you didn't see coming.
Rule #2: That shit may not necessarily be bad. Sit with that for awhile, why don'tcha??
Rule #3: The ghost is under the bed. Or in the closet. The ghost is ALWAYS under the bed or in the closet, so you might as well learn to live with it. Befriending it may not make it less malevolent, but it might make it easier to understand its motives.
Rule #4: People get sick. Or die. It's called the circle of life. Yeah, it sucks...but we all get dragged out feet-first eventually.
Rule #5: Enjoy the ride. Don't spend so much time fearing your ultimate demise that you forget to live. Memento mori.
Rule #6: All advice is ultimately bullshit in the moment. Nothing can prepare you for what will be.
Rule #7: Breathe. Live in the moment. It's all you have.
I 100% love what you wrote! Makes me think SOMEBODY ought to blog on this subject, too. Hmmm. Any volunteers?
I already did. :-)
Thank you for reminding that this is how the world works! Sometimes it does feel like waiting for the accident to happen...and having to remember the definition of accident as an unplanned event. The non predictable absence of certainty is a cloud we all stroll under.
"An accident as an unplanned event." Man, if only I could tattoo that to my forehead.
LIFE is an unplanned event.
I never had a consciously developed "trick." But at some point -- decades ago, now -- I simply stopped attending to things I could not affect. This ties in with some of what you were saying above, about focusing on work or other things that you can have an impact on. Where it catches me is when my attention is more generalized, as when I'm driving, and the problems at hand are all at a sub-verbal level. Then I'll often get caught by a moment of "what the fuck am I doing?" But then I just let the question pose itself and move on. Fighting such worries only gives them energy.