Uncertainty Is Like Floundering in a Fog – Ideas to Help You Find Your Way

Uncertainty is a terrible feeling! Maybe you're feeling uncertain about our country's (or the world's) future. Or maybe you're feeling uncertain about a relationship, your job, or your finances. Maybe there's a lot of change happening in your life, and the future is like a fog - you can’t see where you're going. Our survival instinct wants to find some sense of control.

As you’ve heard me mention before, our brains hate uncertainty! It skyrockets our stress, our hopelessness, and our frustration. But there are still things we can control. And when we focus on these, we can find more peace. Here are some areas we can use to gain more feelings of autonomy, AND they will also improve our health and wellbeing!

1. Nutrition – Making healthy choices for what we eat, such as cutting back on sugar and processed foods while adding more whole foods.
2. Activity – Staying active and moving to keep our blood pumping every day in ways that work for us.
3. Sleep – Finding and using the sleep pattern that works best for us.
4. Social Networks – Building connection by spending time (in-person or virtually) with people we care about and who care about us, that support and encourage us and help us be our best.
5. Thoughts – Choosing thoughts that help us cultivate positive emotions such as hope, gratitude, optimism, curiosity, calm and not getting stuck in negative emotions.
6. Meaning and purpose – Making sure that our lives contain a reason to get up in the morning, big or small. Following our enthusiasm.
7. Achievement – Learning and growing by getting outside our comfort zone to build our self-confidence and self-credibility.

Which of these suggestions catch your attention and sound interesting? Is it time to change your diet? To change some habits? To reflect on your interests and passions? To learn something new? Take one baby step to gain more control in your life and see how it feels.

Tina Hallis

Tina Hallis, Ph.D., is a positivity speaker, trainer, author, and founder of The Positive Edge, a company dedicated to sharing the science of positivity to improve the quality of people’s work lives and the quality of company cultures.