Uncertainty & Choice
Uncertainty is such an incredible force on the mind. Everyone’s reaction to the unknown is different but the one thing we all have in it is choice. Choice is the ability to make a decision that is 100% yours. Events that occur leaving you feeling uncertain are there for you, to help you re-evaluate what is not working in your life. You can see uncertainty a few ways, from the eyes of a victim, or the eyes of a victor, Positive and negative. The choice is black and white, but the noise we create surrounding it is the grey. It is the limitations, the old beliefs, the excitement, the fear, the feelings of how our external events are shaping our choices. That is the grey.
In the face of the current events for the past week I have fought myself hard. I have battled depression from being alone all day long, to anxiety about how I am going to make enough money to pay my bills. I have allowed these worries of uncertainty to bring me down, and in doing so became the victim. This is not happening to me, it is happening for me. And that is what I didn’t see. I only saw the loneliness and the loss. I didn’t see the support I was receiving from people. I didn’t see that others are going through this as well. I didn’t see this as a time to give up a lack mentality. I only saw the negative. I was so hyper focused on me, that I forgot to be kind and see the bigger picture. We are all in this together. Humanity is not individuals, it is a collective as a species.
Today I was able to recollect myself and see the truth. That right now I get the opportunity to work on myself. I get to go through all “the grey” and change it. I don’t have to keep reacting the same way to an event that creates uncertainty. I can start to make progress by knowing I get to make a choice about everything I do from here on out. I am no longer a prisoner to my old limiting beliefs and cycles, I have a choice every single time. That is free will, and it is one of the things that makes us human. Sometimes you may believe you don’t have a choice in something, but you always do. No matter how scary or hard a situation is you have a choice in it. That is how you get out, by seeing you can chose a different way, and in doing so you don’t have to accept that as your reality anymore. It’s literally what I say to myself a lot when a situation is no longer serving me and I am able to see it.
“I no longer see this as my reality,” I say it out loud.
I truly believe it and when I am able to catch those thoughts and say it, it’s like I stop a freight train from colliding with me. It’s a victory.
Your reactions to things are beliefs you have established within your psyche. They are based on emotions, past experiences and input from your environment. This system is put in place to safe guard you from harm. To evaluate the situation and then react to it in a way that has been deemed safe. In order to change these reactions you must start by taking responsibility for these choices. Because they are your choices to react the way you do. In doing so you are able to change the way you react. You could fight, flight, freeze, or flourish. Which one are you going to chose? Are you going to constantly complain about things and continue reacting like an Eeyore? (Winnie the Pooh character if you don’t know) Or are you going to flourish and take charge? Use it as an opportunity to expand who you are, to change your life, and become someone you love.
I know who I am going to chose from here on out. I want to have such conviction in myself that I laugh in the face of uncertainty. That I rise instead of fall, that I see the joy and challenge instead of it being a death sentence. How about you? What could you do different today to face uncertainty? What can you do for yourself to step into the shoes of a victor? I challenge you to take a moment and look within. I want you to think about how you react to things, see yourself. Truly get real with it and honest. Do you yell and fight, do you hide within, do you give up and lay in defeat? What is your means of reaction to things? Now once you find that watch for it. Watch yourself as situations bring this reaction and feeling up. Try to catch it, try to open yourself up to it. See it, and decide if you want to continue the insanity that is this constant reaction. Or do you want to change it? That choice is yours, what are you going to chose?