It’s so easy to feel alone and lost in the midst of everything going on in the world right now. It’s so easy to spiral into a state of anxiety and despair, to let the confusion and chaos and uncertainty overcome you… one moment paralyzing you from moving forward with your day and the next fueling you with enough anxious energy to run around the house seven times as you prepare for what’s to come. But what is to come? That’s the thing. No one really knows. And regardless of how “legit” all the studies and stats thrown at us are, we’re still stuck floating in this channel of uncertainty.

As someone who has struggled with anxiety and OCD from an early age, I’ve done a lot of inner work around this concept of uncertainty. There’s kind of two trains of thought here:

1) The first comes from a place of curiosity for the possibilities this may open up for you; a place of acceptance for the present circumstances, while not being a victim to them. ➝ That is, having faith that in these uncertain times, however challenging they may be, you are given the opportunity to gain a newfound sense of self or wisdom that you perhaps weren’t previously aware of.

2) The second comes from a place of fear; fear of the unknown; fear rooted in the depths of how far this could all go, of how these circumstances may constrain you and limit you from becoming your best self; fear of the what if’s and how to’s that need to be navigated; fear of safety, of loss, of disappointment.

Neither of these trains of thought is “good” or “bad” - they just are. And just because you are currently on one train doesn’t mean you don’t have the opportunity to change your mind and jump on over to the other. Many of us may have found ourselves stuck on the second train recently, while others may be constantly going back and forth between the two. So in these 120 seconds that you’re taking to read this weekly roundup, I invite you to take eight of those to pause - and ask yourself - which train are you currently on? Is this helping you get to where you want to be? If not, is it possible to adopt a new perspective and approach to uncertainty? And is it possible that in doing so, you’re not only able to manage these uncertain times with more ease and agility, but that you, as a result, are helping those around you to do the same?

I think the biggest lesson that I’ve come to learn about dealing with uncertain times is that no matter how many unknowns lay ahead of me, there is always one known that I can choose to rely on; how I choose to navigate the waters. We may not know exactly what is to come or how we will get there, but when we choose to come from a place of curiosity and acceptance rather than fear, we’re actually choosing to manifest a greater, more abundant reality than we would have received otherwise. ♡

xo,

Em

Not all who wander are lost