How to deal with uncertainty in difficult time
Two characters of our story are John and George.
They are very curious and they like to ask the questions.
John started this conversation:
This is a difficult time, a time of extreme worries and uncertainty, but also time of reflection and spirituality.
Significant uncertainty is naturally producing worry.
Constant worries will emotionally drain us.
We are not designed to tolerate extreme uncertainty for a long period of time.
Time of uncertainty is frequently time of deep reflection when we
re-examine our values, priorities and life directions.
One of the principle in selecting our values in life is
that people are far more important than material things.
We are going to present several ideas and observations that may help us to understand better this difficult and uncertain time.
Let’s have a close look at several concepts :
worries
uncertainty
reflection
spirituality
I believe reflection and spirituality are natural healing mechanism for worries and uncertainty.
Dr. George Vaillant from Harvard medical school believes that following positive emotions are associated with spirituality :
awe
love
trust
faith
compassion
gratitude
forgiveness
joy
hope
John started to use imagination :
Let’s do mental game and group these nine concepts in 3 groups.
First group is
awe
love
trust
Second group is
faith
compassion
gratitude
And third group is
forgiveness
joy
hope
I believe they fit perfectly in 3 groups.
Each group is so natural.
Look at the central group
faith
compassion
gratitude
They are so naturally connected, almost like they feed each other.
Just thinking about these emotions and believing that they can make big difference make me feel better in this difficult time.
said John.
We need these positive emotions now more than ever.
In Times of crisis things are rapidly changing and we desperately need to cultivate emotions connected with spirituality especially:
Hope
Compassion
Gratitude.
Barbara Fredrickson professor of psychology at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill believes that Positive emotions may neutralize negative emotions and Optimal ratio of positive and negative emotions should be 3 to 1.
Many aspects of this claims are later criticized by other psychologist , however concept remain interesting and intriguing.
George was quick to answer :
With so intense worry and uncertainty i’m just wondering shall we try achieving higher ratio perhaps 5 to1.
Let me select my favorite five positive and spiritual emotions that I will use as a weapon against deep worries and uncertainty in this difficult time :
love
compassion
gratitude
forgiveness
hope
Look at this combination. Everything in life start with love and finish with hope.
On the other hand compassion gratitude and forgiveness are naturally placed between love and hope.
In uncertain and difficult time we have opportunity to pause and think deeply about core values and priorities of our life.
Constant worry is unbearable for our mind but we have natural defense mechanisms against this invisible threat .
Mother nature have created tools to help us endure difficult time.
One of these tools is ability to create stories.
Our brain can spontaneously deconstruct current story of our life and create new one.
We are cutting and pasting concepts ,ideas and fragments of our experiences in order to create unique story about each segment of our life.
The story can be changed all the time depending how do we assemble cut and paste fragments of a life and give them interpretation.
The Authors from Daemen College, Amherst, New York, USA have pointed out that reframing widens one’s perspective of particularly challenging situations.
If story can relax us, and make us more optimistic , it may serve temporary as an antidote to extensive worry and suffering.
Story may be revised and changed and become more realistic but temporarily maybe good remedy against difficult time and extensive worry and fear.
So please pay attention and cultivate spiritual emotion like hope, compassion, forgiveness and gratitude as a natural defense against excessive worry in this difficult time.
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