Living With Uncertainty: The Root of Modern Anxiety

I don’t think I’m alone in saying that I start to feel like a broken record when I find myself talking about how much stress and tension there is in the world. Stress is how we interface physiologically with uncertainty, and uncertainty makes life the adventure it is (to be covered in the future article, Redefining Stress Relief). Despite the shared experience of stress, both our perception of, and biological response to, it vary tremendously. And behind it all is uncertainty and the paradoxical invigorating/threatening relationship we have with it that we’ve discussed previously.

The Normalization of Anxiety in a Stress-Filled World

For many, there is a subtle, and sometimes not so subtle, anxiety tied to uncertainty. It’s become so pervasive that some may accept it as a consequence of living in “such a stressful time”, normalizing it to the point of dismissal. This anxiety is not exactly not normal, but it’s a maladaptive response in much of contemporary society. You see, back when we were attempting to elude predators, a healthy dose of alertness could mean the difference between life and death, which is where the utility of the sympathetic nervous system comes in. However, even though there’s always uncertainty and we still have survival-based mechanisms to keep us alive, we generally don’t need to run or fight for our lives so much anymore.

The Modern Response to Uncertainty: "Holding"

So what’s the modernized adaptation to uncertainty? We internalize things. We hold experiences. But it’s not holding. It’s “holding”. We can’t hold anything. Life is always changing, never static, constantly, well… lifelike. Without this unpredictability, life loses what make it life, which is the adventure of living it. Holding is associated with certainty, or being able to stop an experience in its tracks and keep it there. But the river of life keeps flowing. When we realize that we can’t keep life still or under our thumb as a constant, there’s a perceiving of life as chaos, which includes all future events, and from there, a projecting into what may or may not happen. And this is where anxiety blossoms and thrives.

The Constant in Change: Anchoring in the Present Moment

However, there is hope, and stability, in change. What might the constant be? Now. You’re always experiencing in the now. It’s change that works through it. You may recall the past or plan for the future, but that never happens anywhere other than the present moment. This moment is the anchor point, which is the “secret” to ridding yourself of anxiety completely and indefinitely. That’s it! Although it’s simple, I’m by no means saying it’s easy. This takes practice. A lot of practice. But it works! I struggled with an underlying, overwhelming anxiety for years, and although I got “used” to it, it became apparent when it was gone that it was consuming a ton of time and energy.

Why Anchoring in the Now Helps

How does this work exactly? It goes back to uncertainty. The unknown contains experiences that could threaten our very survival or, for most of us, be exceedingly uncomfortable. And since we don’t know with certainty what the future holds for us, we feel anxiety around it. We have to consciously override the primitive, flight-or-flight response to uncertainty to ensure it doesn’t chronically disrupt our lives and health. This approach is based upon how we’re unable to fully focus on more than one thing at a time, meaning that if we keep our full attention here in the now, there’s no possibility for us to project into a future that hasn’t happened. Furthermore, the only certainty present in our lifetimes is what we’re experiencing in the present moment. Any part of the now will work, but I’m referring to an overall awareness about what we’re experiencing, including smells, sights, sounds, tastes, and feelings.

Conscious Presence vs. Escapism

This doesn’t mean we shouldn’t reflect upon the past or plan for the future, just that we shouldn’t attempt to live in those experiences by keeping our awareness there for a prolonged period of time. You can only ever consciously choose in the now. This choosing is your power. If you outsource it to any other experience than the present for long enough, you’ll feel powerless, victimized, and, back to the point, anxious. By paying your full attention to the now, you’re able to tune into your instinct. This is where you become aware of a deeper knowing of what you need to do, which should complement, not work against, your deliberation and planning. From that overlap, you’ll know what you need to do to accomplish your task(s). Now let it go and move on with your day. It will likely feel intimidating or even terrifying at first, but it gets easier, and life feels lighter.

The Second Wave: Letting Go of the Habit of Anxiety

There’s one note of caution in this that I’d like to mention, which completely caught me by surprise when I began approaching my life in this way. Anything you work towards in your life requires some amount of attention and energy. If you work at something long enough, it requires a lot. Even though we’re not getting anything done with the worry and/or anxiety that comes with projecting into the future or ruminating with the past, this idea is still useful. When you begin to get some consistent success with your anxiety using this approach, you may begin to feel more uneasiness, what I call “the second wave”. This tension arises because of the “work” you were doing before.

Nothing ever gets done by worrying, but if you’ve been anxious for a long time, it can seem like a fulltime job, keeping you always on edge and ever vigilant. So when you break this cycle, it can feel like you’re quitting a career or giving up on a huge project that you’ve been working on for a long time. This second wave will pass just as the first one did, but it will also take practice and time. It blew my mind when I first recognized it, but it makes complete sense from the perspective of attention and energy. Whatever you dedicate those towards will feel like a commitment, whether there’s a positive return or not. Take the time to check in with how you feel at this point. Are you as drained and weighed down, or do you have some extra energy in the tank and freedom to exercise throughout your day? This reflection will give you the motivation you need to keep going, and flowing.

Stay Tuned for More

Like what you just read? I’ll be sharing more health-related content and everyday techniques based in bioenergetic modalities soon!