Whether we like it or not, we live with uncertainty daily. On the world stage and in our neighbourhoods, our longing for security is challenged every moment. As we mature in experience and wisdom, we realize that we cannot know what is happening, even on the most intimate level, because our window onto the world is very tiny and the lens we peer through often distorts what we see. Happily, tapping can help to increase our tolerance for uncertainty.
Uncertainty is often the feeling behind and below the free floating anxiety that prevents us from living fully in the moment with joy and excitement. This is unfortunate because, as Ellen Langer tells us, uncertainty makes us smarter, more aware, more alive. As soon as something becomes “a sure thing” for us, we begin to take it for granted. Take work success for example. When we are going for a promotion, we often show up early, do far more than is asked during the course of a day, and take work home with us to make sure we are well informed. Once we have the job we desire, and once we are comfortable with the new demands on our time and resources, we become less creative and productive because we begin to live in a mindless, take-things-for-granted way.
Tapping not only helps us to endure the pressures of uncertainty when we are transitioning from the known to the unknown; it also helps us to approach daily life with curiosity once we settle into routine and the risk of living mindlessly. Mindlessness is the enemy of joy, excitement, passion, and success. Mindlessness, in short, is the enemy of life. However, it is an enemy we can befriend and convert into an ally with tapping.
A tapping script might begin:
Even though I resist uncertainty because it makes me feel uncomfortable , I deeply and completely accept all my resistance to uncertainty in this moment. Even though I really hate not knowing with any certainty what is happening or might happen, I deeply and completely accept my vulnerability in life because it makes me more curious and alive. Even though I am anxious because I feel uncertain, I deeply and completely trust that uncertainty is necessary if I am to feel truly alive.
Reminder phrases that are both negative and positive might include:
I hate uncertainty.
I value uncertainty.
I resist uncertainty.
I don’t want to live mindlessly.
I want to increase my tolerance for uncertainty.
Uncertainty helps me to live mindfully.
Making friends with uncertainty is possible.
I can live with uncertainty and live far more mindfully.
Living mindfully is at the heart of meaningful exuberant participation in all of life’s situations. It may feel threatening, but in the long run, increasing our ability to live with life’s uncertainties, to embrace these sudden shifts and changes, increases our sense of aliveness, curiosity, and decisiveness. Tapping is perhaps our most valuable ally in taming our emotions regarding uncertainty. Then again, it may not be. One thing we can be sure of: we will not discover tapping’s value and potential unless we embrace our uncertain relationship with this tool and give it a try.
Until next week . . . perhaps
Jane