When your mind gets wind of the uncertainty inherent in life—how fragile and temporary and not-at-all guaranteed it all is—it can get a little restless.
Your sweet little mind thinks that it knowing how things will go is what keeps you safe. Your mind has no idea there is a space, a moment, a now, a consciousness, that it is not part of.
It thinks it’s all there is. It thinks it’s running the show, calling the shots that determine your security, happiness, and survival. Given its self-centered view of things, you can’t really blame it for being a bit agitated right now, can you? It’s just scrambling to “know” stuff so you get to live another happy day.
When knowing is hard to come by…when there is conflicting information and experts and world leaders all disagree…your mind will come up with a sludge of best guesses in order to give you some semblance of certainty.
It’s kind of sweet, really. Inaccurate as all get out, but well-meaning and sort of sweet.
When you see that this is just how a mind works, and you understand that it’s guesses are far more fiction than fact, it’s not as hard to see around it.
But when you aren’t tuned into your mind’s imaginations, what else is there? What’s happening beyond your mind’s story?
Life. Now.
In life, now, you feel physically sick. Or you feel physically healthy. Maybe people you know are physically sick. Either that, or they are physically healthy.
Period.
In life, we’re all right here, right now, doing what makes the most sense to each of us right here and right now. There’s not much to argue with in that, is there?
We know absolutely nothing for sure about the future. (This was also true a few weeks ago, by the way. But your mind was in denial about it then.) So we sit in life, now, knowing nothing for sure. No different than any other day.
If life, the news comes faster. There are more moving pieces and things to adjust for, no doubt. People are cancelling trips and homeschooling children. These are not inherently hard things to do. Others are losing wages and making big decisions. We’re built for this. In life, we’re designed to do what needs to be done.
If life, the store shelves are empty. You still come home from the store and you have what you have, and don’t have what you don’t have. Nothing has changed.
In life, we’re being gently lived, moment by moment, the same way we have always been. Some circumstances are different. A lot of plans have changed. But life doesn’t have opinions about that. We’re just here, now, experiencing life unfolding, the same as always.
Life is doing okay.
In your mind is where this is hard and scary and feels like the world is ending.
Your mind will say that you’re dying of coronavirus because you coughed this morning. Or that people aren’t handling things properly. Or that this is too much disruption. All of that comes from a mind wanting to nail down life so that there are no more surprises. It comes from a mind wanting to give you something to cling to in the name of security. (Ironically, it’s the recipe for insecurity.)
Your mind says “I didn’t plan for this!” “I don’t deserve this!” “I can’t be off work. I can’t watch my business be this impacted. I can’t be trapped in the house.”
Life says, uh…okay? And life carries on.
Your mind is certain you’ll lose your life savings in a stock market crash.
Your mind wonders why everyone is so paranoid about the flu. And then, that same mind creates images of your own funeral after having died of the flu.
Your mind posts its opinions on Facebook.
Your mind panics. And then, that same mind tries to talk you down from panic.
It kills your mind to not have all the answers. But you’re wiser than your mind. You’re fine with not knowing because you know you never did, anyway. Life is full as it is, even without knowing stuff.
You are secure, by nature. It’s only your mind that tells you otherwise. Look for the security beneath your mind’s swings. You’ll find it here, in life.
Life is giving you so many amazing opportunities.
Life is giving you an opportunity to be quiet. To be present. To see that you need absolutely nothing you don’t have.
Life is giving you an opportunity to slow down. Stay home. Do less. Feel the health that’s there beyond your physical body, beyond your security-seeking mind.
This is an opportunity to hand over your distractions and your busyness. An opportunity to be here now. You get to be life instead of doing life.
Life is giving you an opportunity to recognize the incredible health, peace, and freedom you’ve enjoyed. Life owes us nothing and has given us so, so much. This is an opportunity to remember that.
Uncertainty is always the case, your mind is just more aware of it right now. This is an opportunity to feel the incredible expansiveness that shows up when you let go of how things unfold.
That means you can thank your sweet mind for trying to provide a secure life and future for you. You don’t have to spend your time listening to its made up stories, which allows you to come back here, in life, and do what makes sense in each and every moment.
