Dealing with Uncertainty

Even at times when you feel alone with giant uncertainty, you can use the pain as a jumping ground to remember your soul.

Implicitly, uncertainty is at the very core of our lives. While unscarred, especially at a younger age, we take many things for granted. As “life happens,” we gradually—and sometimes suddenly—learn to appreciate the very foundational elements of our existence that, we learn, sometimes stay, and sometimes vanish, and then we have no choice but to collect ourselves from pieces and connect to our ever-knowing souls.

In my own life, I took many things for granted until I left Moscow and moved to America by myself. Then I learned so much about uncertainty that I could write and “uncertainty bible,” and still learning. I can’t say that I like it at all times but I know that emphasized uncertainty is usually a sign to get connected to your soul tighter and get stronger. And so I usually oblige.

Individual and collective uncertainty and the game of musical chairs

Sometimes the pressure is individual, and sometimes, it’s collective. I think to a human being, those two feel more or less the same. When we go through life-shattering losses or changes, it almost doesn’t matter that the world is still spinning, one gets temporarily disconnected from the “ordinary” energy of the cheery world —especially the fake cheery world of today that offers little solace to the soul and is driven by monsters in corporate mob attire (“hi-how-are-you-fine-thanks-now-pay-or-we’ll-kill-ya”).

When neighborhoods and countries are thrust into war, the collective world really goes upside down. In philosophical terms, what happens it that the ugly underbelly of the Domination Machine gets exposed, and people suddenly see the face of the machine. But in practical terms, it goes upside down, very unfairly so! I often think about my grandparents and how they felt about life at the onset of World War II. My grandfather, for example, was a young student taking prizes at national youth skiing competitions in the USSR. My grandma was still a teen. And then one day the war happened and brought the turmoil, the disruption of everything, the killing of men and the strengthening of women, turning them into overstretched strings of courage and grief. And for what? For geopolitical games of the few? For the vicious satisfaction of extremely ambitious people upstairs? I am disgusted with the cruelty of all that.

I also think about the people living under wars and sieges of today, about the orphans and widows made by the well-oiled machine (the pun is intended), the machine that—for a short while—put “the West” in a good spot in the game of musical chairs and made our lives here abundant and sweet for a few decades, between 1945 and 2001. At the same time, it turned the suffering of its faceless human sacrifices in foreign lands into a spectacular, soul-deprived television show. (See my friend Eric Goodman’s brilliant video here.) My heart!!!

Then in 2001, and in 2008, and in 2020—in phases—the domination machine came straight back home, and for us in the West, the past two decades—and especially the past four years—have most certainly been a collective, extremely painful uncertainty treadmill!

In the past four years, on the one hand, there was a giant amount of artificially mounted super-squeeze along the lines of  “You and your loved ones are going to die of a horrible disease unless ya’ll comply.”  That was quite a tragic media production and quite a mean hypnotic campaign.¹

On the other hand, living under a menacing pendulum of an imminent totalitarian rule ain’t fun, either. There has been lots of pressure, uncertainty, and, I must say, a significant effort by the metaphorical Bad Witches to create a sense of helplessness in the “freedom” camp, too, and to scare honest dissidents out of their brave hearts with different talking points.

The antidotes to crumbling under uncertainty

Now, to the punchline. Punchline: here are the antidotes to crumbling under uncertainty that I know of.

• Warm people who care and don’t let you drown

• A strong, unshakable sense of your inner goodness. Because you are worthy and good as your spiritual essence, your sense of goodness is not owned by any external parties, and it does not diminish from the circumstance

• Relying on loving spiritual powers

All three, in essence, are food to our spiritual parts because it is our spiritual meaning and connection that helps us handle uncertainty with dignity, courage, and love. And therefore, the metaphorical vampires work hard to make us vacuous, conceited, scared, insecure, etc. All those roads that work for different psychological types lead to one place, the place where one is ultimately alone.

Predators

There is a reason why people with not-so-good intentions like to spoil communities, stir divisions, isolate, make people insecure and frightened, and steal the joy. It is because that spiritual energy, the sense of goodness and belonging, is very protective, and it is harder to disorient the people who feel worthy and especially those surrounded by others who are not going to let them drown.

It’s much harder to disorient the people who rely on good spiritual forces and who are not shy about it (especially if their faith is not formal or scholastic but a sincere and passionate song of the heart.

And so the predators try and try and try…. and it’s our job to catch their tricks, deflect them, and restore the heavenly stasis of our soul!

Transforming pain into soaring

My observation is that even at times when you feel alone with giant uncertainty, you can use the pain as a jumping ground to remember your soul, which is beneficial to you no matter the circumstance, and also feels good.

If you want to cry, you can cry out to the skies and ask to heal your connection to your soul. I believe that in the process of your passionate prayer, not necessarily immediately but at some point inevitably, you will know with certainty that you are a good, worthy person who is on this Earth to do an important job. And that it has always been this way.

Yes, there have been people who wronged you horribly. Yes, you’ve made choices that, looking back at them now, you would have never made because they were stupid choices. But you are a human being on Earth. You’ve always tried. And, dear God, you love yourself. You do. Oh, you do. You are lovable because your soul is valid. And it feels right.

Dealing with grand uncertainty is the topic of today Philosophy Club call for paid subscribers (Friday March 15, 2pm EST). The link to the call is behind the paywall, after the must-see video about a man with child-like eyes who lives on a farm, Amish-style, without an ID. As usual, if you want to participate and can’t afford a paid subscription or if you have supported me in the past, please send me a note to be comped, etc. Looking forward to seeing you there!