006. Making Friends with Uncertainty
In this episode, we dive into uncertainty, how to make friends with not knowing what the future hold, and the magic in all of it.
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This episode is about uncertainty. In the last couple of years, a lot of people had to face off with uncertainty, because all the plans we made, all the ideas we had, what to do, where to go, what to say, they got cancelled. It got me thinking about my relationship with uncertainty.
In 2016, I had just quit my job working for the German government as a lawyer to travel the world. My first stop was in Havana, Cuba. I was there for a month learning Spanish and taking dance classes. Prior to boarding the plane to Havana, I had already made some plans what I wanted to do after that trip. I wanted to volunteer in India and I had applied for grad school in New York City. But as I got there to Havana, something happened. Something changed.
When we go out into the world, when we travel, it has an impact on us. We become a different version of ourselves.
I noticed that this lining up of plans wasn't working for me, because the person I became in Havana was not the same person that went to Havana in the first place. For that new person, following through with everything as planned wasn't the right next move. The only thing I knew for sure after my trip to Havana was I want to be a yoga teacher.
Fortunately, I was able to tweak my plans and signed up for a yoga teacher training while I'm in India. I stilled volunteered for a month close to Bangalore and then flew to Mumbai for the Jivamukti Yoga Teacher Training. I took the entire month to really dive into the practices of yoga. As I did, I noticed my body creating more space to hold the uncertainty for what’s after. While it felt scary not to know, it also just felt liberating to know that I can fly back to Germany after the training and then take from there.
After a few weeks in Germany, I decided to go back to Havana to dance, to connect to my body, to heal some of the trauma that is stored in my body through dance. I had done all the “right” things. I followed all the rules. I did what society wanted me to do. To study, to have a safe job. Now it was time to just be. After a few months, I decided to move to New York City with this new awareness:
I can only take the next step that feels good in this moment. No need to think ahead of time. What I have planned may not work for the version of me that I'm becoming.
Taking these small steps, uncertainty and I became friends. So, in 2020 when the world went wild, I noticed a sense of calm in my body. I didn’t know what was going to happen, but I didn't know last month or last year either. It didn't bring me out of balance because I had made a conscious decision to live my life in that way.
And get this: when nothing is certain, everything is possible.
When I don't have a plan, there is even more room for things to happen that I could not even consciously have thought of. Making friends with uncertainty is actually the greatest gift. Even right now, as I'm stepping into self-employment as a coach, as I'm stepping into all of these new exciting opportunities, the fact that I don't know exactly what's going to happen how, it doesn't freak me out because I've spent the last five years making friends with uncertainty. We're good, we're buddies. And, I now have evidence that life supports me. That I don't need to have a plan, because I'm always taken care of. No matter what the next step might be, the resources that I need will come to me, because over the last five years of living with uncertainty they always have. Why wouldn't I believe that they will continue to do?
This is an invitation for you as well to think about what relationship you have with uncertainty.
Are you ready to shift into the realm of endless possibility? To open yourself up to what you could never plan? Are you ready to make friends with uncertainty?
I am here to support you on your journey. Apply for 1:1 coaching with me and we will jump on a call to see if we feel good with each other.
