Psychologist Lee noted that we have to learn to embrace the fact that uncertainty is a part of life. There's no running away from it. Compassion, acceptance, mindfulness, reflection, and healthy routines help us deal with uncertainty better. "When we are looking to become more tolerant of uncertainty in life, the first step we need to take is to accept that uncertainty is part of human life. As a species, we love control and predictable patterns, and have a strong response to uncertainty as a potential threat, as this is what has kept us alive as we've evolved," he told Bored Panda in an interview via email.
"When it comes to becoming more cultured in dealing with uncertainty, there are a number of things we can practice. The first one is to become compassionate with yourself and express your emotions healthily. Whether we write them down, speak about them or soothe ourselves, expressing our feelings and being kind to ourselves helps to dampen the impact of uncertainty, while suppressing our emotions and feelings, or fighting against them, can make uncertainty feel more intense," Lee explained that we have to learn to be compassionate to ourselves and to express what we feel in a healthy, mature way.
"We can practice acceptance that there are things we can't control while looking to take ownership of the things we can. This makes us feel more empowered, and not waste energy trying to control things that are outside of our ability to do so, and also helps us to stop ruminating on past challenges and future worries. We can also practice being mindful in the moment, as we can always control more variables right now."
Reflecting on past experiences can also help us learn what our triggers are. It can also help us understand how we handle uncertainty and what personal strengths and skills we used to get through it. As Lee put it, we're far tougher than we believe. "We are often more resilient than we think we are, and we can learn a lot from how we navigated difficult times and situations when we look back with a desire to learn and grow," he said.
Meanwhile, healthy habits also provide us with a solid foundation to tackle the uncertainty that life will throw at us. "We should also look to our routines, things that relax us and things we enjoy. We should make an effort to eat well, sleep optimally, and move our bodies, as they all help us with our emotional balance, optimism, and cognitive ability to navigate uncertainty, giving us the clarity, elevated mood, and energy to get through and be less affected," the psychologist told Bored Panda.
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"One other thing to consider is planning for a dynamic world that is ever-changing. You can create your own method for handling uncertain situations by using many of the skills above, understanding the habits and routines that keep you grounded, and knowing who can support you if you are struggling. By finding strategies that work for you and practicing acceptance and mindfulness, we can start building our toolkit for when the going gets tough and you are unsure what's coming next."
Bored Panda was interested to learn whether it's problematic for someone to have a mindset that they 'always' have good or bad luck in their lives. According to psychologist Lee, having a fixed mindset like that can present a whole range of challenges.
"As human beings, we have an evolved ability to focus on decisions we have made, including those about ourselves. If we believe we always have good luck, we can start to only focus on the times when things go our way. This can cause us to take unnecessary risks and make poor decisions because we feel we will be lucky while ignoring our mistakes and not being able to learn from them."
However, believing that bad luck keeps following us around is also problematic and limiting. "On the other side, if we believe we always have bad luck, we can miss all the great things that are happening, worry about the future, and miss opportunities to grow and develop. We will also likely be cynical and negative about ourselves and feel hopeless because luck isn't on our side." What we need to do is embrace a balanced, growth mindset.
"Embracing a growth mindset around luck is great because we start to look at optimism as a skill we can build, we find a balance between when to take risks and when to be more conservative, and we get the benefits of learning from the past, being realistic about the future and taking ownership of the present."
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Lee revealed that food and our moods are far more closely linked than many of us realize. "Almost 90% of our serotonin, the feel-good hormone, is produced in our gut, and our gut feeling isn't just a saying; it has a whole nervous system down there! A healthy diet gives us the energy and cognitive clarity to go out there and do our best, free from blood sugar spikes, bloating and the lethargy that comes from eating poorly. We also find it easier to move and sleep, which both have a significant impact on how we are feeling. Our food is fuel, and our brains use more of that energy than any other part of our body, so what we eat impacts how we feeling on a variety of levels," he explained to Bored Panda.
The psychologist put it bluntly that we generally should avoid it. However, not all junk food is created equally. Some products are far worse than others. "I wouldn't permit a safe level of junk food, but what I would say is that having it occasionally is not a bad thing. While I don't think seeing it as a treat is positive, as using junk food in a rewarding way can be dangerous, finding a junk food type that we enjoy but don't feel awful after eating is a good way to approach it," psychologist Lee said. "With myself and my clients, I suggest that using an 80/20 healthy/favorites rule works really well as a balanced diet, and that finding the healthy food that energizes you can be an enjoyable game to undertake!"
Meanwhile, my talented colleague Liucija previously spoke with the CEO and founder of Ugly Produce is Beautiful, Sarah Philips. They talked about the ugly produce movement and how it helps minimize food waste.
“Every year, some 2.9 trillion pounds of food never gets consumed and it’s enough to feed nearly 800 million people worldwide,” Sarah told Bored Panda.
