My current Intuitive Vision Board contains images of people, mountains and Cypress trees. Taken together they convey stillness and contemplation. They encourage me to stand still and wait – until Life sets me on a course again.
Nothing much is known meantime. Nothing is yet secure or certain. How much of this can I tolerate – and why should I?
Quest for certainty
I’ve been thinking why it is some of us are more comfortable allowing the ‘planner-within’ to take a back seat while our creative, intuitive mind makes an intuitive vision board. And then there are others among us who cannot resist the urge to interfere and control the outcome.
If, in creating a vision board or visioning, you allowed your thinking-mind to influence your choice of images in any shape or form then you have not accessed your intuition. You have produced an intentional vision board, which contains mostly things you know about already. There’s nothing wrong with this but there’s nothing new or innovative in it either.
Then I ask: “Why do some of us have a need to take control like this? Why is the quest for certainty so important?”
I believe it’s driven by the need to feel secure.
Acting on the belief that we are in charge of our own destiny, we insist on determining what this will look like. We are then required to focus on this until we get the desired result.
This belief also harbours the illusion that if we try harder, work harder, or push more we will finally gain control of our lives. This goal-fixated approach to creating our destiny is what the ego does to protect itself against uncertainty.
Faced with the anxiety of an unknown future, we prefer to invest strongly in our preferred version of it. This is more comfortable than facing the raw truth that the future is uncertain.
“There is a contradiction in wanting to be perfectly secure in a universe whose very nature is momentariness and fluidity.” Alan Watts from The Wisdom of insecurity.
In our attempt to manipulate Life the way we want it is a hidden assumption. Just because we want something, we are entitled to have it. However evidence proves the contrary that however much we extol our will power, we still exert little control over the grand machinations of Life.
Jobs are lost, babies don’t come, house sales fall through and Trump becomes President again.
The unexpected, the shocking, the outrageous happen despite our best efforts. It’s our judgements about these that cause us more stress, a stress that endures. Rather than allow ourselves to experience events fully in the moment and move on, we remain glued to them.
What if a less stressful approach would be to become more comfortable with uncertainty. To accept Life in all its glorious unpredictability instead of resisting what happens and then complaining about it.
“There is nothing good or bad, but thinking makes it so,” sayeth Shakespeare in Hamlet.
Efforts are wasted in our attempts to make ourselves feel secure. The ego personality goes to great lengths to build fortifications around it to create the illusion of security. Yet, inside the fortress, it can feel isolating and there is a need to defend our own corner.
Most goal-setting and intentional visioning boards are an attempt to make things go our way, as opposed to the way Life wants to take us. Our efforts to flee from insecurity to security, uncertainty to certainty, are attempts to escape the matrix of Life in which we are an integral part.
Does this mean we shouldn’t protect ourselves from crocodiles?
No! But it does mean feeling totally secure versus experiencing a rich, authentic, and fulfilling Life are in some ways opposites.
I believe one of the most valuable Life skills we can cultivate is improvisation.
We might be happier if we avoiding setting immovable targets and pursuing them doggedly. Instead, to allow an idea to slip into view and, with curiosity, give ourselves the freedom to explore it. We’d use whatever energy and resources are available and without needing to know in advance where the final destination will be. Life would be simpler and we’d have more energy for other things we love.
Improvisational-minded people are creative, intuitive, and inspired. They allow Life to morph when it does without putting up a protest. They are willing to change direction mid-course, without being unduly derailed by it.
“Life is a dance and when you are dancing you are not intent on getting somewhere. The meaning and purpose is the dance.” Alan Watts again.
The quest for certainty is what blocks the intuition and creativity. It’s in the nature of uncertainty, which by definition is in the moment, without reference to the past or future, that the real power, authority and progress lies.
A wiser approach requires a willingness to trust that Life knows best and to cultivate a greater acceptance of events beyond our control. To pay greater respect for the flow of life by being ready to flow with it, participating in what’s unfolding rather than fighting against it.
Have you noticed that sometimes the thing that starts out looking like a disaster can end up being a blessing in disguise. And it would seem the more challenging the situation we face, the more force we need to call upon to bring about the necessary changes.