Reviewed by Rama Gaind.
By Dr Toni Lindsay, Exisle Publishing, $32.99.
Indecision or being doubtful strikes all of us at one time or another. We are surrounded by disorder and ambiguity.
We need to learn how to be resilient when the world keeps changing. Clinical psychologist Dr Toni Lindsay says uncertainty shows up in a million ways, but we don’t have to be the victims of our circumstances.
“The very nature of the work I have done over the last decade or so as a psychologist for cancer patients and their loved ones, has shown me over and over again that the world that we live in is unpredictable. Things are hard for people, and there is an indiscriminate way in which hard things are dished out.”
There’s uncertainty in the “ways that humans behave, or the ways that diseases and our bodies betray us. I have seen it in human relationships and in systems, and when the rules don’t work the way they are meant to.”
We should develop a good sense of what is important, and not take things for granted. What needs to be done, should be done now, because we don’t know when things might alter. Burnout, anxiety, depression, trauma and breakdowns in relationships are common in a world that just keeps changing.
“I see uncertainty for what it is: a living, breathing and present thing that we can’t escape.” As the last couple of years have shown us, life is full of things we did not see coming. Don’t put great amounts of time and energy into trying to anticipate every variable and control the uncontrollable.
While we are preoccupied with trying to wrest back a sense of predictability, the joy and meaningful bits of life can slide right by us.
For anyone who is struggling with making sense of a world that’s ever-changing around them, The Certainty Myth will help you to rise above the chaos and find emotional stability and happiness.
