Theologian Reinhold Niebuhr once uttered to the Heavens, “Lord grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, the courage to change the things I can, and the wisdom to know the difference.” More commonly identified as the Serenity Prayer, this petition may now be uttered more frequently during the current socio-economic climate, one replete with much uncertainty. Niebuhr’s invocation plays quite well into time of immense worry.

Humans are organized creatures. Despite the messy cars and disorganized rooms that may occupy our existence, our minds are very much based upon the classification of knowledge (people, places, and things). We are conditioned to feel comfort in knowing; knowing that we leave work at a certain time in the day, that the plumber will fix the sink next Tuesday, and that there’s a slight chance of rain tomorrow evening.

When life yields to bedlam, tremendous worry and anxiety can follow, largely because of the uncertainty — the great unknown — it brings. The word might can be a very scary thing.  Might I not find another job before my savings run out?  Might I have to work more years than I intended because of my depleted 401K? Might the lump in my breast go untended for too long because I don’t have health insurance?

It is uncertainty, the inability to fill in the blanks, if you will, that causes great vexation. Harvard Psychology Professor Daniel Gilbert recently wrote in the New York Times:

“Why would we prefer to know the worst than to suspect it? Because when we get bad news we weep for a while, and then get busy making the best of it. We change our behavior, we change our attitudes. We raise our consciousness and lower our standards. We find our bootstraps and tug. But we can’t come to terms with circumstances whose terms we don’t yet know. An uncertain future leaves us stranded in an unhappy present with nothing to do but wait.”

It is said that the devil works for idle hands. Perhaps Beelzebub also inflicts the imaginations of idle, uncertain minds as well.

Worrywarts are the most affected persons amidst a future of disquiet. Pessimistic thoughts foment in one’s mind until depression envelops it. Finding oneself at a fork-in-the-road, yet not in control of the car, can be very unsettling.

Clinical psychologist Dr. Timothy Sharp, founder of the Happiness Institute, as well as the author of The Happiness Handbook, writes:

“…worriers often find it difficult to stop worrying because they attempt to solve problems that are not immediately solvable. So, during your worry time, the first thing to ask yourself is whether your worry involves a solvable problem or not.”

Fixating upon unfavorable hypothetical eventualities burdens the mind, rendering it fraught with yet-to-exist outcomes. It is important to restrain one’s thoughts so that they do not facilitate a descent into seemingly perpetual dejection. There is no need to avoid irresolution; the lack of a clear and imminent outcome proposes just as much fortuitous opportunity as it does ruinous calamity. It is up to the individual to control one’s thoughts and emotional state. Happiness, or at least the avoidance of despondency, is up to oneself.

Until there is a definite resolution to a situation, isn’t it far more logical (and emotionally salubrious) to fashion a more positive outlook?  Since it is out of one’s control, why do we burden ourselves with anxiety, as well as the traditional means of its avoidance (cigarettes, alcohol, drugs, etc.)?

Accepting that uncertainty as precisely that — uncertain — and relinquishing the worry that accompanies us as we ride through it in the passenger seat, we can better enjoy the moment, controlling those aspects that are indeed within our control, just as Reinhold Niebuhr brilliantly proposed.

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