How to not shut down when things feel uncertain

We were raised for a world that no longer exists. Here’s how I’m meeting the one we’re in — and preparing for a future we cannot see

The world is weird, messy, and seemingly shapeshifting by the minute.

Though we could never predict the future, the idea of The Future somehow seems even more unpredictable right now.

And for us humans this uncertainty can be paralyzing.

We have a tendency to want to hold on tight. To control, predict, and analyze so that we can feel prepared. Respond accordingly. Hedge our bets. Reduce risk.

But what happens when the world we grew up preparing for just… doesn’t exist anymore?

Feeling unmoored ⛵️

One of the questions I’ve been contemplating lately is: how do we prepare and resource ourselves to meet moments of uncertainty and volatility (i.e. our New Normal)?

Personally, I feel unmoored by a world — and life — that’s unrecognizable to me. And I think this is going to be a more pronounced collective feeling as we continue to be confronted with changes both big and small:

• Massive layoffs

• Global and economic uncertainty

• Financial insecurity

• Our generation likely not being better off than the previous one…

• The whisper in your gut that says, “Wait… is this it?”

We’re whiplashed by the pace and unpredictability of change. Everything we thought we could rely on has been completely disrupted.

The traditional paths that were laid out for Gen-X and Milennialls seemed all but guaranteed: get good grades, get into a good school, get a good job, retire, enjoy life a little. It was a simple equation.

But now, those traditional paths and structures have been pulled out from under us. Life is fast and furious. Things change from one day to the next. AI is a Big Hairy Monster that’s promising to come for our livelihoods.

It can leave us feeling panicked, worried, hopeless, stuck, and lost. Our nervous systems feel like scrambled eggs and we start to question everything — our instincts, our paths, our sense of self. It’s disorienting.

How do we meet this moment? 📍

Your natural inclination might be to tighten your grip. Or maybe shut down entirely.

But I suspect that the way we meet this moment is through creative resourcing: play, creatively expressing ourselves (without it needing to ‘make sense’ or be displayed to anyone), and reconnecting with nature, awe, wonder, and beauty — the exact things we’ve moved away from (and put less and less value on) in our modern world.

For so long I thought meditation was going to be The Thing that helped me meet and navigate uncertainty and change. If I could just “get my mind right” by quieting it, I would be able to navigate the uncomfortable feelings that were quickly making me feel numb, dull, and flat. But that didn’t work for me.

Creative resourcing, on the other hand, centers on building capacity so we can meet whatever the future throws at us.

Creative-expression, play, spontaneity, wonder, awe, and beauty are how we stretch our capacity, rewire our sense of possibility, and build the internal scaffolding to respond flexibly, honestly, and confidently to moments of disorientation and disruption.

It expands our world and what we believe is possible when it feels like everything is closing in on us.

Exploration and experimentation 🕵🏻‍♀️👩🏻‍🔬

I’m exploring what it means to build this kind of internal scaffolding through creativity, presence, and play. I am, after all, an optimist. I believe we *can* meet this weird, wild world with more capacity, more imagination, and more courage.

(The alternative is shutting down, withdrawing, and getting lost in an eternal doomscroll…🫠 Not exactly the future I’m rooting for!)

I recently shared some easy things I’ve done for my creative health lately. You might read that post and think, “How are LEGOs or watercoloring or doodling going to help me face something like getting laid off or not knowing what’s next?”

And I get it. That’s valid!

It’s not about the medium, per se; it’s about what you’re practicing when you make space for creativity, new ideas, and unexpected solutions to emerge. You:

• Rewire how you meet uncertainty

• Train your nervous system to stay, instead of shut down

• Give yourself access to your own wisdom, not just external answers

• Soften the perfectionism that says, “I have to know the right next step”

• Remind yourself that you are still creative, still curious, still alive

It’s future-readiness rooted in play, presence, and possibility. 🤸‍♀️

One small step you can take 🖼️

Take five minutes today to notice something small that makes you smile. A flower blooming in your neighborhood, a sentence or quote that stands out, a weird little bird on your walk. Jot it down, draw it, or make up a silly backstory. That’s it.

Now, if you’re like me, you’ll start doing this exercise and stop because it feels dumb, doesn’t make any sense, or is messy/imperfect. You might even ask yourself, “What’s the point!?” Those are totally natural and expected feelings. I’ve had them too (sometimes I still do!).

But I encourage you to keep going — just this once.

Think of it like microdosing discomfort so your system learns to stay open, even when things feel uncertain, awkward, or incomplete. When we practice doing this on a micro level, we’re preparing ourselves to meet macro moments of it — like big life changes, pivots, and U-turns.