How to deal with the fear of uncertainty?

A student asked me, "How to deal with the fear of uncertainty and how to stop yourself from imagining worst-case scenarios, which aggravates the fear?"

Here's my response:

The reason we fear uncertainty is that we think we have understood what is good for us and what is not and we don't want the universe to put us into any circumstance that we think is not good for us.

The underlying assumption is that from our limited understanding of the past, we've figured out the future - what is good and what is not good for us. And we expect the universe either to be less intelligent than us or to be completely dead - without any intelligence.

However, the message of spirituality is that the universe is not dead - it is full of intelligence and life. Secondly, it is on our side. Rather, we're a part of it, so there's a reason for it to care for us just as a mother cares for her child.

If we deeply understand these two ideas, we'll never fear uncertainty or our future. Because whatever the universe brings for us is the best for us, it's for our maximum benefit, whether we understand so or not.

However, deeply understanding these messages may take time. In the short- or medium-run, we can:

1. keep ourselves busy in productive ways because as soon as we sit idle, our mind may again start conjuring the worst outcomes.

2. focus on what we can do. If we can do things to steer our future towards a better outcome, we can invest our energies there rather than thinking about all we can't do, which is not going to help.

3. understand the below couple of ideas:

If you look back at your life, you'll realize that 90% of the things you feared never happened. Even the 10% that occurred, they didn't destroy you - you're still here.

Secondly, many of us think that imagining the worst-case scenarios 'prepares' us for the worst, i.e., if we keep imagining worst-case scenarios, we'll be pained less when those scenarios happen. In a way, we keep imagining worst-case scenarios as cushions to protect ourselves from the shock that we'll get when those things happen. However, this strategy doesn't work. We're still pained by those scenarios when they happen. In addition, we keep suffering in anticipation many a time for events that won't even happen.

4. understand what spirituality very clearly lays out - how this world works. Our thoughts are magnets through which we attract reality. We think that our thoughts are harmless as long as we don't act on them. That's wrong. That's the prevalent perspective, but that's wrong. We attract circumstances to our life by the thoughts we think. Our thoughts are creative. So, if you keep thinking negative thoughts in imagining worst-case scenarios, you are attracting that kind of reality to you - you are increasing the chances that those events will actually happen. On the other hand, you can use your thoughts to imagine a beautiful future - in that case, you'll increase the chances of such a future happening.

One way you can stop yourself from using your thoughts against yourself is by letting go, i.e., instead of fearing certain outcomes, become open to them. If possible, embrace them with spiritual courage. Once your fear of them goes away, your mind will naturally not worry about them. That's why it's said, "Fear attracts". The reason fear attracts is that we keep thinking about what we fear. And by thinking, we attract those circumstances to our life because our thoughts are creative.

Lastly, I believe that ultimately, the quality of our lives depends on our character or our spiritual depth. Hacks or specific ideas can help us in the short run. However, in the long run, we need to connect with our inherent spirituality to live a life of joy. To grow spiritually, reading spiritual books, meditation, and associating with people who are into spirituality will help. The more we do these things, the more we grow spiritually. And the more we grow spiritually, the more joy and peace we experience in our life.