0
Share on bsky
Anxiety of the unknown is real.
Nothing is scarier than tomorrow—not even today. Today is happening now. But tomorrow hasn’t come yet, and it may hold many terrifying things.
What comes with tomorrow is terrifying because it’s invisible. We may think we know how things will play out, but the truth is anything is possible. At any moment, our life can turn upside down, and we can’t ensure a specific, desired outcome.
In Buddhism, the fear of tomorrow is normal, and it affects many of us on a regular basis. As human beings, it’s grueling to comprehend the concept of impermanence (anicca). That’s why we fear what’s coming. We are worried that some things may end. We are horrified by the thought that our tomorrow may look different from our present moment.
Our uncontrolled fear usually breeds a desire to control outcomes. It’s a coping mechanism, and it doesn’t always work for us. Sometimes it strains our relationships and makes us lose our inner goodness. In our hopeless pursuit to fight the inevitable, we bring ourselves (and those near us) unnecessary burnout and agony.
But we don’t know that our desire to control tomorrow is futile. We may not be able to control our fear because fear is a natural human reaction that arises when we feel threatened, but we can find ways to cope with that overwhelming feeling.
“A warrior accepts that we can never know what will happen to us next.” ~ Pema Chödrön
What I’m going to say might sound absurd, but it takes courage to accept and trust tomorrow. It’s risky; I know. No one guarantees that tomorrow will be good. Tomorrow might be the worst day of your life. You might hit rock bottom tomorrow. Tomorrow might be the saddest, most depressive, most shocking day you’ve experienced.
But tomorrow might also be the best day of your life. We can never know what it holds for us, but we know one thing for sure: that tomorrow is coming and we have to live it. The sun will rise, and chances are we might rise with it. So, it takes courage to jump into tomorrow with a leap of faith without ever knowing the exact outcome. We must be brave enough to trust that whatever comes—good or bad—is leading us to where we’re supposed to be.
This form of unconditional acceptance is easier said than done. It’s a profound spiritual message you may have read by now in many books. But, in all sincerity, that’s the only option we have. Only when we realize how stressful, disappointing, and disruptive it is to control and fear what’s coming, will we realize that what’s coming is not as scary.
When you lean into uncertainty and allow yourself to step into it fearlessly, the unknown won’t be that terrifying anymore. It only gets scary in our minds, where thousands of negative and irrational thoughts live. But once we are in the middle of the unknown, we will understand that the problem has always been our minds—not tomorrow.
There’s a way; there’s always a way. We can carry this thought with us whenever we feel that tomorrow might hurt or defeat us. Nothing can defeat us—except the story we tell ourselves and the thoughts we plant in our own heads.
~
author: Elyane Youssef
Image: Dasha/Pexels
Read 2 comments and reply