This time the story I am going to share is not an actual event. But it is familiar enough for all of us to experience it one day. Knowing the boundary between fact and fiction sometimes makes that story even more real.
Let's say we have a pain somewhere in our body. We go to the doctor. The doctor asks a few questions, his face gets a little serious. "Let's order a blood test," he said. "Sign in and the results will be back in an hour. Then we'll look at it together."
We gave the test and were told the results would be back in an hour. The waiting time began. We were a little hungry... We sat down somewhere, ordered tea, bought a bagel. Ten minutes later, our minds started to squirm.
Millions of thoughts will probably go through our minds during this wait.
The cloud of possibilities will probably be something like this:
- I wonder if the doctor suspected something?
- What if the bitter truth will hit us in the face when the result comes out? What if it's something serious?"
- What will those who love us do if all this is true?"
- Maybe it's just a matter of procedure, we're worrying for nothing.
- Maybe the doctor saw us as naive and ordered the test to make money for the hospital.
And many more...
These examples go on and on.
The mind wants to fill every gap it doesn't know the answer to with a scenario. What we call uncertainty actually begins in this void.
Oftentimes, thinking so much is even more tiring than receiving bad news.
In this article, we will talk about how to deal with the uncertainties in life that we cannot escape.
Should we see uncertainty as an enemy and try to destroy it?
Or should we take it with us as a guide and discover the potential in it?
Philosophical and Scientific Background
Philosophical perspective
Heidegger - Uncertainty, Time and Anxiety
"Being is not yet." - Heidegger
Heidegger's point of view has already been mentioned a bit in previous posts.
For him, man is not a being limited to the present, but a creature who remembers his past but at the same time is oriented towards the future.
This is why the uncertainty of the future is not just a problem of time for us, but a fact of being.
The future can never be something we hold in our hands completely. It is always a little "nearer", but never in the "now".
It is like a place we always wait for, plan for, but never quite know, a place where we might get lost if we go.
Heidegger describes this as "not-yet" (Noch-nicht). That is, we humans live in a constant state of "being".
And this state produces an emotion: Anxiety (Angst).
But this is different from the fears we feel in everyday life.
It is not directed towards a danger, but towards an absence, a lack of clarity. It has no specific object, it is just the feeling of "something is going to happen, but I don't know what."
This is the experience of uncertainty.
Heidegger argues that this anxiety should be faced rather than avoided.
Because only when we are open to this uncertainty do we truly become "us."
In other words, for him, uncertainty is not a lack, but one of the most profound states of being human.
Nagarjuna - Everything is Empty, Everything is Possible
An Indian philosopher of the 2nd century AD. century Indian philosopher Nagarjuna was a sage who brought about the most radical transformation of Buddhist thought, centering on the doctrine of "voidness."
Nagarjuna believed that the essence of reality is voidness (śūnyatā). The emptiness he meant here was not emptiness in the sense of "non-existence", but rather that everything lacks a fixed essence, an unchanging nature.
The absence of essence means that it can be reconstituted at any moment. In other words, for him, nothing is absolute; everything emerges in a web of relations, according to context, in chains of cause and effect.
Thus, the indeterminacy of life is actually in keeping with its nature. Variability is the fundamental law of the universe.
But if you're thinking "what should we make of this now?", I'll cut to the chase.
In short, he says that we should approach uncertainty not by looking for a clear definition, a solid ground to hold on to, but by seeing it as it is, open-ended and fluid.
And here's the beauty of it:
According to Nagarjuna, this state of emptiness is not frightening, but liberating.
Because it is only when we realize that nothing is absolute that our mind is freed from strict judgments, decisions made too soon and attempts to fix life.
"Uncertainty is the mind's opportunity to see things as they are."
So when faced with uncertainty, we can stop instead of running away. To surrender to the flow of life that we cannot stop, to harmonize with it...
Sometimes the most profound insights are born precisely in those moments when we realize that we know nothing.
Ibn Arabi - The Unseen and the Field of Potential
According to Ibn Arabi, the Sufi philosopher Ibn Arabi, known for his ideas of the unity of existence (wahdat al-wujud), life is not only about what we see and what we can measure. There is a realm of "the unseen" that we do not see, that we do not know, that has not yet opened up, that is invisible but can be felt.
This unseen realm is the secret stage of destiny.
The realm of what has not yet been experienced, of what has not yet become visible... And this realm is not dark, but like a womb full of possibilities.
Indeterminacy is not a threat here; it is a space of becoming, a space of creation.
Ibn Arabi says that one must live not only with the intellect, but also with intuition, that is, with the eye of the heart. Because some things cannot be grasped by calculation or logic. They can only be experienced with a state of knowing that comes from within.
That's why sometimes that moment when we say "I don't know what to do" is actually the moment when "the new is about to be born". After all, it is not a shame not to know, it is a shame not to learn. 😊
When we reach the limit of knowledge, intuition comes into play. And intuition is the most powerful key that unlocks the door to the unseen.
According to Ibn Arabi, making peace with uncertainty is not only a matter of endurance; it is also the door to the truth.
Ghazali - Accepting the Unknowable
Ghazali was one of the most important figures in Islamic thought.
What distinguished him was not only his knowledge, but also his courage in dealing with the doubt that knowledge itself had about itself.
Ghazālī had begun to question everything in his time: Logic, theology, philosophy, even religious knowledge...
As he searched for the truth behind everything, he realized that reason can only take you so far, but after that there is a void. And that emptiness is frightening.
That's where, where knowledge ends, he started looking for another way. He turned to the heart.
Experience, intuition, inner intuition, whatever we call it, he began to become a feeling person, not a knowing person.
According to al-Ghazālī, realizing this limit was actually a transformation, not a decline.
Accepting the limitation of knowledge confronts one with uncertainty. But this confrontation also opens the door to a new search:
"The person who can say "I don't know" has really begun to learn."
Or, to put it the other way around:
"One can never really learn something that one thinks one knows, but does not really know thoroughly."
So sometimes uncertainty is not the destruction of what we know, but the beginning of a real search.
What Ghazālī's journey tells us is this:
Sometimes truth appears only where mental certainty collapses.
Scientific Perspective
Indeterminacy, the Brain and the Structure of the Universe
We always think of our brain as an organ that sees reality as it is. But let's see what science has to say about this...
Let me explain briefly, from a scientific point of view, our brain is not exactly a structure that "sees reality as it is".
Scientifically speaking, the brain is actually a prediction machine.
In neuroscience, this is called predictive processing: Rather than perceiving the outside world directly, as it is, the brain is constantly predicting what might happen and updating these predictions with incoming data.
In other words, when we enter a room, we don't first see it with our eyes and then make sense of it; our brain first predicts what we will see if we enter that room, and then works by correcting that expectation little by little as we start to see the room little by little.
This system is very efficient, but at the same time it is intolerant of uncertainty.
Because when faced with the unknown, the whole prediction engine is disabled and the brain gives a kind of "false alarm".
Therefore, uncertainty physiologically creates stress, anxiety and alertness.
How Does Uncertainty Affect the Brain?
Many fMRI studies show that in moments of uncertainty, regions such as the amygdala (threat perception) and the anterior insula (the center that monitors internal states) are activated.
But this can also trigger the creative circuits of the prefrontal cortex.
That is, if uncertainty is met with clarity rather than panic, people start to think of new ways to respond.
This means that uncertainty is not just stress, but also has the potential for creativity.
In an experiment at Columbia University, the hippocampus (the center involved in memory and learning) becomes more active when people are exposed to uncertainty for long periods of time.
What does this mean?
Incertainty may be an engine that also triggers the urge to learn.
It tells us that if you are afraid, you freeze. But if you are curious, you will transform, produce, evolve.
The-universe-itself-is-uncertain!
Quantum physics has shown us that when we get to the bottom of the universe, we encounter waves of probability instead of solid reality.
For example, we now know this: The location and velocity of a particle cannot be known with certainty at the same time. If we know its velocity with certainty, we cannot know its location with certainty, and if we know its location with certainty, we cannot know its velocity with certainty.(Heisenberg Uncertainty Principle).
When we ask where an electron is, we only have probability distributions.
Why do we expect our lives to be always clear when even the most basic structure of the universe is not absolute?
Indeterminacy is not something that nature hides from us; on the contrary, it may be nature at its most honest.
In conclusion:
Science and philosophy both say this: Uncertainty is not a malfunction. It is life itself. And when we can stay with it without fear, our mental flexibility increases and new paths open up.
Real Problems and Solutions
Why is Uncertainty So Hard?
For people today, uncertainty is not just an unknown; it is almost a threat.
Because modern life has tried to make almost everything measurable, plannable and controllable.
What time we get up in the morning is certain. Our calendar is full. We have KPIs (indicators that determine how well we perform) at work, there is a constant expectation of clarity in our relationships, we can't not know the calorie information of the products in the market, and we have even started to measure how we will feel with applications.
In this order, "not knowing" is perceived as a great deficiency.
But in fact, this is just a habit. And this habit prevents us from being flexible.
The Mind Cannot Tolerate Emptiness
Psychological research shows that the human mind tends to fill voids quickly.
Just as when there is an empty space in a room, we tend to immediately fill it with furniture, so the mind cannot resist the unknown. But we don't often think that maybe sometimes it would be better to leave the empty room to echo.
When faced with the unknown, the brain immediately generates scenarios. This is an evolutionary protection mechanism: To anticipate danger.
If our ancestors had not run away when they saw a shadow in the dark, thinking it was a monster, maybe they would have been eaten by wild animals, our lineage would not have come this far, and I would not be able to write this article.
What I am trying to say is that I can understand why we have this mechanism, why this feature is encoded in our DNA.
But today we see that this mechanism is consuming us.
- "No answer came because he doesn't care about me."
- "He asked that, so he's up to something."
- "I'm troubled inside, something bad will happen."
It's not that he doesn't care, brother, he's not up to something, nothing bad will happen.
These are coded in our genes, our brain is trying to fill that void with something bad so that a monster doesn't come out and eat us, but let's face it, we are unlikely to be eaten by a monster, so if we can recognize the bad feelings that arise in uncertainty, it makes sense to change them, because there is no need. Stress for nothing. It doesn't help us to have stress, but if we understand and accept this feeling, if we focus on our growth points, maybe this disadvantage can be turned into an advantage.
Thoughts like this often reflect the mind's attempt to cope with emptiness, not the reality. We need to understand this.
The Compulsion to Attribute Meaning to Everything
Another problem is this:
We are addicted to meaning-making, not just information. And ambiguity is one of the factors that make it difficult to produce meaning.
Because in ambiguity there is no cause, the explanation is incomplete, the outcome is unknown. But in order to ease our minds, we often find reasons that don't exist, we believe in our own fictions, and after a while, we sometimes begin to think that these fictions are the truth.
Therefore, for modern man, uncertainty is not just a lack of knowledge; it is the threat of meaninglessness.
And in the face of this threat, we either want answers immediately, we want to take control, or we want to run away...
But sometimes we just need to stay there, in the midst of not knowing, so that we can blossom, flourish, flourish.
OK-da-what-you-do, how-you-do it?
If you say that you understand what uncertainty is, that you should not fight it but walk with it, that you understand that too, but you don't understand how to do it, as always, I feel it my duty to share with you the solutions I have found for myself.
Here you go:
Practical Ways to Make Friends with Uncertainty
What would it be like if instead of fighting uncertainty, we made friends with it? Let's think about it.
Perhaps it's not a question of trying to control it, but of learning to approach that space of emptiness from a softer point of view.
I will share with you five different approaches below. These steps may seem small, but I'm sure they will have a big impact.
1. Make Friends with the Unknowable
Our mind rushes to fill in the gaps. But sometimes the right thing to do is to stay in that space.
Practices such as meditation, mindful breathing exercises, quiet walks in nature give us the space to "be present without thinking."
- Sit without a fixed purpose.
- Just watch our breath.
- Just notice what is happening.
Such practices gradually silence the mind's screaming "what will happen?"
Rather than fighting uncertainty, we learn to sense it.
2. Practices that enhance intuition
Intuition usually precedes knowledge, not follows it. But we need an inner flow to nourish the intuitive field.
To do this:
- We can keep a dream diary every morning.
- We can take spontaneous walks without pre-determining the direction we are going. (Okay, I'm out, now I'll walk in this direction. Of course, it is good not to get lost. 😂)
- We can write free writing for 5 minutes a day: It is a very relaxing act to pour your heart out, not knowing what will come out. You will be surprised by the interesting stories that may come out.
These exercises deactivate the control center of the brain, opening a deeper layer of awareness.
And over time we realize that the things we say "I don't know but I feel" can sometimes be our most accurate guide.
3. Exercises to Say "I don't know"
I remember something like this from when I lived in Turkey: everyone seemed to know every address. If you asked anyone on the street where to go, it was very difficult to find someone who said, "I don't know."
When we face three uncertain situations during the day, we can try saying:
"It could be."
"I don't know."
"I don't need to know that right now."
These are very simple, but in essence very powerful sentences. Because they allow us to recognize the mind's habit of automatically "jumping to conclusions."
This exercise dissolves the mental control reflex and replaces it with mindful clarity.
4. Taking Small Risks
One of the best ways to recognize uncertainty: open small doors to it.
What if we went out one day without a plan?
When we make a decision, we follow our gut feeling without calculating the "best outcome".
I'm not talking about big risks here, for example, if we go to a place we like the name of, rather than looking for a high-rated place to eat, and if it turns out to be bad, we give ourselves the freedom not to go there again.
Maybe it will turn out to be a very cool place, it will lead us to discover a new place.
These are small risks. But they are small practices that stretch the idea that "I have to know everything in advance".
Maybe they will lead to the following experience:
The unknown is not only the unknown; sometimes it can even be "the undiscovered".
5. Inner Confidence - Not Waiting for External Answers
Sometimes the greatest uncertainty is our dependence on external answers.
- Will the message I am waiting for arrive?
- Will I get the approval I want?
What will the person whose decision I am waiting for decide?The ability to remain in uncertainty lies in learning to walk by our own internal compass, without waiting for answers from the outside.That is why we can ask ourselves every time there is a feeling of uncertainty:If we knew that there would be no answer from the outside, would we still take this step?The answer to this question will lead us out of uncertainty and into a reality where we stay true to ourselves.
When I was living in Turkey, when I got my first job offer from the Netherlands, my wife and I talked about it, we thought, let's not miss this opportunity, let's go. We know the situation in the country. But still, let's talk to our families, let's get their approval and then let's move.Our families said we respect your decision, it was left to consult with my husband's family.As you can see, this process involved a lot of uncertainties, I wonder how it will be, how it will be if we get approval, how it will be if we get approval, moving to a new country, will we be able to get used to it, all these uncertainties were like a dense fog, it was almost impossible to see through it.My wife's father was against it at first, then her brother found it reasonable, then there was a collective meeting, the father was convinced, I accepted the job, resignations were given, and in these moments of uncertainty I realized that, okay, it was very foggy, maybe it was blurry, but as I dived into that fog, it was getting less and less dense.When I look back now, I say that it has been 9 years since we have been living here, there is no fog anymore, if we had been afraid back then, if we had not taken a step, if we had not dived into that fog, maybe we would still be fighting with the same uncertainties today.The moral of the story: uncertainty did not defeat us, we defeated it, and we did it very well. We were not afraid of it, we walked with it, and it helped us to rise to a better level of consciousness.
Conclusion and Message to the Reader
Let's agree on this: uncertainty is not our enemy. It is the very material of the life we live. And only when we come into contact with it can we be truly creative, free and alive. We have to stop fighting with it, make peace with it, learn to walk hand in hand with it. Then let me leave you with this question: What uncertainty in your life can actually be an invitation for you?
Facing uncertainty often requires staying with ourselves, not with the outside world.
When everything we thought we knew unravels, there is a feeling of mental nakedness.
And in that moment, we realize that this emptiness is not only an unknown, but also a space of vulnerability.
It is important to acknowledge this: Uncertainty unmasks the masks with which we try to appear strong.
But perhaps the real strength lies in being able to say "I don't know", "I am afraid", "I am not sure" in all its nakedness.
Oftentimes the greatest courage lies not in hiding vulnerability, but in showing it.
In my next article, we will try to find ways to face this vulnerability.
Till then, stay in love.
