Want to experience “the joy of certainty”?

If you listen or watch CNN, you’ll often hear this question in an ad for California Psychics. A soothing voice reassures you that psychics will be able to help you “clear away the cloud of doubt.”

The message comes across as compelling, especially since we humans dislike uncertainty. Uncertainty makes us feel uncomfortable, disoriented, and anxious. We prefer our brain to function the way it was designed—as a pattern detection machine predicting what will happen next for us, as I learned in my neuroscience studies.

Instead, we’re noticing how our brain and the rest of us are now constantly startled by shocks, swirls, and surprises in our environment that disrupt our norms, disorient us, and make us feel unbalanced. Reminding ourselves that we’re living in a VUCA world that’s volatile, uncertain, complex and ambiguous doesn’t settle us; instead, it increases our unease and discomfort.

While we may long to clear away all the clouds of doubt, it’s a pipe dream—with or without a psychic’s help. According to Julia DiGangi, the neuropsychologist and author of Energy Rising: The Neuroscience of Leading with Emotional Power, the more you try to find certainty the more anxious you will feel. You run the risk of destabilizing your nervous system as well as creating a fearful state of existence for yourself and possibly others too.

What can you do to manage the uncertainty you face in your life?

1. Get greater clarity about who you are. When you can align your feelings and values with your thinking and your behaviors, you can feel authentic with a clear identity, according to Dr. DiGangi. You’ll then feel more grounded, be able to keep your nervous system more in balance, and increase your sense of confidence for existing day-to-day, including navigating novel situations. (It also helps to remind yourself how you’ve dealt with uncertainty in the past.)

2. Seek safety. The human brain needs to feel safe to function well. You can increase your sense of safety and security through social connections with other human beings you know, like and trust. Feeling safe also means taking care of yourself. Get enough sleep, eat a healthy diet and exercise, or some form of physical movement. And try to stay calm and carry on, rather than live in fear.

3. Create good memories to help yourself live in the past, present and future. We may think we live in the moment, but neuroscience research shows that we’re pulling memories from our past and reconstructing them to help us imagine our future. Eleanor Maguire, the pioneering neuroscientist who studied the brains of London cabdrivers as well as those with amnesia, discovered with her team that our memories help us stimulate the future. “The whole point of the brain is future planning,” according to Dr. Maguire as she was quoted in Margaret Heffernan’s 2020 book, Uncharted: How to Navigate the Future. Dr. Maguire also said, “You need to survive and think about what happened when I was last here, is there a scary monster that will come out and eat me? We create models of the future by recruiting our memories of the past.”

From a practical perspective, the more positive experiences you have, the more you’ll help your future self with good memories. They can counter the negative experiences with the bad memories. (Now on a sad note, Dr. Maguire died earlier this year of cancer. The New York Times recently published a touching tribute to her and her amazing, award-winning work, which can inspire all of us.)

Also note that you’ll have an easier time taking any of these three steps on their own or in combination when you have self-awareness as well as a growth mindset. That’s because you’re more likely to recognize that you have the power and energy to address any pain you’re experiencing. You also will be able to mitigate difficulties before they adversely affect you, and preemptively make improvements.

Nonetheless, if you’re a functioning adult, you should be able to take the initiative to manage your feelings, thoughts, and actions. Others shouldn’t be controlling what you feel, think or do. If you’re not practicing full agency for yourself, you can learn to steer yourself through life’s uncertainties with practice on your own as well as with help and guidance from others.

Please be aware that you can act on your own or with help or guidance from friends, family and if you prefer, professionals who can support you. Yes, check out any number of trained experts in various fields to help you, rather than the psychics who promise to lift the “cloud of doubt” to bring about the “joy of certainty.” If that latter phrase sounds especially enticing, it’s from the UK marketing agency krowLondon. They created it to expand the appeal of California Psychics to a wider audience according to this newsletter.

Based on my work as a leadership coach and Neuroplastician™, I say that finding the “joy of certainty” is about as likely as finding a pot of gold at the end of the rainbow. However, on a more positive note, we humans, including you, can experience joy in many ways. You just know where to look and what to do based on your personal preferences.

Where are you finding joy these days to help you manage your life? Keep in mind that your joy as well as other positive experiences can contribute good memories to support and guide your future self. So make some good memories!