Letters From the Nest, October 20, 2023
https://lettersfromthenest.substack.com/p/anticipation
It’s time for my monthly contribution to the Nestlings Substack.
And I’m putting it off.
I have thoughts. I have even written some introductory paragraphs and collected them in a document entitled, “Essay Ideas.” They’re meant as an easy boost when I’m stuck.
But none of those ideas are appealing.
Things just seem too hard.
Do you ever feel like that?
Do you anticipate difficulty, danger, stress, and then in the face of that upcoming challenge, you stop moving forward because then maybe you won’t actually have to face it?
It doesn’t work. Time marches on. Life happens. Deadlines approach. Ready or not, you are faced with the anticipated challenge, and now you’ve wasted time you could have used preparing because you were frozen with fear. Grrrr.
Our brains are wired to anticipate danger, which, in our modern age often appears as stress. We note an approaching situation or challenge, and we will say to ourselves or each other, “This is going to be hard.” This disclosure is meant to be a helpful warning. By anticipating challenges, you can, in an ideal, non-deer-in-the-headlights world, properly prepare to conquer, or at least survive.
It’s like when you prepare for a difficult exam. Unless it’s a pop quiz, you know the date of the exam. You can anticipate the material the exam will cover. You probably feel nervous and will say to yourself or fellow students, “This is going to be hard.”You can choose to turn that anxiety into a drive to prepare by studying and practicing the material, or you can freeze so that on exam day, you have essentially predicted the result.
But what if life brings challenge after challenge after challenge so that even little things like deciding what to make for dinner or what to write for a once-a-month essay become big things? You can’t even take a breath between challenges because they’re smacking you in the face one after another.
Sounds rough, huh? What then?
I wouldn’t be rambling about this through my keyboard if I had a good answer. Here’s one idea: Anticipating challenges is healthy and can be helpful, but could we train our brains to give just as much airtime to anticipating blessings, goodness, and help? Our brains are wired to see patterns. Is there a way to draw greater attention to positive patterns? I know this isn’t a new theory. There are actual scientific experiments on the positive effects of gratitude on mental health. So if we can recognize things in our present and past that we’re grateful for, can’t we also anticipate future reasons to be grateful?
It is true that we can’t always see what’s around the corner. But this should go for both the good and the bad. We know we will experience challenges, and we also know we can expect blessings.
The Prophet Isaiah, the King of Dichotomy, says of Jesus Christ, “He will swallow up death in victory, and the Lord God will wipe away tears from off all faces; and the rebuke of his people shall he take away from off all the earth; for the Lord hath spoken it.”
This is where I find peace.
I can anticipate death AND victory; tears AND the wiping away of those tears.
It’s just as likely that an unexpected accident can happen as an unexpected windfall. So, when I find myself thinking or saying to an associate, “This is going to be hard,” I can add with confidence, “I will have the help I need to get through it.”
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