February 2021

I write this on another grey cold morning as the country is still firmly under lockdown.  It has been almost a year since I held a residential retreat here.  There is a kind of wonder in me how this has happened: what was always precious but unquestioned is no longer a given.  So much of what we took for granted cannot be at this time.  And I am acutely aware of how much this is the tip of the iceberg in terms of facing into the future.   I think most of us would agree that we are being called to meet more and more uncertainty.

Recently Colin and I watched a talk by a neuroscientist called Beau Lotto which I strongly recommend, in which he beautifully illustrates the brain’s need to create predictable patterns in order to feel safe.  We are hard-wired to avoid uncertainty as a survival mechanism and will do all we can on this level to secure a sense of predictability – which means that much of what we actually perceive is massively limited by what we expect to be here, (based on our past).  Which means we rarely perceive reality as it is, but through the lens of our assumptions and preconceptions.  The effects of this are massive.   He speaks articulately of how it is, that the only way our brains can evolve, is by being put in situations of uncertainty; this is where growth happens most powerfully, where creativity can emerge, and genius can thrive.  However, it seems to me that unless we have a deeper ground of being which knows itself as already ok - and is deeper and wider than our conditioned responses– we won’t be likely to access the evolutionary potential of the situation but will revert to our most primal survival instincts.

In other words we actually need situations of uncertainty to throw us out of the familiar - in order to grow.  Situations which demand us to wake up to our habits and find new ways of relating with life, are essential and life enhancing as well as pretty uncomfortable!

Fanny