Internal tension that doesn’t switch off

There’s a lot of uncertainty around at the moment, with job changes, losses, and things not going to plan. It’s something that’s coming up more and more in sessions. That underlying tension that doesn’t quite switch off, the constant “what ifs,” and the pressure to try and plan or control what’s ahead.

There’s a quote I’ve always liked, “make god laugh, tell him your plans.” It feels relevant, because we can spend so much time worrying about what might happen, only to be met with something we never even considered. Anxiety often sits in that space, not just in what’s real, but in everything that hasn’t happened yet.

What I notice in the room is how powerful it can be when someone begins to gently come back to what is, rather than everything that could be. Sometimes that can be as simple as pausing and asking, “what’s actually underneath this for me right now?” Often there’s something quieter there, fear, uncertainty, pressure, or something that hasn’t quite been given space yet.

Sometimes there’s a real urge to move away from that, to rush out of the discomfort of not knowing. But often it’s in staying with it, even just a little longer, that something begins to emerge that we didn’t know was there before.

Sometimes the shift isn’t in fixing it, but in staying with it long enough to understand it.