Hello and welcome back. My name is Kimberly Quinlan and this is your anxiety toolkit podcast,

speaking about anything and everything related to anxiety and mindfulness.

Hi guys, I'm back and today the name of the podcast is The Beginners Mind.

Today my goal is to look at uncertainty and how it exists on a spectrum.

In addition to that, we're looking at this idea or concept of the beginner's mind and to discuss some

tools to help manage that. I also wanted to discuss curiosity and how we might even implement

that into our beginner's mind. So let's get started. When I speak with people about uncertainty, usually they immediately will nod their head and say, yes, yes, that is me, I am always uncertain. Others might immediately shake their head and go, no, no, no, I hate uncertainty. Please do not discuss

uncertainty with me. And I find that to be a very interesting response to a word that is a part

of our life and is something we all have to accept and work on. Really, if we look at it through the lens of an anxiety disorder or those of us who struggle

with anxiety, uncertainty is the cornerstone of these worries and fears and anxieties that we

have.

I really like to look at uncertainty on a spectrum.

And on one end is uncertainty, the definition of uncertainty being the state of being uncertain.

Another word to describe it is doubt or hesitancy.

What is really interesting for me is on this end of the spectrum, the synonyms given for the word uncertainty are words like

anxiety, distrust, hesitation, irresolution, indecision, and ambivalence. And I think that for those

of us who've experienced uncertainty or an anxiety disorder related to

uncertainty, these are really strong, powerful words that we resonate with. Now on the other end of

the spectrum is certainty. The definition of certainty is a firm conviction that something is the case.

And when I read that, I kind of cracked up a little bit and thought, well, wouldn't that be nice?

Wouldn't it be nice to have a firm conviction?

As you can see, our behaviours change and are very different depending on where we are on the spectrum.

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