Uncertainty

I was just listening to a podcast yesterday while I ran called The Art of Charm.  It was a conversation with author Olivia Fox Cabane on The Science of Creativity and Genius.  She says that each of us have a threshold for uncertainty.  That once we have reached that threshold, we go to fight, flight or freeze.  

Check out the podcast.  https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/art-charm-confidence-relationship/id212382281?mt=2&i=340354310

The podcast I ran with this morning again addressed uncertainty from a different angle.  Civility and Doubt.  Often in a discussion when two people hold opposing views, one or both will become uncivil and aggressive.  I considered what I learned yesterday about uncertainty and how the brain responds – that the brain reacts to uncertainty in the same way that it reacts to pain; with an urgent directive to resolve it, creating a tension that won’t go away without resolution.  We want to be certain – confident.  And this works against us when we are certain or confident about things that aren’t certain.   When doubt is introduced, tension is created so that we want to defend what we hold as certain – even to the point of uncivil aggression.  This is why it is so hard to be open minded about those thoughts, ideas, values and principles that I hold dear.  It reminds me of the quote from the back of the Big Book of Alcoholics Anonymous,

“There is a principle which is a bar against all information, which is proof against all arguments and which cannot fail to keep man in everlasting ignorance.  That principle is contempt prior to investigation.”

Yet, when I become open minded, willing to consider the possibility that I have placed my confidence in a position that may not be accurate, the tension of uncertainty (aka curiosity) will serve me by inspiring investigation and inquiry until the uncertainty is replaced by insight and clarity.