Here’s the first thing I want to say about the uncertainty of our future in the face of COVID19: The future has ALWAYS been uncertain. I am recording this in April for a drop date in mid-May, which gives time for a lot to have changed in between. So if you’re back at work and everything is as it was before the quarantine, great.However, I highly doubt it.Most likely your life is much the same as it was in late March and April. Meaning: the future is uncertain.When will you get to go back to work?Will your employer be there to go back to? When will schools, and restaurants, and the hair salon reopen? So here’s the perspective I want to offer: When you were planning your 2020 back in late December or early January, how many of you put this quarantine in your planner? Scheduled it in Outlook?No one. So, then, your future, as of late December or early January, was uncertain.Because your future is always uncertain.Nothing’s gone wrong to cause this pandemic. The pandemic was always going to happen.How do we know that? Because it’s happening.You can argue with reality, but you’ll lose 100% of the time.My mother was always going to die when I was 23 years old.I was always going to marry more than one man I wasn’t compatible with.I was always going to need my gall bladder removed in 2005. Nothing went wrong in each of those instances.Nothing has gone wrong in 2020.So when you think about your future, whether that’s three months from now or three years from now, it’s uncertain.The question, then, is now what?There’s a circumstance in the world called COVID19. Or, as I like to call it, Virus Jail.Now what?What do you want to think about this time of quarantine? This time of being out of a job? Or perhaps this time of working harder than you’ve ever worked?What do you want to think about your chances of getting a new job? About your financial future? About the world?What do you want to make all this mean?Here are my best strategies for navigating an uncertain future (which, remember, is always). Name the emotion. One of the most useful tools to bring your anxiety level down is to name the feeling you’re having. Sad, scared, worried, afraid, terrified…what is the emotion you’re experiencing right now? Describe how the emotion feels in your body.Calling the emotion out will really bring the anxiety about that emotion down. By bringing it out into the light, it is less scary and more manageable. Is it a fluttering in your stomach?Is your pulse racing? Do you feel pressure behind your eyes? When you think of your feelings this way, they seem much less scary and harmful. Identify the thought causing that emotion.Every emotion you experience has a corresponding thought. If I’m feeling scared, perhaps it’s because I’m thinking “I don’t want to catch the virus.”If I’m feeling afraid, perhaps it’s because I’m thinking “I don’t know how I’m going to pay my bills.”If I’m feeling sad, perhaps it’s because I’m thinking “Aunt Jenny just tested positive for the virus.”Notice it’s not COVID19 causing your feeling. It’s your thought about COVID19. About your employment status. About Aunt Jenny. Decide if you want to keep thinking that thought.Some thoughts whisk through our brain and we quickly discard them.“Where did that come from?” we ask ourselves.Other thoughts are ones that we keep thinking over and over, and they become part of our belief system.The thought creates a new neural pathway in our brain, so that the brain can become more efficient in thinking that thought by relegating it to our subconscious.This is great if those habitual thoughts serve us; not so great if those habitual thoughts are destructive.Some destructive thoughts right now that I’m hearing from a lot of clients are:“There are no jobs available.”“No one is hiring.” “It will be very difficult to get a job right now.” Give equal airtime to the best possible future.Because the future is always uncertain, why not entertain the possibility of the best possible future for yourself? I