XX7 and Shiva: Staying Steady Without Complete Certainty

The evening before presenting work to a new audience, we have prepared our notes and checked the arrangements. One question still circles: will the audience respond as we hope? No further adjustment can fully answer it tonight. In this reflection on XX7, we at Ishta Mel turn towards Shiva to consider steadiness when certainty is unavailable. Some questions remain open even after sensible preparation. We still have to eat, speak to people, honour commitments and decide how to use the hours before us. Our conduct needs a foundation that does not depend on knowing the outcome in advance.

Recognise the question that cannot be settled yet

Uncertainty can contain several different questions. We may need to check a time, understand an instruction or confirm that someone received a message. Those are specific matters we can often resolve. Predicting another person's response is different. We can prepare thoughtfully and understand the situation reasonably well, while still being unable to know how the experience will unfold. Treating these questions as identical can send us searching long after useful checking has ended.

In the presentation example, reading the invitation again may settle the starting time. Reading it twenty more times will not reveal the audience's future judgment. We can notice when an action has stopped producing information and started serving only the wish to feel certain. The wish is understandable. Recognising it allows us to decide whether repeating the action is still helping us meet the actual task.

Shiva is our devotional focus as we seek the steadiness to remain present with an unanswered question. Our prayer can ask for clarity about what is ours to do and patience with what has not yet become known. This gives uncertainty a place within the day. We can acknowledge it without requiring every other activity to stop around it.

Choose what remains sensible across possible outcomes

When we cannot know exactly what will happen, we can look for actions that make sense in more than one plausible future. Resting before the presentation supports us whether the audience responds warmly or cautiously. Keeping our notes readable is useful whether the room is lively or quiet. Speaking respectfully remains worthwhile regardless of the feedback. Such actions provide a dependable basis for choice.

We can also examine commitments we are tempted to make in anticipation of one hoped-for outcome. Perhaps we want to cancel another responsibility because we imagine that the presentation will lead immediately to more opportunities. That is a substantial change built on something that has not happened. We can keep the existing commitment and leave room to consider a real opportunity if it appears. Our present choices then rest on what we can reasonably support today.

For readers reflecting on XX7, this approach makes self-command practical. Ask whether a decision would still seem reasonable if events unfolded less favourably than hoped. If it would leave us unable to honour something important, the commitment may need to be smaller or more flexible. We are choosing an amount of responsibility that can be carried within the uncertainty we actually face.

Prepare responses without rehearsing every possible future

A little consideration of alternatives can help. If the audience asks a question we cannot answer, we can acknowledge it and explain what we do know. If the allotted time becomes shorter, we can keep the main point and reduce the examples. These preparations concern our response to recognisable situations. They give us useful options without requiring us to predict which situation will occur.

The exercise becomes less useful when it expands endlessly. We imagine one awkward expression, then another, then a complete account of what every person might think. These imagined scenes rarely produce a proportionate new action. We can ask whether the next scenario would change our preparation in a meaningful way. If it would not, we have a reason to stop constructing it and return to the present task.

A simple fallback is often enough. Know the essential point we want to communicate, the person to approach if arrangements change and the responsibility that follows the event. These anchors support us through ordinary variation. We can let the rest of the experience remain an experience we will meet when it arrives.

Keep uncertainty from governing every conversation

When an outcome matters to us, we may repeatedly ask friends what they think will happen. Their reassurance can feel good for a moment, then the unanswered question returns. We can instead ask for something they are actually able to offer: an honest response to our opening paragraph, help carrying materials or company during an ordinary meal. Specific support gives the relationship a useful role in the present.

We can also tell people how we feel without asking them to resolve the future. “I have prepared, and I still feel uncertain about tomorrow” is a complete and understandable statement. It allows companionship without making another person responsible for a prediction. We remain free to discuss other parts of their day as well. Our uncertainty deserves attention, while the relationship contains more than this single concern.

Let present conduct be the measure for today

At the end of the evening, the outcome may still be unknown. We can nevertheless assess what we have done: prepared adequately, kept our promises, sought relevant help and left ourselves ready for tomorrow. These are observable actions. They provide a fairer account of the day than judging it by a future response that has not yet occurred.

Our reflection on XX7 invites us to practise this distinction whenever a personal interest makes an uncertain outcome feel urgent. We can care about the result and still choose how to behave before it arrives. Steadiness grows through those choices, including the choice to stop asking the present for information it cannot yet provide.

At Ishta Mel, we turn towards Shiva for patience spacious enough to hold both effort and uncertainty. We place the notes where they belong, complete the ordinary evening and meet the next day when it comes. The future remains open, and our present conduct can still be thoughtful, kind and dependable.