What Years of Unpredictability Have Cost You

Predictability disappeared almost overnight when the lockdowns began. Children learned through screens, offices emptied, and daily routines that had structured life for decades were dismantled in weeks. Even simple tasks like grocery shopping carried uncertainty. That disruption wasn't just logistical. It destabilized the nervous system because humans rely on rhythm to feel safe.

You adapted quickly by building home offices and reorganizing childcare while your body recalibrated to a new normal. You got used to holding meetings on Zoom, yet it created more isolation and less connection. Online tracking of your activities became normalized within the corporate structure. Some of you managed this while partners and children were home all day, challenging every boundary you had. Then the ground shifted again. Employees were called back, children returned to classrooms, and commutes resumed. Just as you settled into one structure, you were required to dismantle it and build another.

Instability hasn't slowed since then. Now travel feels tenuous with ICE raids, citizenship questioning, and new rules floated daily about proving your identity. Policy shifts bring renewed political intensity, AI reshapes industries, and inflation stretches household budgets. You don't have to debate politics to feel the effect. The common thread is unpredictability.

Unpredictability activates survival physiology. When the environment feels unstable, the body shifts into protective mode. You might experience sleep disturbances, digestive issues, or irritability. You check the news and social media constantly, overwork, or struggle to make decisions without overanalyzing. Most of us don't call this fear. We call it staying prepared. In the short term, that response is intelligent. The problem is duration. Your nervous system is built to handle acute stress, not years of rolling disruption. When adaptation becomes constant, the body stops returning to baseline. What began as a temporary adjustment becomes your operating state.

That's where the cost shows up. Thinking narrows, patience decreases, and decisions skew reactive. Creativity drops, and relationships absorb irritability that doesn't seem proportionate to the moment. Your body carries inflammation and fatigue that no amount of productivity resolves. You can function like this for a long time, but you are functioning from a defensive state. Sustained defense reshapes identity, decreases clarity, and causes physical changes in your body.

Here's the distinction that matters. Instability in the world may be real, but chronic internal activation doesn't have to be. You can acknowledge policy shifts, economic pressure, and technological disruption without your physiology behaving as if immediate danger is present. You tell yourself you're just being informed. Meanwhile, your nervous system thinks a lion moved in next door.

To fix it requires deliberate regulation. A practical place to start is simple.

1. Before reacting to information, pause and assess whether there is a concrete problem in front of you that requires action today.
2. If not, slow your breathing and extend the exhale for as long as possible.
3. Let your body settle before making decisions.

Once the nervous system stabilizes, perception widens. You move from reflex to discernment.

We may continue to live in an era of constant change. The real risk isn't that change exists. It's that your body never exits defensive mode long enough to think clearly. If you've been living in a heightened state for years, it can be difficult to remember what a true baseline feels like. Most people try to solve this cognitively. They consume more information, strategize harder, and attempt to out-think instability. This isn't a thinking problem. It's a regulation problem. When the nervous system has adapted to sustained unpredictability, it often needs deliberate recalibration to reset. It requires stabilization rather than motivation, productivity tools, or political analysis.

If you recognize that your baseline has shifted and you're operating from ongoing internal activation, that's exactly the kind of work I do privately. You don't have to keep living in survival mode; inner peace and calm can be intentionally cultivated.

Bernadette Gold
https://www.bernadettegold.com/recalibrate