Embracing Uncertainty: Breakthrough Methods for Achieving Peace of Mind When Facing the Unknown

by Susan Jeffers

Book Overview

From the multimillion bestselling author of Feel the Fear and Do It Anyway comes a powerful and healing book designed to offer a safety net in a world of never-ending change. It may be one of the most... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0312325835
• ISBN13: 9780312325831
• Release Date: March 2004
• Publisher: St. Martins Press-3PL
• Length: 304 Pages
• Weight: 0.85 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.8" x 5.5" x 8.4"

Customer Reviews

Brilliant, useful writing by a first-class thinker and teacher

Susan Jeffers is a national expert on fear and tools to move past fear. This book is a recent effort, and is in a sense the next stage past her best-seller "Feel the Fear and Do It Anyway." She takes what has to be one of the most unnerving topics for most people to even consider, embracing the uncertainty of life, and offers pragmatic, clear tools for doing exactly that. Just the discussion of letting go of outcomes should be required reading for anyone 10 years old and up. While the book has a spiritual leaning it is by no means necessary to be of any spiritual belief, or even spiritual at all, to find this book highly useful.

I Totally Adore This Book

That's why I mentioned it in my own book, Beyond the Secret. Why? Because I feel Embracing Uncertainty provides a vital understanding that sometimes we are not meant to think our whole lives through and manifest and attract whatever we think we want. Sometimes, we are meant to take a seat in the audience, as Jeffers so wisely reveals, and watch the play of our lives unfold. What happens when we do this? We learn to allow! We learn to live more comfortably within the space of not knowing. We no longer fear uncertainty, or the spaces in our lives where we can't figure it all out. This in turn allows us to make room for something more vital than our own limited perspective of the world. It makes room for Spirit, with it's larger and often more wiser point of view. - Dr. Lisa Love, Beyond the Secret

The Most Comforting Self-Help Book I Ever Read

I have read Embracing Uncertainty by Dr. Susan Jeffers a couple of times and I find it the most comforting self-help book that I have ever read. Seldom is one provided with so many wonderful tools to overcome the stress and anxiety caused by the troubled world around us. Against the background of the current world crisis, a lousy economy and the constant threat of terrorist attacks, we all need help to keep calm and balanced, and I found Dr. Jeffers's advice to be ideal in terms of leveling my personal equilibrium. Now, I can approach each day with much more confidence and handle the uncertainty in the world without feeling fearful and stressed. Further, the book is filled with such common sense advice that's so clearly stated, it is accessible to everyone. I can't recommend this highly enough! A great gift for loved ones...

This book changed my life

By the time I had finished reading Chapter 1 of Susan's wonderful book, I had made a life-changing decision. The large house my husband and I loved had become a burden in this wretched economy, and we were agonizing over whether to downsize or struggle to hang on. "What if we'll never be able to own such a fabulous house again?" we thought. "Are we failures because we haven't been able to keep up with the Joneses?" "What will happen to us now?" The fear, longing, and possible disgrace were eating us alive. Then I found Susan's book. Stop hoping and start wondering, she counsels. Look at life not with fear, hope, and expectations, but with curiosity, she says. "I wonder how this will turn out" is the attitude to take. Turn your life into a story, one in which you can't wait to get to the next episode to see what will happen. Boom! Her advice knocked my socks off. I've never been able to resist seeing what's around the next corner. I decided to let the house go, and my husband agreed. Let the adventure begin! I once knew a woman who claimed that she was so optimistic that she could even look on the bright side when someone was dying of cancer. I never understood what she meant, but I've kept her mysterious statement in the back of my mind all these years. Susan's book made my friend's statement clear at last. When you can infuse your life with meaning and purpose, find the positive in both good and bad experiences, and use everything you've been through as an opportunity for learning, you can be optimistic in the face of hardship. Susan tells of a holocaust survivor who found fulfillment in helping other concentration camp inmates; a stroke victim and a quadriplegic who lived full, meaningful lives by focusing on helping others. It can all be done by letting go of expectations and making the most of what we have here and now. After all, as John Lennon said, life is what happens while you're making other plans. It takes courage and ingenuity to follow Susan's advice, but I promise that if you do, you will be transformed. I know this from my own experience, not just with the house, but from thinking back over my life. Think of it this way: You can continue to suffer, or you can embrace uncertainty and find golden nuggets all around you.