421. All Will Be Revealed

Have you felt a little agitated the last few weeks? Us too. Nora shares a mantra she’s been saying to herself to stay grounded in stressful times.

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Everyone seems to be a little bit on edge lately. Feels like everyone is dealing with a lot. Feels like things are a little wild, to put it mildly.
And as tempting as it is to wake up every day and reach for my cortisol machine, which is now what I call my phone, I’m trying not to.
I am trying to remind myself that I do not need to scroll or comment or refresh or stream or argue, that I do not need to feel a rush of anxiety or anger or anguish or apathy.
I do not need to switch into self-righteous mode, even though that’s my habit. It is a hard habit to break.
We live in an era where we’ve never had more information, and I don’t think we’ve ever also simultaneously had more information and known less. We are drinking from a fire hose of human suffering and injustice every day.
And when we start down that road, it is hard to get off of. So I think I have established myself as one of the foremost champions of rumination, worrying, obsession and circular thought.
And so the mantra that my family and I have been saying in the face of every kind of uncertainty is this, and I’m going to share it with you right now. We have been saying, all will be revealed. What’s for dinner?
All will be revealed. What’s going to happen? All will be revealed.
And honestly, all will be revealed. The grades that you’re waiting to be posted online, the job application that you’ve submitted, or the pregnancy test you peed on, or this might just be a personal example from the year 2014.
But the results for the MRI your boyfriend just did because he had a seizure at work. Once you’ve done all that you can do, all that is yours to do, what is there to do except worry?
For those of us who are used to just waking up and getting right on the emotional roller coaster and heading straight to the anxiety spiral, I have a few ideas.
Instead of worrying today, pick one annoying administrative task that you have been putting off and do it. Something small. Renew your library card.
Book the dentist appointment. See if they can get you in today. OK?
And then I want you to bask in the glory of finishing what you once thought would just move from one day’s to-do list to the next day’s to-do list to the next day’s until it has been on your list so long you think, you know what, I’m never going to
the dentist ever again. Go for a walk. Go for a really long walk. People are obsessed with walking right now.
Walking is the new running, which was the new walking at one point. You can leave your phone at home and force yourself to soak up the magic of bilateral movement and endorphins without any other distractions. You will hear birds.
You’ll hear cars. You’ll be forced to notice the things that you ignore when you are blasting your brain with a podcast, no offense to myself, or a playlist.
Maybe you’ll say hi to a neighbor and they’ll say hi back and then whoa, you’re in love and you’re getting married and I better be invited to the wedding. Remember that even when things seem like they are the very worst, there is more.
There is more to do. There is more to learn. There are more ways to make an impact in the ways that we belong to each other.
Our fates are connected even to the fates of people who we find horrible. Remember that it is in our collective interest to remain open and engaged and tune towards the collective, towards us. All will be revealed.
I’m Nora McInerny, this is It’s Going To Be OK. We believe it, or we’re trying to. Not everything’s going to be OK, but something will be, and we might have to be it ourselves, and that is OK.
Our team here is Claire McInerny, who produced this episode, Marcel Malekebu and Grace Barry. This episode was mixed by Amanda Romani, and our theme music is by Secret Audio.