Mapping Our Relationship With Certainty
Slowing down our thinking can help us process more deeply and explore what is going on beneath the surface. I’ve been noticing that when thinking slows, action is more likely to emerge from meaning rather than urgency.
Where does the quest for certainty have an impact?
For me, it can create a physical tightening. I notice a drive to compress nuance and hoard understanding. Demanding a reason, purpose, and use for things.
Someone responded to this question by saying the quest for certainty can be like any other addiction. A pattern that promises relief, but often tightens its grip the more we rely on it.
It can reveal something about the state of our inner world and its relationship to our broader context.
As I sat with this question in my journal a few days ago, I realised I didn’t want to think my way through it. It felt worth exploring visually.
Unfinished maps
This reflection was inspired by the idea of unfinished maps, which is our theme this season in The Haven. I felt compelled to get the watercolours out and see what might emerge if I mapped my response instead of writing it.
I began using maps at the end of 2020 as a way to visualise experiences, intentions, and hopes for life. Imagining life as an island helped me move away from goal lists and towards a more values-led, experimental way of orienting myself. It led to the birth of The Return To Serenity Island.
Maps make space for imagining the future without a fixed or limiting vision of how it should look. They are valuable not just as descriptions of experience but as ways of navigating it. They show supportive and difficult terrain and possible routes through it. By slowing down and picturing life this way, we can deepen our connection to intuition and make quicker, more meaningful responses in future.
Mapping certainty
When I mapped my relationship with certainty, two images emerged.
The first was a small island divided into areas. The upper part represented the sense of connection I feel when my relationship with certainty is flexible, supporting action rather than constraining it. Not brittle or absolute, but a grounding that gives intentions and plans the best chance to grow.
Between this and the lower terrain lay a connecting middle ground dominated by what I called the Imagination Fortress. A neutral zone where our interpretations, reading between the lines, and what-ifs can either open up possibilities or slide into catastrophising.
Around the edge of the island ran a trail of small things. Practical reminders that help me find my way back to openness and connection.
Why this matters
I’m not sharing these maps because I think their specific content will be useful to you. If a hundred of us mapped our relationship with certainty, we’d end up with a hundred very different maps.
That’s what I love about this Serenity Island style approach to thinking about life. It isn’t a blueprint or a set of instructions. It’s an invitation to slow down and notice how we’re actually relating to the terrain of our lives.
And what’s more, in truth, it isn’t really about the map at all. Something shifted simply because I spent time there, thinking slowly and deeply, processing and reflecting on real experiences, and letting myself feel the meaningful pulls I want to make space to explore.
By turning these sources into creative rather than cognitive energy, I felt lighter and more connected than I sometimes do when I try to think my way through similar issues.
Maps like this are about orientation rather than outcomes. About coming home to ourselves within life’s real landscapes, instead of pushing for neat solutions or urgent certainty.
That’s why I think they can offer anchoring in an uncertain world. Mapping helps us name difficult terrain while also imagining the structures we want to build to navigate it.
When things feel foggy or noisy, this kind of practice can offer a way to find some options for intuitively moving through it.
An invitation
The Return To Serenity Island is a self-paced journey that gently guides you through creating maps for your life, imagined as an island. It’s there if you’d like support in exploring this way of thinking more deeply.
Many people are navigating uncertain financial circumstances right now, so I’ve made it available on a choose-your-own-price basis.
We’re beginning our first live sessions for 2026 on 24 January. If this approach resonates with you, it would be lovely to see you there.
