And then there's the feeling of waiting for the other shoe to drop. Few situations are more disturbing than knowing things are out of control but feeling powerless to do anything about them.

I'm certainly no expert on financial derivatives or subprime lending. But I do know the feeling of trying to steer the ship when the waters are murky. And this applies to lots of situations in our everyday lives.

How do you live with uncertainty? In a world where things are often moving in different directions, we all need to find our own compass. Now, I'm not very good with directions (and that's an understatement). It's too bad there's no GPS for life!

A few weeks ago, I had conversations with a couple of lawyers who were planning to retire soon; now they say they'll need to keep on working because of the current uncertainties. And I had a wonderful lunch with my friend, Stephanie Ruud, to celebrate that her cancer is in remission. Her entire world has been turned upside-down for the better part of the past year.

As renowned psychologist Abraham Maslow illustrated in his Hierarchy of Needs model, we as a species have five levels of basic needs. Beyond these needs, higher levels of needs exist. These include needs for understanding and fulfillment.

According to Maslow, we don't feel the second need until the demands of the first have been satisfied, nor the third until the second has been satisfied, and so on. In other words, it's pretty hard to worry about not being enlightened when you don't know where your next meal is coming from.

Here's the order of the basic needs:

Physiological

These are biological needs - needs for oxygen, food, water and a relatively constant body temperature. They are the strongest needs because if a person were deprived of all needs, the physiological ones would come first in their search for satisfaction.

Safety

When all physiological needs are satisfied and are no longer controlling thoughts and behaviors, the needs for security can become active. Adults have little awareness of their security needs except in times of emergency or periods of disorganization in the social structure (such as widespread rioting). Children, however, often display signs of insecurity and the need to be safe.

Love, affection and belongingness

When the needs for safety and physiological well being are satisfied, the next class of needs for love, affection and belongingness can emerge. Maslow states that people seek to overcome feelings of loneliness and alienation. This involves both giving and receiving love, affection and feelings of belonging.

Esteem

When the first three classes of needs are satisfied, the needs for esteem can become dominant. These involve needs for both self-esteem and for the esteem a person gets from others. Humans have a need for a stable, high level of self-respect and respect from others. When these needs are satisfied, the person feels self-confident and valuable as a contributor in the world. When these needs aren't met, the person feels inferior, weak, helpless and worthless.

Self-actualization

When all of the previous needs are satisfied, then and only then are the needs for self-actualization activated. Maslow describes self-actualization as a person's need to be and do that which the person was "born to do." A musician must make music, an artist must paint and a poet must write. These needs make themselves felt in signs of restlessness. The person feels on edge, tense, lacking something.

If a person is hungry, unsafe, not loved or accepted, or lacking self-esteem, it's pretty easy to know what he or she is restless about. It's not always clear, though, what a person wants when there is a need for self-actualization.

If we look around us, we see all kinds of uncertain situations - layoffs, divorces and serious illnesses, to name a few. These show up in our lives on different levels of Maslow's model.

To put things into perspective and identify the fear that drives our uncertainties, it helps to acknowledge that many of our needs are already being met. This helps to dispel the myth of hopelessness. Then we can move forward to address needs in the other realms.

To cope in the midst of our storms in life, author Anne Lonsdorf has developed some simple strategies:

Five tips for living with uncertainty

1. Examine and identify your fear

2. Turn "what if" thoughts into "what is" statements

3. Be aware that you control your choices

4. Be aware that you choose your thoughts (which result in your feelings)

5. Take responsibility for yourself

I found the first two tips to be especially helpful. Sometimes we're so overwhelmed with the "ain't it awful" attitude that it's hard to zero in on the fear that's at the eye of the storm.

And then we're off and running with every imaginable scenario running through our heads. What if this happens? What if that happens? To calmly step back and reframe the situation into "what is" statements helps provide a reality check.

Once we've accomplished these two things, chances are it's easier to see that we have choices. When we're so mired in the muck, that's hard to know.

So, as we face the everyday uncertainties in our lives, it helps to realize just how many of our needs are already being met.

To paraphrase philosopher Bertrand Russell, "certainty is the enemy of wisdom."

Linda Arnold, MBA, is a certified wellness instructor and founder and chairwoman of

The Arnold Agency, an integrated marketing communications firm in Charleston. Reader comments or questions may be mailed to

Linda Arnold, The Arnold Agency, 117 Summers St., Charleston, WV 25301, or e-mail livinglifefu...@arnoldagency.com.