I recently came across an intriguing idea attributed to the poet John Keats called “negative capability.”
As the Poetry Foundation explains, “in his letters, [Keats] writes about beauty, the imagination, and the concept of ‘Negative Capability’ – ‘when man is capable of being in uncertainties, Mysteries, doubts, without any irritable reaching after fact & reason.’”
One of the hardest emotions to cultivate and nurture is feeling comfortable with uncertainty, embracing the unknown, and the mystery of what is to come next.
What Keats names is the opposition of feeling comfortable in such situations is becoming “irritable.”
Most of us want to feel capable as we move through our days and lives, but it is worth considering the value of embracing at times, “negative capability.”
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