The author of your story.
Have you heard of the Zeigarnik effect?
The Zeigarnik effect is a mental phenomenon in which people remember uncompleted or interrupted tasks better than completed ones because the brain treats unfinished business as an active “open loop” and creates cognitive tension until it gets closure. Your brain keeps reminding you about a task, unresolved work creates a subconscious burden, and incomplete jobs stay fresh in your memory because the mind naturally wants an ending.
Now this can work to your benefit. When you’re muti-tasking and need to send the email to your client, book the dinner reservation for your spouse's birthday, put the laundry in the washing machine, and call your doctor to schedule a follow up appointment all while you’re making breakfast for your children, the effect kicks in. All of these “open loops” help you to not forget each detail and ensure the list of “to-dos” come to completion. Because your mind naturally wants an ending. It craves it. We were not designed to be “okay” with unfinished stories. That’s why when we’re left on a cliffhanger watching the end of the movie, we want the sequel. When a relationship ends without a “why” or understanding, we crave conversation. When we apply for a job, we’d rather hear “no” than nothing at all. And when someone calls you for advice about a situation, it has the potential to stay on our mind until the friend calls back to close the loop on what happened.
The point is, unresolved work creates a subconscious burden. And the most relatable unresolved work to every human being is life itself. The questions we ask like “what’s next?”, “what will tomorrow bring”, “Am I working in my purpose?”, “How long can I survive without certainty?”. All of these questions and thoughts are open loops that crave an answer. An ending. A solution and a clear direction. But what happens when we inevitably can’t close the loop on a thought or question that transcends our control? How do we peacefully live with these ideas when your mind naturally wants an ending?
We surrender.
When I say surrender, I don’t mean sit and do nothing. I mean relinquish the need for answers and redirect our awareness. Oftentimes when we have several questions about something, it’s because there’s a lack of trust in the circumstance or situation. We usually don’t question something that we feel certain about because our awareness is in the evidence of a past experience instead of the possibility of an unmet expectation. For example, you might feel confident that your husband will take the trash out on Thursday night for garbage pick up on Friday morning because he’s been doing it for years. It’s in his routine. The trust has been established that he will do it without you even needing to ask. You don’t lie awake on Thursday wondering “Did he forget? Should l go check? What if he didn’t want to this week?” No. You go to sleep with your mind on the evidence that he has taken the trash out week after week, and you rest. You easily close the loop and the burden is non-existent. Why? Because your awareness of your husband’s presence overshadows your need for answers, and you can feel peace in the unknown. His presence means it’s done.
When we can get to the point of craving God’s presence over His answers to life’s biggest questions, we feel peace in the unknown. Because we know that His presence comes with evidence of completion. We know God’s plans are already secured because in Psalm 139:16 it says, “Your eyes saw my unformed body; all the days ordained for me were written in your book before one of them came to be”. We can rest in the truth that His rest and provisions were set from the start because in Hebrews 4:3 it says “And yet His works have been finished since the creation of the world.” We can be confident that history and time follow a pattern fully known and held by God because in Ecclesiastes 3:15 it decrees, “Whatever is has already been, and what will be has been before; and God will call the past to account.”
If you feel yourself with more open tabs in your mind than usual about a transition, a career, a relationship, or a next step, ask yourself three questions:
What is my awareness resting on in this moment?
What question or thought can I surrender to God?
What would my day look like if I believed that His plans are already secured and His provisions were set from the start?
Reflect more on the completion you have in Him and through Him. He knows the end from the beginning (Isaiah 46:10) and authored your story in detail. Close the open loop and trust it.
With Love,
Elle Bee
