Doubt

It’s not a problem

Everyone has doubts. 

Most times, when doubt arises, we want to quickly fix that. Change it. Move on. Be positive. Remove the doubt. Be sure.

But what if we lean into that sensation of doubt and let it show us something we may not otherwise have access to.

Doubt leads to inquiry if you give it space.

Feeling doubt can be there before you start something new.

What if I’m not up to it? I’m not sure that this is right for me? What if I can’t do this, then what? Why waste my energy unless I’m sure?

This kind of self-talk leads to confusion and inaction. 

And then there can be doubt arising after you’ve finished something.

I don’t know if it’s good enough? Maybe I should have …..

When we start to bring more awareness to the arising doubt and don’t go into immediate reactions of ignoring, hiding it, trying to remove doubts, trying to replace it with an air of confidence, we lose an opportunity.

An opportunity to inquire

If you let doubt take over instead of giving it a space to be there, you could miss several opportunities to let doubt show you something.

For example:

• When doubt arises, you might move too quickly and prematurely onto the next new thing so that you don’t have to feel the sensation of doubt and the stories you might associate with it. Stories like it’s messing with your productivity, or your creativity. But this is simply a story generated by the mind. 
• You might lose an opportunity  to ask others for their input that could ultimately help your doubt structure something to work better.

The mind generates stories around doubt 

Doubt in and of itself is simply energy that we can use to our benefit. But more often than not we succumb to the mind stories that tell us doubt is interfering with our ability to do what we want to do.

Our mind tells us it’s a problem

Why do we have to have doubt? 

It’s part of the over-culture to think of doubt as a problem. A culture that tells us we need to be SURE, we need to KNOW what’s what.

But how unrealistic is that? We can never be sure before beginning something where it will end up,  and we can’t know how it’s going to be received after we finish and put it out there.

Understanding that doubts have value

On the spiritual path, whether that’s yoga, meditation, mindfulness, the quest usually begins with doubt.

You doubt how the world is operating. 

You doubt your place within this world

You seek to inquire if there is a better way

You seek to inquire how you fit into the bigger picture of life

Doubt prompts you to ask the fundamental question:

Who Am I?

You sense there is more than what you’ve learned and what’s been presented to you. 

You doubt what you’ve been told because it doesn’t feel right to you.

And this leads you to step on a path of self-inquiry.

If you were sure of everything and had no doubts you might not step onto the most wondrous quest of getting to know who you are, and living from your own individual inner authority within the magnificence of the whole of creation.