About Doubt

Today has me thinking about doubt...

First, doubt doesn't mean you're doing something wrong or failing. Remember: failure is just information. Everyone doubts.

Consciousness: Mindset

What causes doubt? Let's talk about consciousness or unconsciousness.

How do we define consciousness? Consciousness is awareness. Being aware means paying attention. Pay attention to where you focus your energy.

Consider your consciousness your mental state. So, how aware are you? What are you paying attention to? What's your reaction to your surroundings? Notice where you spend most of your energy? Are your emotions helping or hurting?

How does this relate to doubt? Imagine being in a difficult circumstance and trying to solve it, but you're still in the same mindset that caused it. In that situation, you probably do what most of us do. You give the challenge your full attention and energy. Giving something your energy only increases it.

This has established the challenge as a problem.  Frustration, anxiety, and resentment increase. You give the problem additional vitality as you feel the feelings. You fuel the emotional state that leads to the thoughts and mindset that got you into this circumstance.

In these moments, remember that you can't solve a problem from the same level of mind or consciousness that produced it. You can only change your consciousness by changing your energy.

What does that mean? Changing your consciousness is realizing a new reality or solution. If you don't adjust your consciousness, you'll limit that option and fuel uncertainty by focusing on your problem, putting you further from a solution.

Mindset that Causes Doubt

Think about a difficult circumstance you fought to solve to illustrate how your mindset can increase doubt. Maybe it was a serious, worsening illness. Or financial trouble. Let's imagine you struggled with it for a long period or encountered it frequently. You did everything you thought could change it.

Identify some beliefs and feelings that contributed to the level of consciousness you connected with that experience. You may have had an old story about lack that made you feel like abundance was out of your reach. You may have spent hours online researching a difficult diagnosis and given up hope.

Looking back, you may see that you maintained focus on the problem. Maybe now you realize you became caught in that circumstance because you attacked the same problem with the same mindset—you couldn't see a different way.

We don't have a solution or a new potential if we can't visualize it. When possibility is absent, we don't think our circumstances will improve.

So, if you have a problem and are in the same mental state as when you encountered it, you'll view and react to it the same way. Even after seeing what you're doing doesn't work, you'll keep doing it.

Controlling your emotions and thoughts is now the issue. You become a victim of your environment and circumstances rather than a change agent.

The harder you try to tackle the problem in that mindset, the more elusive it becomes. And mistrust grows. Even if you know there may be a solution, you don't feel it.

New Mindset; New Options

If we use “consciousness” interchangeably with “level of mind,” “awareness,” or “energy,” perhaps the level of mind that causes uncertainty comes from energy. It's reasonable that we can't solve a problem with the same mind or energy that created it.

Simply put, to fix a problem, we must adjust our energy—or emotional state—around it. Because only by changing our energy can we change our mind and become aware of new possibilities.

When we revert to our old thoughts, feelings, beliefs, and behaviors, we return to doubt and unbelief. We restrict our perspectives and solutions to life's problems.

We must learn to shift our energy to change our mindset, and then maintain that mindset even in difficult situations.