Warning: Naughty language ahead!

Doubt is like an invasive species that creeps into your consciousness and can eventually take over, killing your dreams if it’s not pulled up by the roots.

This is an experience that will be common for anyone growing into their dreams and potential. As we step into new visions and bring dreams to life, often times we will hear those old voices of doubt and insecurity coming up.

The feelings associated with these negative thoughts are usually anxiety, feeling low, foggy, heavy or sad. It is seriously such a mental and emotional strain to have to listen to everyday—not to mention the buzz kill to my life!

At first the natural tendency is to just keep truckin’. To plug away at our projects, ignore it and move forward despite the discomfort. But as the doubt wraps itself around the things we’re trying to accomplish, it becomes nearly impossible to continue on. It’s like wading through quicksand or the Swamps of Sadness in  The NeverEnding Story. The energy of doubt eventually weighs us down until we either sink or deal with it.

This is a cycle that will happen many times on the journey to creating the life we want. Whenever we get a blast of new clarity and start trekking in a glorious new direction new doubts pop up, which are actually old doubts that have been hiding beneath the surface layer of our consciousness. All the stories attached to these doubts and beliefs really don’t matter that much. We all have stuff and thingies, like old fears, trauma and unconscious weirdness in us. Sometimes when this stuff surfaces it’s like our body or intuition saying, “Whoa Betsy, slow down, you haven’t got the whole picture yet or there’s something over here you need to take a look at first.”

Whatever the message, it is so worth taking the time to just deal with it in the moment. It takes way more energy and life force to do nothing and let our doubts weigh us down.

The sooner we tune in, listen to our emotions, hear our ludicrous beliefs and let all the bullshit go, the sooner we can coast in the direction we’re wanting our lives to flow—with more fun, ease & juiciness.

Here are some things that I do when my doubt surfaces:

Celebrate it: Yeah, you heard me. It’s way better to have the doubt right in front of our face, than snakily under the surface of our conscious awareness where it can do all sorts of self sabotaging damage. Acknowledging and celebrating it alleviates much of the resistance we have to doing something about it. It’s like saying, “Yay, I feel so shitty about myself, now I can start feeling better by choosing new thoughts, actions and beliefs!” and getting excited about our resistance, fears and doubt is makes the ego go bonkers and short circuit because it wants to hold onto the pain and roll around in it for a few decades.

Get Help: This means more than just going out for coffee with a friend and crying about how bad you feel. Get real help. Hire a coach, guide or somebody who can offer a neutral perspective and facilitate whatever kind of experience you’re needing to fully embody 100% belief and faith in your self. Asking for help is huge!

Go Inward: Listening to the voices in our mind is a great place to go. Way better than listening to the doctor on the TV commercial describing all our symptoms so we think something is wrong. As we go inside we are able to see that the voices of doubt and fear are usually not even our own. Parents, teachers and society have riddled us with all sorts of ideas about ourselves that deep down make us feel incapable of achieving what we want in life. If you feel what I’m saying, it’s time to let that go. Refer back to step two.

Reaffirm: Remember, we all have a choice in the matter about what we believe as truth, so if one of your beliefs or ideas about who you are feels like Ka-Ka-Poo-Poo, perhaps you want to rewire your circuits so you can adopt something more supportive. Affirmations are a huge part of rewiring our brains so we can better support ourselves with our mission.

Start by writing down how you want to feel about yourself using an “I Am” statement. For example, I Am powerful, I believe in who I am, I trust my choices, I am always aligning my thoughts, actions and choices with my life’s highest vision. If you’re that foggy and disassociated with your truth and feel stumped on creating a powerful affirmation, then look up affirmations and find one that resonates.

Write it down, post it around your house, on the steering wheel of your car, as your phone’s screensaver and anywhere else that you can’t ignore it. Then, whenever you have a spare second, say it out loud or in your head. Affirmations only work when you reaffirm them obsessively.

Do the Meditation Below: I created a meditation specifically for weeding the seeds of doubt from your mind so that over time you are able to stand (or sit) rooted in the power of belief in yourself. Let’s face it, if you don’t believe in yourself, why would anyone else? You could have a billion people who believe in you, but it won’t make a lick of difference when you don’t believe in yourself. So if your dreams and aspirations are to be, then it is up to you to believe. Say goodbye to your doubts that block your hearts biggest yes. It is time for you to Shine!

Here is my meditation. 

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Assistant Editor: Sue Adair / Editor: Rachel Nussbaum

Photo: elephant media archives