Doubt Keeps You Stuck

Doubt: if you don’t erase it, it will erase you. You cease to exit.

When one of my teachers said this to me, I took a pause to reflect on her words.

Doubt is one of those blocks we experience when we feel stressed. It can be hard to have clarity and see the bigger picture when doubt is clouding your mind. When you feel doubt you shrink and constrict your energy; you shut down. When you are stuck in doubt you are lacking confidence to take action. Your insecurity or fear of making a mistake will trigger doubt. Doubt will take the wind from your sails and keep you stuck in inertia and in a cloud of confusion.

Now that I have painted the gloomy picture of where your doubt will take you, let’s look at the second part of the quote. You cease to exist. This was the part that really woke me up! The longer that I’m stuck in the pattern of doubt, the less that I’m putting myself out into the world to make an impact.

Doubt is like having the hand brake on. You are trying to move forward but you are not getting anywhere. If you don’t get yourself moving forward, you will never share your ideas, your gifts or your beauty out into the world around you. This is how you cease to exist. No one will even know you are there or that you have brilliance to share.

Waiting for perfection or waiting to get it right or trying to be good enough are all the ways that an ideal of going for perfection will keep you stuck in the “safe” problem of doubt. By safe problem I mean how you say to yourself, “as soon as I’m clear on X, I will get into action” but if you are never clear on X , you will never take the steps to manifest what it is that you desire to engage with.

Therefore, if you are not engaging, manifesting and putting it out there in whatever form it is without being perfect, you will cease to exist because your stamp of your creative, individual self is not being expressed.

Don’t allow your doubt to stop you from putting your shining, your ideas and your individuality out into the world. When you are stuck in doubt, take a pause to notice your doubt and name it. Then take a breath into your belly, deep down below your naval. With that breath you can expand within your center to tap into the seat of your intuition.

Then ask your inner wise self, “What is one step I can take that will empower me?” What is one decisive action, or one step that gets you out of inertia and into forward movement? This is where you can choose to have a default numbing out action step such as eating a snack, watching a Netflix or grabbing a glass of wine.

Alternatively,  you can take a step that will empower you to take a decisive action such as call a friend who can support you, go outside and get a little nature away from your desk, say a prayer, or speak a mantra. You can simply breathe ten slow, deep breaths into your lower belly to ground and center which supports a clear, flexible mind for decision making so you can see the bigger picture.

In my Shamanic tradition I would offer you the practice to “give the doubt away.” To do a “give-away” you can go outside and find a tree to connect with. You can give your negative feelings away to a tree who will compost your negativity into oxygen for the environment. Trees are magnificent healers because they support you to rebalance emotionally, physically, mentally and spiritually.

The doubt will dissolve when you take a decisive action. No action is too small to erase your doubt and get unstuck.