From Doubt to Knowing

Doubt is a pain too lonely to know that faith is his twin brother.
Kahlil Gibran

We all experience the excruciating pain of doubt from time to time. 

In this process of  wanting and receiving...we often feel doubt when the thing we asked for; prayed for; pleaded for; worked so hard for  and desperately reached out for does not materialize when and how we think it should.

We doubt God at those times; we doubt the world and everything and everyone in it.  Most importantly and sadly, we doubt ourselves.

We become stuck on our journeys upward on the emotional ladder. Doubt breeds hopelessness and despair when we allow it to permeate our consciousness. We, as a result,  do not see clearly when we doubt.  We do not see the arms reaching out to us in love and support, or at least we do not trust those arms.  We do not see the beauty and blessing that sprouts around us. We don't see how good, worthy  and powerful we are.

In doubt we  appear to be stuck in a dark and lonely place and accept this place as our home. Yet, it is a self imposed prison that keeps us captive and our captor is the person who stares back at us in the mirror.

Truth is, we never have to stay in doubt.  We can set ourselves free at any time?  How?

There is a simple evolution that many of the masters and writers, I learn from, speak of that takes us from doubt to the beautiful freedom and grace of knowing.  The journey from doubt to knowing can be accomplished in less than three  minutes. I paraphrase this process in five mind healing steps:

1. Be aware when you are doubting. Recognize when you are in the dark place.  You will know it by an experience of sadness, frustration, resentment or a sense of "giving up" on your dreams or your ability to accomplish something. You will notice it in how you speak to self or others. There are an awful lot of "I can't"; "never", "always" "impossible" "too hard" and "not enough" in doubt.  When you are blaming others or life events  for "locking " you up in a situation that is "impossible" to get out of....you are doubting.  When you are telling yourself that life is too confusing to get through, that you do not have the skills or capability to succeed at something...you are doubting.  When you resist the arms that reach out to you to offer love and support, you are doubting. Recognize when you are in this dark place.  Accept that you are here and take accountability for being so.  No one or nothing made you doubt.  You reacted to what was around you with doubt.  Own that. Now...stay here in this place of conscious doubting, acceptance and accountability for no longer than 17 seconds. Then walk through the bars that were never there in the first place.
2. Take the likelihood of what you desire from doubtful to possible. Know that everything is possible.  Reword you doubts with possibility.  I can't becomes maybe I can.  "Maybe" is not where you want to stay but it is a good start...because maybe is a far cry from "I can't"...is it not?  Test how it feels to say..."Maybe, I can accomplish that; maybe I can get that; maybe I can receive what I really want from life"...etc etc.   Maybe is infused with the tiniest hint of hope and that hope brings us up the emotional ladder.  Stay here for 17 seconds.
3. Take the possible to probable. Take the maybe to likely. We do not want to skip too far ahead too quickly in this process.  Take it slow and gently.  It is a simple and gentle transition, is it not, from possible to probable?  Here, you tell yourself that "It is likely that I will achieve that; likely that I will accomplish that." Stay here for longer than 17 seconds.
4. Take the probable to belief. Here we extend the time we focus on the likelihood of something time wise and quality wise.  Stay in this likely place for at least 68 seconds.  You build on the momentum of the likely by looking for and collecting all the goodies you  have stored in your memory banks.  Recall the times you got what you  wanted; or when you  succeeded at something,.  Think of your blessings and feel gratitude for both what you have received and what you  will receive.  After 68 seconds...many experts including Abraham...insist that our subconscious file cabinet doors will open up to store these thoughts.  Once securely tucked into the subconscious...the thought becomes a belief.
5. Know.  From belief you  go to faith...which is doubt's twin brother who was hanging around from the beginning.  You  can just see him clearly now.  You  know who you  are, from whom you  came and what you  are capable of.  Feel the presence, the love here.  You  are, after all,  where you  want to be...in His company.

All is well.

References:

Again I really cannot credit one text or lecture...these ideas are a copulation of years of study.  I apologize to all who put these thoughts into my head for not recognizing them correctly here.