How can we deal with self-doubt?

Transcript

This is an AI-generated transcript and may contain some errors.
How can we deal with self-doubt? So basically doubts are a sign of intelligence.
A foolish person will just believe anything that anyone says or anything that our mind comes up with also. And that can be foolhardiness. So doubts are a characteristic of intelligence.
But the challenge is that doubts are not the only characteristic of intelligence. So we need to have doubts, but we need to, we can’t let the doubts become our controllers. We can’t let our doubts become our definers.
So I would say that doubting itself is not a bad thing. But now how do we regulate it? So I would say that there are three different things. First would be that try to write down the doubts.
Things, as long as they are in the mind, they just congest over there and they paralyze. When you get them out, the distance, just getting them out, the distance creates a certain level of objectivity. And then you can evaluate.
How likely is this? So just write them down. Without any judgment, just write them down. And then once you’ve done this, we can separate them into possibilities and probabilities.
If we start worrying about possibilities, we can paralyze ourselves. Right now we are sitting and the roof may collapse and we may die. It’s possible, but it’s not probable.
So we can’t, once we have some calm analysis, we can see what is the possibility, what is the probability. And possibilities we can discount. But what is probable? So anytime I drive on a road, I might meet with an accident.
That’s a possibility. But if I’m driving with a car whose brake is not working, then it’s not a possibility, it’s a probability. So since you have done well now in your exams, so that you will move forward in your career.
That is not just a possibility, it’s a probability. So like that you analyze. What are the reasonable doubts and what are just the fearful doubts.
And then after that, once you come to the second level of analyzing possibilities and probabilities, third level is try to prepare your own ways of addressing those doubts. Okay, what if I don’t get through to admission? What if I’m not able to complete my medical career? Then write it down and then write down how you would address yourself. So sometimes it is good to conceive of a conversation between ourselves.
Conversation of ourselves with ourselves. See basically there is a voice within us which is always speaking. As you said, I’m not good enough.
What if I do this wrong? What if that goes wrong? So there is a voice that is speaking within us to us. And if we passively hear it, it will destroy us. So we need to actively respond to it.
Sometimes it may be correct, sometimes it may be cautionary and sometimes it may be just discouraging. So for that, if you find out what are the normal things the voice speaks, that’s what you do by first of all writing it down, then processing it to see what is probability and what is possibility. And then what is the probability? You prepare points to address it.
Okay, now if this happens, if I don’t get admission right now, what will I do? Okay, I can do A, B, C. I can do this, this, this. So that way if you have something written down, the next time when that same doubt comes, you won’t have to reinvent the wheel. Okay, how should I deal with it? No, no, I won’t doubt.
No, you will have something written down, keep it in your phone, keep it in your diary, where you can read it. And beyond all this, we have to know that there is a higher plan for our life. That even now, when we are breathing, when we are talking, as a medical student, you will know that so much happens in the body which we don’t control.
There is, right now I am speaking, I just have an intention to speak, but how the voice box moves and how it produces speech. There is so much happening which is beyond our control. So, we don’t have to worry about things which are beyond our control.
There is a higher plan in our life. When I go into a plane, today morning I came from Gainesville, from Florida here. So, when I got into a plane, I was concerned whether I have my ticket, whether I have my ID.
No, I am not worried whether the plane will have fuel or not, whether the driver is drunk or not, whether the pilot is drunk or not. No, those are, we are a part of a whole. If I take care of my part, the whole will take care of the whole.
So, if you see in this bigger perspective, you are not alone. You are a soul, you are a part of God and God has a plan for your life. So, even if sometimes a particular plan doesn’t work out, that doesn’t mean nothing is going to work out.
So, sometimes our plans, specific plans work out in those ways, sometimes our plans work out in some other ways and sometimes something else works out. So, at one level, we do try diligently to make our plans work, but we also need to know that there is a higher plan also at work. And if we are too doubtful, so if our reference point is only ourselves, whether I am good enough, then that self alone is a reference point.
Sometimes I feel I am good enough, sometimes I feel I am not good enough. But if you have a higher reference point that, you know that, okay, even if I am not good enough, Krishna can arrange things in such a way that He can make me good enough. He can arrange circumstances by which I can move forward or He can arrange something in a way by which I can move forward in some other direction.
So, we have to know that we are not alone. And Bhagavad Gita Krishna says, He says, if you become conscious of Me, you will pass over all obstacles by My grace. So, that means that, try to, don’t think of this only as you against the world.
There is a higher plan. And if you try to connect with Krishna as much as possible, when you feel fearful, when you feel worried, you can try to chant the names of Krishna. We have some nice kirtans.
Try to hear those kirtans. You will feel yourself calming down. You will feel yourself that things are calming down.
So, don’t, as they say, don’t tell God how big your problems are. Tell your problems how big God is. If you focus on that, sure things will work out.
All the very best.