A couple of weeks ago, we began to explore the concept of doubt – why it arises, how to recognize the level of mind that leads to it, and how to begin to work with it. If you missed Working With Doubt, Part I, you can read it here.

We left off talking about the key to working with doubt: and that’s learning how to change your level of mind – or consciousness – by changing your energy. What inevitably comes next is:

                    OK, but – how?

In Part I, we discussed the first step: becoming aware of your level of consciousness – that is, how you think and feel about whatever circumstance is creating the doubt – and noticing how it affects your perspective. Now, let’s talk about how you can work with doubt from that place of understanding.


Cultivating Awareness

As you did for Part I, think of a challenging situation in your life – only this time, think of one you’re currently facing. It could be a worsening health condition ... persistent financial troubles ... or perhaps a deepening relationship conflict.

Now, applying what you’ve learned about your level of consciousness, see if you can tune in and become aware of that now. Are you feeling the same feelings, thinking the same thoughts, or doing the same things you’ve always done to try to address the issue? In other words, are you trying to solve the problem from the same level of consciousness that led to it?

If it feels challenging to try to see yourself in this way, don’t worry – and don’t judge yourself. Our survival instincts are so hard-wired, it can be difficult to have any objectivity about ourselves when the feelings associated with them – such as fear, anxiety, worry, mistrust, frustration, defeat, or resentment – are activated.

And challenging yourself in this way, especially when it’s unpredictable or unfamiliar, might bring some of those feelings up – along with doubt. But don’t be discouraged. If you can catch your personal reactions while trying to determine your level of consciousness, you’re already raising your awareness. That’s because consciousness is awareness. That’s why the first step is to become conscious of your unconscious self.

Now, let’s work on developing that blossoming awareness to change your energy. The best way to do that is by first practicing during your meditations.


Elevating Emotions; Opening Your Heart

Before you begin, think about your intentions for your meditation. Because you’re working with doubt, and how to change your level of consciousness by changing your energy, here are some things to focus on:

• Set the intention to move out of the addictive emotions of survival – which fuel doubt – and into the elevated emotions of creation (remember, your heart is your creative center): joy, wonder, curiosity, awe, gratitude, compassion, and care. I’ve found there’s no greater way to change your energy than feeling the emotions connected to pure love. That’s the consciousness – and the energy – of the heart; the fourth energy center.
  
  
• To help you feel those elevated emotions, practice opening your heart during your meditation. For tips on how to do this, you can re-read my post about the Tuning In With Your Heart Meditation – which is a great one to work with for this exercise.

In doing just these two things during your meditation, you’ll get a sense of the energy and emotions related to what it feels like to be in a new reality – one where the situation you’re in is significantly different. And simply doing that will change your energy. Why? Think of emotions as “energy in motion” – meaning, when you change your emotions, you change your energy.

And, as I’ve said many times: When you change your energy, you change your life.

When you feel the emotions of your new future, you turn up the volume on trust – and turn down the volume on doubt. Suddenly, you begin to become conscious and aware of possibilities you’d never considered before.


Memorizing a Feeling; Installing a Mind

In essence, you’re using your meditation practice to train your body and mind to feel new emotions and to think differently – which will lead to new behaviors. Through this practice, you’re “memorizing the feeling” of living in a different world; one where a new experience – in this case, the resolution of a problem – has already happened.

You’re learning how to install and exercise a new mind; one capable of staying aware of new thoughts and possibilities – not only while in meditation, but also after you’ve opened your eyes and returned to daily life. That’s why you’re doing the meditation in the first place.

The purpose is to evolve from a place of limited belief to one of unlimited belief. And since a belief is just a thought you keep thinking over and over again, you must remind yourself to stop thinking the same old way and start thinking a new way – until you believe those new thoughts. That’s when you’ve installed a new mind – and, at the same time, uninstalled the old one.

The best part about this exercise is, you don’t have to know how the situation is going to change (that’s the known); you just have to change your energy and live in the possibility that it already has changed. That is, you live in the unknown – but without doubt.

Let’s go back to the situation you’re currently facing. If it’s financial stress, you might be stuck in survival emotions and thoughts based in fear, worry, and guilt – that this won’t ever change; that you’ll never have enough; that your family’s future and well-being will be negatively impacted. You might compare yourself to other people and feel unworthy to have abundance yourself – or shame about not measuring up.

So now, when you enter your “think box” before meditation, you’re aware of the level of consciousness (or unconsciousness) that fuels the problem. This will help you identify the feelings and thoughts you want to practice during your meditation. In other words, you’ve clarified the emotions you want to change in order to change your energy – because those are the exact emotions that keep you from seeing change and cause you to doubt. When you feel those familiar emotions, you can’t believe in a different future – and you’re more prone to believe in what you know from the past.

When you enter your “play box” in meditation, then, you practice feeling elevated emotions – because they cause you to believe in that new future. That’s why some people in this work – people who’ve changed their health or life circumstances in other significant ways – sometimes meditate two or three times a day. They do it to overcome their doubt and chronic disbelief – by changing their energy and emotional state. They do it so they can believe again and again.

So, in your meditation, you might practice feeling immense gratitude for having all your needs met. Or the tremendous lightheartedness and relief that comes with the freedom to do whatever you want – whenever you want. Or you tune in to the great joy of having so much abundance, you can give it away – and spread joy to others.

You practice feeling love for your life – every part of it, including the very challenges that brought you to this moment of awakening and possibility.


From Survival to Creation: A Triumph

What you’re learning to do, through these practices, is open and activate your creative center – the heart – and become aware, or conscious, of possibilities that already exist by installing a new mind in the brain as well as the body. In doing so, you change your energy – and, therefore, your consciousness.

You begin to develop a new way of thinking and feeling – which will enable you to face the challenges in your life by behaving in new and different ways. As you hone these skills, you’ll discover solutions that were always there – you just couldn’t see them from the same level of consciousness that created the problem in the first place.

If you can teach your body what it feels like to be in that new future, and keep reminding yourself how to approach the problem with a new consciousness, you’ve entered your meditation as one person (the same old person with the same old problem and the same old inability to solve it) and you’ve come out of it as a new person – with a new mind. You’ve opened your heart to a new possibility.

You’ve moved from survival to creation. And that, in itself, is a triumph.

Over time, you can evolve your practice and perspective so that, when doubt arises – as it will for anyone in the river of change – it won’t overwhelm you. Instead, it can become a catalyst in your life. It can help you recognize your level of mind, clarify your intentions, and recommit to the work. Working with doubt in this way, you can change your energy – and change your life.