Doubting Can Be Dangerous
In my years of consulting and coaching, one individual who never ceases to amaze me, as well as many others is the "Doubting Thomas". This individual stands out from the crowd and is usually unwavering in their belief until proven otherwise. They remind me of how people speak about our great state Missouri. You know, they called it the "Show Me State". People in this category seem to need concrete evidence and hard proof for convincing. As with the name "Doubting Thomas", it's a term that is used to describe someone who will refuse to believe something without direct, physical, personal evidence. Some may even label them as being a skeptic.
The term was first used to make reference to Thomas the Apostle in the Bible. Thomas was a disciple of Jesus who doubted Jesus' resurrection and demanded to feel Jesus' wounds before being convinced. After seeing Jesus alive and being offered the opportunity to touch his wounds, only then did Thomas believe. After this encounter, Thomas was also called Thomas the Believer.
The dictionary defines doubt as a status between unbelief and disbelief, it involves uncertainty, or distrust, or lack of sureness of an alleged fact, an action, a motive, or a decision. Doubt brings into question some notion of perceived reality, and may involve delaying or rejecting relevant action out of concerns for mistakes or faults of appropriateness. It may encourage people to hesitate before taking action. Doubt can sometimes serve to create individual illusions, and to shield the vision of an unpleasant outcome.
In the Pulitzer Prize play "Doubt: A Parable" which is set in the fictional St. Nicholas Church School, in the Bronx, during the fall of 1964, it opens with a sermon by Father Flynn, a dearly-loved parish priest, addressing the importance of uncertainty, stating "Doubt can be a bond as powerful and sustaining as certainty." The subject of the play surrounds the suspicion of a nun who suspects that a priest molested an altar boy.
The play illustrates how the doubt of others is comforting to the guilty, and on the flip side of the coin, serves to torment the falsely accused. In this type of situation, doubting can serve a good cause, because there is this inner feeling one may have that alerts you that something in not right or someone is not telling the truth about an incident. We all need to experience this type of doubt, because in a court of law, as you very well know, jurors must convict, or decide the innocence of a person "beyond a reasonable doubt".
But let's talk about another face of doubt where paranoia and the sowing of doubt are both negative and harmful. This type of doubt takes on a totally gruesome face, where a peson is so overwhelmed with doubt and unbelief that it causes problems in making everyday decisions and disturbs living a normal, healthy life.
This face of doubt is jam-packed with unbelief, and it's a cousin of "worry". Doubt and unbelief can hold you back and stop you from achieving your goals. When you have both doubt and worry working together, you have the makings of a bomb. You have no faith in anything, and it's difficult for you to believe anything.
A person who experiences this level of doubt has come to the conclusion that there is no solution to their problem. Then they'll worry if they'll make the right decision if they're offered options to solving their problem. From there, they'll usually get stuck in what's called the paralysis of analysis, where no action is taken because they over-think the situation, constantly tweaking and brainstorming to seek the "perfect" solution, and fearing that making any decision could lead to disaster.
And it doesn't get any better for this person because most people who doubt and worry constantly, create other problems in their life, such as insomnia. Due to the constant worry and doubt, added with fear, anxiety interrupts sleep and causes nightmares. Difficulty falling asleep or staying asleep is often symptomatic of anxiety. Okay, you now bring anxiety into the picture. Guess what else can happen, you can enter into a state of depression, because waking up in the middle of the night and being unable to go back to sleep is more often a symptom of depression. About a third of people with insomnia have an underlying anxiety disorder or a clinical depression.
So do to still want to be a Doubting Thomas? I don't think so. Research has shown that if surround yourself with people who are smarter than you, making decisions become effortless. When you make decisions easily, you save 100's of hours of unnecessary time wasted, thus giving you extra time to spend with your family and do the things that really matter in your life.
At the National Stress and Anxiety Prevention Center (NSAPC), we promote total health – body, mind and spirit. While we focus on the mental aspects of relieving stress, anxiety and depression, we must not forget that nothing is impossible for God. Remember that anything you do outside of your regular routine challenges your brain.
When you challenge your brain, it can give you better memory, clearer thinking, and sharper focus for the rest of your day, and the rest of your life.
If you would like to learn more about how to conquer doubt and unbelief and make better decisions, please visit the site at http://SufferNoMoreToday.com.
The term was first used to make reference to Thomas the Apostle in the Bible. Thomas was a disciple of Jesus who doubted Jesus' resurrection and demanded to feel Jesus' wounds before being convinced. After seeing Jesus alive and being offered the opportunity to touch his wounds, only then did Thomas believe. After this encounter, Thomas was also called Thomas the Believer.
The dictionary defines doubt as a status between unbelief and disbelief, it involves uncertainty, or distrust, or lack of sureness of an alleged fact, an action, a motive, or a decision. Doubt brings into question some notion of perceived reality, and may involve delaying or rejecting relevant action out of concerns for mistakes or faults of appropriateness. It may encourage people to hesitate before taking action. Doubt can sometimes serve to create individual illusions, and to shield the vision of an unpleasant outcome.
In the Pulitzer Prize play "Doubt: A Parable" which is set in the fictional St. Nicholas Church School, in the Bronx, during the fall of 1964, it opens with a sermon by Father Flynn, a dearly-loved parish priest, addressing the importance of uncertainty, stating "Doubt can be a bond as powerful and sustaining as certainty." The subject of the play surrounds the suspicion of a nun who suspects that a priest molested an altar boy.
The play illustrates how the doubt of others is comforting to the guilty, and on the flip side of the coin, serves to torment the falsely accused. In this type of situation, doubting can serve a good cause, because there is this inner feeling one may have that alerts you that something in not right or someone is not telling the truth about an incident. We all need to experience this type of doubt, because in a court of law, as you very well know, jurors must convict, or decide the innocence of a person "beyond a reasonable doubt".
But let's talk about another face of doubt where paranoia and the sowing of doubt are both negative and harmful. This type of doubt takes on a totally gruesome face, where a peson is so overwhelmed with doubt and unbelief that it causes problems in making everyday decisions and disturbs living a normal, healthy life.
This face of doubt is jam-packed with unbelief, and it's a cousin of "worry". Doubt and unbelief can hold you back and stop you from achieving your goals. When you have both doubt and worry working together, you have the makings of a bomb. You have no faith in anything, and it's difficult for you to believe anything.
A person who experiences this level of doubt has come to the conclusion that there is no solution to their problem. Then they'll worry if they'll make the right decision if they're offered options to solving their problem. From there, they'll usually get stuck in what's called the paralysis of analysis, where no action is taken because they over-think the situation, constantly tweaking and brainstorming to seek the "perfect" solution, and fearing that making any decision could lead to disaster.
And it doesn't get any better for this person because most people who doubt and worry constantly, create other problems in their life, such as insomnia. Due to the constant worry and doubt, added with fear, anxiety interrupts sleep and causes nightmares. Difficulty falling asleep or staying asleep is often symptomatic of anxiety. Okay, you now bring anxiety into the picture. Guess what else can happen, you can enter into a state of depression, because waking up in the middle of the night and being unable to go back to sleep is more often a symptom of depression. About a third of people with insomnia have an underlying anxiety disorder or a clinical depression.
So do to still want to be a Doubting Thomas? I don't think so. Research has shown that if surround yourself with people who are smarter than you, making decisions become effortless. When you make decisions easily, you save 100's of hours of unnecessary time wasted, thus giving you extra time to spend with your family and do the things that really matter in your life.
At the National Stress and Anxiety Prevention Center (NSAPC), we promote total health – body, mind and spirit. While we focus on the mental aspects of relieving stress, anxiety and depression, we must not forget that nothing is impossible for God. Remember that anything you do outside of your regular routine challenges your brain.
When you challenge your brain, it can give you better memory, clearer thinking, and sharper focus for the rest of your day, and the rest of your life.
If you would like to learn more about how to conquer doubt and unbelief and make better decisions, please visit the site at http://SufferNoMoreToday.com.
