reprinted from the Huffington Post<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n LEARNING TO TRUST YOURSELF THROUGH MEDITATION<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n COLTRANE on perfect sit\/stay – taken by Jeremiah McNulty<\/p><\/div>\n It\u2019s easy to doubt ourselves, our choices, our lives, our everything.<\/em> We can find ourselves second-guessing every choice, all along the way. We wonder whether the choices we made in the past were right, and worry about the choices we will\u00a0<\/em>make in the future!<\/p>\n<\/div>\n We don\u2019t know how to trust ourselves because we don\u2019t know how to trust our inner Self \u2014 with a capital S<\/em>. This inner Self represents a whole new world of awareness. When you begin to listen to your inner Self, the world cracks open with new insights and understandings.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n In my book, Opening to Meditation<\/em>, there is a line that says this: \u201cIf there is a devil, it is doubt.\u201d<\/strong><\/em> This doubt is a result of overthinking and hyper-analysis. We become embattled with the ego. This can create a constant state of tension. We become restless inside.<\/strong> We can\u2019t relax. We can get depressed, or anxious, over-stimulated and stressed out. And then, we wonder, \u201cWhy I can\u2019t sleep at night?\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n All the questions of life come up to be reviewed \u2014 but in a state of fear and doubt. If we are single we may wonder, \u201cWill he ever come?\u201d <\/em>And, if we are in a relationship we may ask, \u201cIs he really right for me?\u201d<\/em> Or similarly, when we can\u2019t get a job, \u201cWill I ever get a job?\u201d<\/em> or, if we\u2019ve got one, \u201cI bet there is a better one out there.\u201d<\/em> These are just a couple of examples of thousands that I could offer \u2014 but they are all<\/em> examples of doubt.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n And, all<\/em> of this is just the play of the ego. The ego is a perpetual worrying machine. <\/strong>If it\u2019s not one thing, it\u2019s another. The mind will generate fear after fear after fear. When one is allayed, another one pops up. It is the nature of the beast.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n But it can be trained. And that is where meditation comes in. Meditation teaches the mind to become still, to live in the moment rather than the past or the future. It teaches us to connect with our higher selves, our true selves, our sacred selves. In this process, the mind learns to become reflective and listening. We become calm and steady. We start to know<\/em>.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n When the mind has no bounds it is like an untrained dog. The mind will chase after every ball that comes by. It will be sitting quietly in one moment, when suddenly, \u201cSquirrel!\u201d and off it goes, running madly after some random thought. And that\u2019s the problem; it chases every… single… thought.<\/em> An untrained mind doesn\u2019t know how to prioritize well. It is indiscriminate and fearful, or boasting and trying to prove itself. To the untrained mind, every thought is worth chasing.<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/div>\n In theory, we know everything, we think everything \u2014 but \u2014 all at the same time!<\/em>But when we meditate, we discover we have a very refined, highly calibrated, inner psychic barometer within us that teaches us subtlety and discrimination, discipline and awareness.<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/div>\n When we meditate, we are teaching our minds to become observers rather than reactors. We teach the mind to \u201csit\u201d and \u201cstay.\u201d<\/strong> Thoughts of the ego are always fear-based. The ego chases every squirrel, and pretty much every ball that goes by too. So when we teach our minds to sit and stay, to listen and be present, we immediately become calmer and clearer. Suddenly our lives become simpler because we are not over-complicating them with every single thought we think. We simply begin to know.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n One of my favorite quotes is, \u201cDon\u2019t believe everything you think.\u201d<\/em> This is sage advice. Just because you think something doesn\u2019t mean it\u2019s true, or that it\u2019s right for you. We can think many things at the same time \u2014 and do! When we meditate we are spiritually prioritizing: THIS ball \u2014 not<\/em> all those others.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n You can let them all go by,<\/p>\n<\/div>\n and stay <\/em>…<\/p>\n<\/div>\n with<\/p>\n<\/div>\n this<\/p>\n<\/div>\n one.<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/div>\n In the end, what it\u2019s really about is application, application, application.<\/em> Over time we build a muscle of awareness. We learn to be conscious and present about every subject of our lives. We begin to learn to trust ourselves.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n From a spiritual perspective there is a perfect time for everything. We can stay busy and distracted by chasing after every squirrel, or we can wait for right timing.\u00a0Squirrel timing will take you on a wild goose chase. Spiritual timing is perfect timing.<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/div>\n This does not mean being passive and doing nothing. It means responding to what\u2019s at hand because you are present to what is happening.<\/strong> It means living your life with passion and gusto, curiosity and enthusiasm. It means bringing your whole self to every moment and to every exchange. When you establish a meditation practice, you will learn that you can trust life, that you can trust love, and most importantly, you can trust yourself.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Diana Lang is a spiritual teacher and author of OPENING TO MEDITATION \u2013www.DianaLang.com<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n<\/div>\n![\"COLTRANE](\"https:\/\/dianalang.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/05\/coltrane-300x286.jpg\")