On the subject of Doubt .  .  . Alan Cohen says, “Doubt is appropriate only when applied to negative assumptions.”

Doubting myself, doubting others, doubting the outcome, are all about negative assumptions. Doubt is so often tossed like a wet blanket on events.  So that you can’t really tell what, exactly, is going on. Just that you feel unsure.

I feel that someone has treated me unfairly.  I apply doubt and ask, what have I done to deserve this treatment? Why am I being treated so unfairly? What did I do wrong?

Instead, let’s look at the negative assumption that I’m being treated unfairly.  I can then apply the doubt to ask, am I really being treated unfairly?  What does that mean, “unfairly,” anyway? What do I think would be fair?

Instead of questioning our own motives and actions, we shine the light to understand the interior of the matter. Peeling it apart we can ask questions that show us what’s really happening, rather than the inappropriate application of blame.