Spiritual Enemies Of The Mind

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• Doubt, indecision, idleness, fear, procrastination and anxiety

  are the spiritual enemies that lead one toward the threshold of failure. These perceptions when felt inject emotions not conducive to productive or viable outcomes. These same emotions will either propel you to failure or motivate you toward success.

What is doubt? Doubt is simply a wavering vibratory force that pushes one into disbelief about a thing. Doubt is formed from an experiential reference or a point of no reference such as a new idea. When someone doubts a possibility then it becomes uncertainty about a thing. This feeling is not necessarily without foundation. When one is doubtful about a thing the only response to overcome it is to research that thing. Your state of mind when you are doubtful has to be changed before you approach that research. If you doubt and stay in that state of mind, no matter what you are looking at your focus is to disprove not to enlighten yourself. Your approach must be opened to the possibility that the thing you are researching is possible.

Indecision is the sister of idleness. When one is indecisive they usually have not adapted a model to make a decision. This leaves one idle and it is almost a hint of laziness on one’s part. Benjamin Franklin had the most basic method of handling or making a decision rapidly. He simply took a sheet of paper, drew a line down the middle, label the left as advantages and the right as disadvantages. This is still a good method to resolve a problem and make a decision, since one would look for both sides of the thing or things that needs to be decided on.

What happens most with people is that they become idle due to indecision about a thing, so simply put they don’t act on it. Using this method would allow one to either see which outweighs the other. This method will also show you whether there will be a positive or negative impact or no impact at all. There are many other decision models such as the “SWOT” meaning Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats. One of the characteristics of success is one who can make decision rapidly and change them slowly if at all. The reason is simple, they have done their homework.

Procrastination is simply a coping behavior. When one procrastinates they are lazy or fearful of what outcomes there might be. This is not motivated by intellect, it is motivated by feeling. If one does not feel like cutting the lawn, then one puts it off for another day. Yet the tendency to put it off or not confront a situation usually grows worse over time and this behavior can ruin not only your future it can devastate your life. This behavior can quickly become your response to everything around you.

We have seen this over and over again. When a student waits to do a paper, he knows that it is due in 10 days and he waits till 2 days before it is due, then the student starts to work on it. Of course usually the student is irritated, not doing his or her best work as the time element will not allow for in depth research. The student is up late for those days and becomes irritated, loses sleep, is on the run to the library and digging through reference materials on the eleventh hour.

Procrastination is simply a lack of scheduling and discipline. If you know you should mow the lawn it doesn’t matter whether you feel like doing it or not. Simply scheduling the hour that you will mow the lawn and adhering to it will resolve that issue. The same with a student, if that student scheduled when he or she will have that paper done ahead of time, decides to work on it an hour a day, the student will most likely finish ahead of time and get a better grade.

Anxiety is simply what I call “Self Torment.” It is choking on a thing. It is a state of mind. People can be anxious about a great deal of things. Most of the things people are anxious about, has nothing to do with reality. Some people fear to compete since they get anxious that they may look like they are incompetent or poor in a particular contest. One can be anxious about anything, the way you look, the way you act, what you own may not be the latest and greatest widget, so you shy away from that competition. One of the answers to anxiety is assertiveness or positive affirmation of your abilities to do the things that relate to “Self.”

Fear is simply an expectation of danger or pain. If someone is pointing a gun at you, fear is the right way to feel. If you fear telling someone how you feel, then that maybe the right way to feel, but it should not dictate your ability to communicate what you feel. This anticipation of danger, the “what if” I fail or get rejected, is usually based in ignorance or lack of confidence. Fear of failure or success is simply the same animal and it is the lack of confidence or faith in oneself. Remember you get exactly what you expect. If you expect failure you will fail, because that is exactly what you expect.

When one has an expectation of failure based on some fearful or negative thoughts then all they are doing is setting the table for that to happen. They will make errors, bungle activities and come out short one way or another on exactly what they’re fearful of. All of the above is based on some fear or expectation.

In a spiritual sense these are the enemies of your mind and soul. Evil seeks a willing participant. The temptation of not doing something towards your greatest good is the same as, lending oneself to a great harm. There is a reason why the statement is made idle hands or an idle mind makes the devil's work. The reason is due to the fact that you place yourself on hold or go in a non-survival direction. Listening to negative advice or people, is lending oneself to the harbingers of chaos.

Faith, confidence and courage are the things that you should always be working on. These are the qualities of the winners in life. Spiritually we are perfect, but we make mistakes and we learn from them. Why should one fear anything? A strong belief in your ability to ride out any storm is necessary for success in life. Some decisions come very hard, especially when you put a lot on the line. The rewards in life come not from fear but they come from action and faith in oneself.

If you are spiritual, the bible mentions over and over again do not fear. The reason is very simple in that with fear you freeze, become submissive to idleness, self paralysis if you will. Offer your thoughts of courage and empowerment to the Divine and that is exactly what you will have. Take comfort that all is not permanent in this ever changing and evolving universe. As you write your life story, let it be one of courage in the face of danger, faith in the face of fear, belief in the throws of disaster. Paint your picture the way you want it to be and offer it to the universe.

Fight the good fight and so when you come to rest you can say that I have done all that I could have done. Live without regret, your life is and will always be immersed in courage, faith, love, forgiveness and gratitude. We travel this way but once, let it be a glorious trip. That is my message to you.