It’s scary to be skeptical of our own thoughts, because they’re what we use to deal with life. It’s hard to imagine acting confidently amidst doubt and uncertainty. But so often our certainties are a problem, arrived at with minimal reflection and insufficient information. We may agonize because we imagine some person hates us or another does not want us to succeed, all kinds of stories that we never surface to be questioned. Or we ruminate over and over about an issue without doing anything to learn more about what we need to know.

The knowings of the mind aren’t factual, they’re assumptions drawn from what we’ve experienced and what we already know. We need to keep getting fresh data. To ask questions that check out our assumptions and be willing to chew on the answers.