214 | Why Doubt Is the Real Enemy in Trauma Recovery and How Mindfulness Builds Resilience

What if the most rebellious thing you could do right now… is like yourself?

In this episode, Michael breaks down how self-doubt creeps in during trauma recovery—and how society profits from our insecurities. But through mindfulness, radical self-love, and intentional micro-actions, we can reclaim our power and build the resilience we need to truly heal.

Takeaways:

• Learn why doubt isn’t a failure—it’s part of the process and a sign of growth
• Discover three powerful, mindfulness-based ways to rebuild confidence and resilience
• Understand how trauma healing begins when we rewrite the inner dialogue

When you’re ready, take a big breath in and slow releasing breath out and meet your inner rebel and discover how mindfulness and self-worth are your greatest acts of resilience through trauma.

00:00 Introduction and Episode Overview

01:17 The Power of Self-Love as Rebellion

02:31 Understanding Doubt and Its Impact

05:38 Kazuki’s Teachings on Healing

07:11 Practical Exercises to Boost Confidence

10:05 Final Thoughts and Encouragement

11:30 Conclusion and Call to Action

Transcript:

In this episode, you’ll discover one of the most rebellious things you can do.

Hey there, it’s Michael. Welcome to Whole Again. A show about helping survivors of physical injury and trauma reclaim their strength and resilience through the wisdom of Kazuki Today as we continue to recognize Mental Health Awareness Month and how our mental health. Impacts our overall healing. You’ll discover that rebel within you, the real enemy and ways to enhance your confidence so you can step into the person you’re becoming.

But before we get there, I do wanna take a moment to thank you for being here, and thank you for being a fellow survivor. So if you’re ready, wherever you happen to be, take a healthy breath in. In a slow releasing breath out and let’s get into it.

Alright, let’s start here. Recently I saw a LinkedIn post by Kristen Graham. She’s been on our podcast and she’s my favorite word nerd out there. And the post read in a society that benefits from your self-doubt, liking yourself is a rebellious act. Hmm. That is good. Let that land for a moment. It’s so good because it’s so true because if you’re on a healing journey, if you’re trying to recover from anything, injury, illness, trauma, heck, if you’re alive today, then you probably felt a tug of doubt of wonder.

Imposter syndrome, unless of course you’re one of those bros walking around with all the confidence in the world, but you’re probably masking the fact that you have doubt, so you’re just projecting this overconfidence. Yeah, I think that might be it, but I digress. Let’s get back to all of us who are healing.

We have moments of doubt. It makes us human, and this doubt is not just about. Our physical health, our body, it’s about our worth, our capacity, our strength, our future. When we’re recovering from something we have doubt, I know I did about what will the future be like, who will I become? Will I ever get better?

But what if I.

Isn’t a sign of failure, but rather it’s the body’s way of letting you know you’re on the edge of something really meaningful. How is that for a mindset shift? They say that doubt will kill more dreams than failure ever will. How true is that? And there’s a difference between fear and doubt. Fear. In so many cases, it protects us.

You hear people talking about saber tooth tigers all the time, like fear is part of our biology. We have a fear instinct. It’s primal. It’s helped us survive to stay out of harm’s way. Fear is not a bad thing. Now, doubt though is different. Doubt can be paralyzing. It’s a little bit more subtle than fear.

It’s internal and it sounds like our own voice. Going back to what I believe, it all comes down to, it all comes down to the conversation you have with yourself about yourself. It sounds like, I can’t do this. I’m not strong enough. I’ll never get better. Those are not facts. Those are simply opinions, but doubt dresses it up as logic, as like the rational mind.

But it’s, but it’s not. And doubt shows up when we’re trying to heal. I know this from my experience in talking to countless other survivors, doubt creeps into the picture. When our body doesn’t bounce back as quickly as we hoped it would, or we can’t keep up with work or family or anything else the way we used to because we’re going through something.

Or maybe it’s the feeling that we’re a burden for needing to rest more than we usually have rested. Or when we look in the mirror, when we’re naked in the morning. Getting ready, getting, which is our most vulnerable state. And we don’t recognize the person we see in the mirror anymore. And not in a positive way, but in a less than way.

All of this is some form of doubt, but kisuki can be our teacher. Kazuki teaches us that our cracks, the evidence of our struggle. Places where we feel broken can become the strongest parts of the body in many ways, much like the pottery where they put the oishi, where they bring the pottery back together, it can never break where it once cracked, it becomes the most beautiful parts of our story, how we cracked.

But we were put back together. Stronger in many ways. So doubt doesn’t mean that we’re not healing. It’s a voice in our head. No doubt about that. Uh, pun intended. But it means that we’re aware of the risk. Having doubt is a sign that you’re human, that you wonder that you have anxiety or worry. It’s also an invitation to tap into the courage that’s within you or those around you to lift you up when you need more support so you can move forward even when you have some doubt.

And the thing is, we can get better at moving forward even when we feel some doubt. I would like to share three little exercises because we believe in micro steps here at Whole. Again, that can help you enhance your confidence, which can help you move forward even when you have a moment of doubt. So you might have heard about the game called Two Truths and a Lie.

Well, this is a variation of it. Five truths and one Doubt, or Five Truths and a Lie. You play this game by telling yourself five truths, five things that you can do. When you say one thing that you can’t do, it balances out the doubt. It enhances the confidence. So, yeah, there are certain things that we can’t do, but there are plenty of things that we can do, and when we remember that we can do things that can be the inspiration, the motivation, if you will, to take a step forward.

You can also visualize your wholeness. I’m a big fan of visualization. There are a few visualization practices on my app. You can visualize yourself becoming who you’re becoming. You can visualize yourself becoming whole again, and you can imagine every cell of your body. This is what it means to have embodiment.

Each cell of your body is full of a belief that I can and I will. There’s an instructor at Peloton. You know the spin bikes. Christine, she has a mantra. I am. I can. I will. I do. I just love it. I think I got that right. I’m a huge fan of hers and she also knows the value of changing the inner dialogue. So important, as I’ve already mentioned.

And here’s the third, take a micro action. Don’t wait for confidence. Don’t wait for assurance. Don’t wait for any of that. We build it. We build confidence. We shift our mood by taking one tiny action. This was my whole approach to my recovery. Confidence is like a muscle. The stronger it gets, it can overpower doubt.

Sort of like their arm wrestling. So action, a small step, if you will, is like a workout. And when you’re consistent, along with being intentional, that’s how you put yourself in a position for growth. So let’s go back to that post that Kristen put up on LinkedIn again. How true is that? The world. It’s trying to sell you stuff based on your self-doubt.

You’re not pretty enough, you’re not strong enough, you’re not this, you’re not that. Oh, I have a solution for you. It’s only 1995. So much of the world wants us to stay in this mode of self-doubt because they can get rich off of it. So our self-worth, yeah, it’s an act of a rebellion. So is healing. Liking yourself in a world that benefits from your insecurity is revolutionary.

It’s saying, I’m enough right now as I am after injury, after illness, after trauma. And that’s radical. That’s radical self-love, it’s radical acceptance, and in so many ways it’s. That’s our resilience, that’s our strength. So let’s be rebellious in our healing and also in how we see ourselves. How you see you.

As always, thanks for being here and thank you for being a fellow survivor.

In this episode, you discovered how to tap into the rebel that’s within you, the real enemy, which is really doubt and a few ways to enhance your confidence so you can give self-doubt a run for its money again. Thanks for being here, and thank you for being a fellow survivor

and if you wish to learn more about creating beautiful ripples and how to prevent a bad moment from turning into a bad day. Please visit my website, Michael O’Brien schiff.com and sign up for my newsletter called The Ripple Effect. And join us each Monday, Wednesday, and Friday here at Whole Again, and discover how you can heal, grow.

And become more resilient and celebrate our scars as golden symbols of strength and resilience. Until then, remember, you can always come back to your breath. You’ve got this and we’ve got you.