The Power of Healthy Doubt

'Healthy doubt about the work can get you to look deeply at your writing, to ask questions about it that can lead to new directions that support and enhance it. Evaluating and assessing your work are essential, but you have to be prepared for the information. The trick is to take your doubt in stride and keep it in its place, not to take doubt's piece of the truth for the whole kit and caboodle. To take criticism and listen to the doubt without squelching the innate nature of creativity, which is playful, open, and soulful, can, at times, be a balancing act. Doubt becomes a hindrance when the questioning goes beyond the work itself and becomes an assault on the self. And not only an assault on the self, but on God as well, on the essence of creativity, and on the greater forces that are at play behind our writing. When doubting becomes hurtful to the work, the self, and your faith, it no longer serves you. To doubt your ability or value can temporarily sever the creative, generative force that is yours, where your essential self resides. It cuts off your connection.'

--From Writing and the Spiritual Life--Finding Your Voice By Looking Within.