Confidence Defined

Obviously, confidence does not signify that one has thoughts that express doubt or worry about an uncertain event; however, contrary to popular belief, confidence isn't about having positive thoughts about a situation either.

Complete confidence only comes with complete detachment to the outcomes of a given situation. You aren't confident because you project outcomes to the event or situation you are about to find yourself in. Your mind subconsciously (and preconsciously) considers million possible outcomes and probabilities for the scenario in question. While doing so, it attaches desires, fears, and prejudices to each imagined outcome.

So those that project undesirable outcomes, receive negative results in reality. Those who project positive outcomes however, are often greeted with success. The problem only comes when failure arrives. Many times we are so caught up in our imagination, our egos get angered that reality turned out so much worse than our aspirations. Our egos sink into depression and it takes us days to recover and move onto the next situation with a clear head. Total confidence is only obtained by those who project neither positive nor negative attachment at all.

True confidence is a mind clear of thought and fully focused on the present. In the present, there are no judgments- only actions. It is only after the NOW moment has already past that our brains begin to analyze and attach subjective valuations. True Enlightenment comes after we've broken the walls of our own thoughts and judgments until we have no thoughts at all.

To live in the present is to have a mindset similar to that of a child. Experience first and feeling later. Children see and act with little fear or timidness. They are not yet bound by the well-traveled quantum pathways of the brain as is typical of adults. A child's neural network is not yet developed and lacks the carefully patterned and conditioned neural pathways of the adult brain, so while the adult reacts predictably and automatically to a familiar stimuli, a child may react differently each time the same stimuli is presented to them.

This sense of supreme confidence found in many children is a good trait to emulate. Somewhere between our childhood and adulthood we lose our sense of wonder. Why? Because in order to understand logic, we are required to forsake this feeling of curiosity we once had about the universe. In doing so, however, we spite the body by cutting of the head.

Granted, its useful to think about logical problems using logic, but it is just as useful to be able to turn the logical analysis off when not solving logical problems. When your only tool is logic, every situation starts to look like a proof. Most of the time we are too smart for our own good, and we try to go on proving things which do not need explanations.

So when you hear that little voice in your head start chirping during a situation which doesn't require logic (e.g. the majority of our lives) just repeat in your head the words, "these thoughts are not useful." You can reprogram your mind to shut the hell up and start enjoying the little things again; it just takes a week or two of consistent practice. Similarly, when you find yourself thinking deep or insightful thoughts, repeat, "these thoughts are useful, more of these thoughts."

"One has to invoke this NOW within one's self. It is a challenging task because we are not used to living in the NOW. We are used to living in logic. That is why we find it difficult to live in the NOW. But to live in the NOW is the only way to live the Divine. The Divine wants everything in the now. The Divine is capable of manifesting everything in the NOW. It doesn't posit a future. It doesn't have any sense of the past, any sense of the present." - Siva Baba