Hello dear friends, it's Eve here with you. Welcome to Radio Headspace and to Thursday.

So you know the saying, I'm my own worst critic. Those moments in life where we overanalyze

and judge our performance or our capabilities. And we might say to ourselves, I could have

done better. And I was chatting with a really good friend of mine the other day. And he

told me that his wife, who is a writer, was applying for a place on a training programme

that is known to be really hard to get accepted on. And she was asked to attend what she thought

was a preliminary discussion on what she would want to get out of the training. She didn't

think it was an actual interview. Anyway, they got to the end of the conversation and the

lady she was meeting with said to her, fantastic news. I'm delighted to tell you that you have

a place on the programme. And then my friend called her later in the day to see how she

felt about it and what she said rather surprised him. She just couldn't shake this feeling of

not having done what she thought was her best, that she could have done more. And he had

to end the conversation by acknowledging her feelings while encouraging her that she

would do well in the programme. When I heard this, it resonated so deeply with me. Even

after many years of practicing meditation, self-doubt is something that is a work in progress

for me. And that makes sense because doubt is one of the five hindrances or obstacles

when it comes to meditation. So it's not unusual to experience this both in our practice and

in our daily lives. This sense that we're not good enough or doing something well enough.

And doubt is like a weed whose roots seep deep into our consciousness. And if the weed

is not tended to, it can take over our mindset and perception of ourselves and our experiences

in the world. In fact, very recently, I was watching back a video that I had recorded

and all I could focus on was what I didn't say. And because I hadn't said certain things,

...