Feeling stuck.

Disbelief is a refusal or unwillingness to accept something as true. 

Disbelief is categorized as one of the fifty-one negative mental states in the Abhidharmakosa. It is a negative mental state because disbelief supports torpor.  It engenders laziness or lethargy.  It supports feeling stagnant or stuck, not knowing what to do.

Many of us are faced with times of uncertainty.  Part of that uncertainty is an unwillingness to accept our current situation, a refusal to look at what is actually going on.  That unwillingness to accept our reality makes us feel stuck and powerless, but it is not actually the situation that makes us powerless but our orientation to it.

Our mental state- one of unwillingness or refusal to acknowledge what is going on- prevents us from actually acting.  It prevents us from moving forward, from taking a step.  It holds us back because in order to dance we need to have a partner, and I refuse to dance with this one.

So getting unstuck is an act of faith.  Not because we need to believe the reality of our situation, but because we can still seek out what is authentic and true despite the gravity of the current circumstances.  

Our biggest challenge is determining which holds more weight in our lives, faith or disbelief. Without faith we are sure to be stuck in troubled waters indeed.