The How And Why of Faith
Some of the unhappiest people I know are VERY smart people who are militant atheists. It isn't just that they have no religious beliefs, it is that they take joy in attacking people who do. Which suggests to me that they have no SPIRITUAL faith either. No healing depth of wisdom.
Faith as a concept is "belief in things unseen". In the Hero's Journey, it is the way through the Dark Night of the soul, and is always faith in one of three things:
1) Faith in yourself. That you have more capacity and potential than even YOU know, and that you can learn to do Whatever It Takes to accomplish your goals within your ethical boundaries.
2) Faith in your companions. Your partners, students, mentors, friends, family…that you have built a network of real connections that can come back to help you. That basically, people just want to move away from pain and toward pleasure, and that over time math shows us that cooperation and honesty will out perform brutal competition and deception.
3) Faith in a "higher power". The concept of God is simply a reification for all the forces and aspects of the universe that we cannot understand consciously. This MIGHT be an anthropomorphic deity or evolved human messenger, God, Jesus, Muhammad, Buddha. Or might be simply a sense of the "ethical structure of the universe", of nature, of the miracle of life and consciousness itself.
It is my observation that a disproportionate percentage of high performers seem to have "Faith" in something larger than themselves, and I submit that THIS is what sustains them when they empty out, when they hit their limits.
And brothers and sisters, EVERY peak performer hits their limit. "The only way you know how far you can go is by going too far."
You lift weights until you hit…what? Muscle FAILURE. Failure is actually what triggers your deep mind to release another bit of your ultimate potential. And this is true physically, emotionally, or intellectually.
FAITH is one of the core steps in the HERO'S JOURNEY, without which you turn back and repeat the same part of the journey, endlessly.
FAITH is the second step of THINK AND GROW RICH--the belief that you CAN and SHOULD take actions, and get the result. Become the person you dream of being.
And how can we develop FAITH? A daily GRATITUDE practice. Gratitude in what we already have, or have experienced, gives us faith that tomorrow can be better than today.
So in Lifewriting we use what we call "FIREDANCE", the use of speaking affirmations while in motion.
So the way I do this, every day (5-6 days a week), is in the following pattern:
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This morning it looked like this:
1) Wake up. Drowse and enjoy the warmth. Wait for my body to start moving spontaneously, wiggling. Think about what productive steps I'll take today. Who I can help. The three most important things to be "done by one."
2) Sit up. Meditate in bed. Slow my breathing until I feel the pulse of life, the demand that I inhale more rapidly. My body knows! I breathe into the belly brain. Then feel my heartbeat. And then see light in my "third eye". And run light and warmth from the bottom to the top.
3) Out of bed. Brush my teeth, put in my contact lens (I alternate eyes, left-right, for removing a single lens at night).
4) Crawl. My body is still stiff, but a careful leopard or bear crawl for just a couple of minutes wakes EVERYTHING up.
5) Tai Chi. Ah. Now we're getting into the meat of it. This is FIREDANCE for me. The point is to find a physical movement you can do at least 10-20 minutes of. Then I rotate through the steps of the MAGIC formula (not necessarily in order):
a. Affirmations of confidence. "Every day in every way I'm getting better and better" is a fine one. There are countless others. Say 5 minutes.
b. GRATITUDE. Each of these is repeated until I FEEL it. "I'm so grateful for a strong healthy body" "I'm so grateful for a strong healthy mind." "I’m so grateful for the people who love me and trust me." And here I think of my children, Tananarive, my sister Joyce, my niece Shar and nephew Stephen. My mentors Larry Niven and Steve Muhammad. And other men and women who have inspired me for writing (Octavia is here), courage, martial arts, yoga, spiritual energetics, success and finance. Powerful allies, always with me.
c. Confidence again. "All I need is within me now." "All the X I need is within me now" and here I use Brendon Burchard's "High Performance Six" habits: Clarity, Energy, Urgency, Productivity, Influence, and Courage.
The point is to move, speak, focus AS IF you believed every word you are saying. Find something you are HUGELY grateful for. The love of a childhood pet. That home run you hit. Your first kiss. A loving child snuggling in your arms.
All of our memories are within us. We know this when we smell cookies and remember Mom's kitchen. Or conversely, when something reminds us of a brutal break-up or firing from a job. Ugh.
ITS ALL THERE. And the quality of your life will be determined by your ability to control your emotions. And what determines your state?
1) What you focus on.
2) How you move your body
3) The words you use.
We will go over these things in overlapping layers. It will take time, each of these models from a different set of teachings, often a different beloved mentor, tradition, culture, or perspective. Each is like putting a postage stamp on an invisible globe. Over time, the shape of that globe begins to emerge. You can sense it, even if you cannot look at it directly.
This is heady stuff. Take it a tiny step at a time. Just remember the first hour of the day, your "Diamond Hour", sets the tone for the rest of your day. The "Morning Ritual" I laid out above, from wake-up to leaving my bedroom, is about 30 minutes. If I only had five-ten minutes, I'd just crawl and chant.
START YOUR DAY with body, heart, and mind all aligned. Please ask ANY questions about this process. It is utterly transformative. It is the notion of aligning body, mind, and spirit in everything you do.
And in this particular instance, an illustration of how you can CREATE FAITH just by focusing on gratitude.
Honestly, one of my most consistent and powerful practices. Get started TODAY, and refine your routine as you go.
"Perfectionism is procrastination, masquerading as quality control."
Art is Life! Life is Art!
Steve
www.steven-barnes.com
