Keys to unlocking your faith power
1. Faith in yourself
2. Faith in a higher power
3. Faith in change being possible
4. Faith in trusting the choices that lead to change
5. Faith to know what you want
6. Faith to receive this abundance
7. Faith to give thanks for your choices
8. Faith in love
9. Faith in forgiveness and getting rid of anger
10. Faith in acceptance
11. Faith in overcoming your fears
12. Faith that you can put your difficulties to work
13. Faith in healing
If you go to any meeting of Alcoholics or Overeaters Anonymous, one of the first things they will tell you is to get some form of belief. Belief is faith in action.
1. Faith in yourself
If you're operating entirely on your emotions, which 90% of people are, your life will be out of control and you'll have no self belief. Your life will be a rollercoaster ride of highs and lows. The drama of life and an addiction to this drama will lead to more and more difficult situations in life. You've become your emotions and you're being dragged along by them. You are unconsciously immersed in what you think to be true, and from here are automatically creating for yourself more of the same.
You might tell yourself all the time, “Yes, I can do this”, but underneath your emotions are going crazy and there's no way you can properly do what you're trying to achieve. Your life is awash with emotional thoughts and these are mostly negative at that. Your energy levels are being blocked by this negative emotion. What can you do?
a. Practice relaxation of your mind and body, so that your low energies can be unlocked and you can gradually gain an increase in your energy levels.
b. Become more aware of yourself and your emotions. Step back and look at your reactions more objectively.
c. Look at the function of your right and left brain.
d. Only 5% of your brain is conscious. Whereas 95% is subconscious.
a. Relaxation
Quantum physics - “At a quantum level (between 10,000 and 100,000 times smaller than an atom), everything that exists in the Universe is energy, vibrating or oscillating at different rates”.
So you are pure energy and unless you introduce some form of regular relaxation into your life, your body will end up with energy blockages. These low energy levels mean that your life will become increasingly unbalanced. This will result in a diseased mind and body.
How do you bring peace into your life and consequently unblock and increase your energy levels? Peace only comes through relaxation, which then flows from your body into your life. This makes for a peaceful, contented and high energy person.
Relaxation and the contentment that flows within and without must be a choice. It doesn't come naturally in our society. Western society is one where the choice is noise, drama and stress. You've got to work at relaxation and negate societies choices. When you decide to carry the peace always within you, that goes with you throughout your busy life, then you have chosen relaxation.
Everyday set aside 5-10 minutes night and morning. You think this can't be done, but everyone has studied to achieve a better life, whether at school or later, with children or without, working or not. You fitted it in. To increase your happiness quotient you have to be prepared to work at it. You have the capacity for contentment within you, but have forgotten long ago how to draw out this inherent quality.
Get up 10 minutes early. Take the phone off the hook and turn of the television. Use your lunch hour and travel time. In fact make use of any spare scrap of time you have.
Firstly relax your body. Just sit back in a comfortable position. If you're in a train, tell yourself it's comfortable and it soon will be. Put your feet on the ground and start to rotate the ankles so they become nice and loose. Then let the looseness move up your body, through the ankles to the legs. You'll feel it slowly moving up to your upper body. Your body is relaxing and you're slowing down. Just take in four deep breaths and slowly release them. Rotate your shoulders and then drop your hands into your lap. Now you can feel your heart rate slow. Work on your head and neck moving them clockwise and anti-clockwise. Your body is finally relaxed.
But you've still got these rushing thoughts. Thoughts of the day ahead or of the busy day that's past. The constant demands that have to be met and the never ending decisions that need to be made. Your brain needs to slow down from this rushing surf into a millpond. The first thing you need to know here is that an overcrowded and unrelaxed mind, will only lead to bad choices. Whereas one that is rested, will provide easy answers to all your questions.
After this realization, think of the most peaceful place you know. It can be a real place or merely from a magazine. Here you are – beside a stream, swimming in a lake, skiing through a valley or just sitting in a garden smelling the flowers. Dwell in this place for a few minutes and you'll come back to the noise and reality totally refreshed, bringing with you that inner core of peace.
Give thanks for a relaxed body and peaceful mind and use this to increase your confidence and bring balance back into your life.
b. Detachment
The only way for you to know how others see you and consequently be able to stop your purely emotional behavior is to step back and look at yourself through others eyes. It's a hard thing to do as people tend to see themselves from an optimistic bias. From this bias all behavior can be justified.
Men tend to think they're right because they see things from a “business perspective – only women are emotional”. Then if someone doubts the stand they're taking on an issue they think, “Everyone is picking on me and I'm only being honest and taking the right approach”. Even if only a few people think you're wrong, open your mind up to the fact that you could just be wrong – and not only this one time. Admit for once that you can also be fallible and stop having to so aggressively defend your viewpoint – it could be wrong you know.
Women tend to take the blame more easily, even if it's not necessarily their fault as they are the world's peacemakers. They might know that really they were right, but take the blame as it's an easier approach. If you're doing this, stop being a martyr here. See the facts squarely and know when you're being emotional about a situation. At least you can more easily see and admit this, as your viewpoint doesn't have to be as aggressively defended.
The optimism bias leads us to smugly think that underneath, “We're basically a good person. Maybe not everyone agrees, but they don't know our real nature”. Even if occasionally you take your anger out on others, by tailgating or yelling at a stranger, or someone close, that's only being human, and you're still underneath a good person. Just detach yourself for a moment here. Weigh up your times of anger and frustration and compare them to your times of peace and contentment. Which tips the scales here? Let me guess. Remember which one is taking up the greater part of your short life. Are you happy with his situation?
We spend our whole lives rationalizing our silly behavior. It's always, “I did this but it was an accident. I didn't mean to do it. I had to do it. You left me with no choice”.
Just look at how righteously we justify using a hands-free phone in the car. We conveniently overlook the fact that we're still four times more likely to have an accident. (British Medical Journal). We always think that the risks that apply to others don't apply to us. We can handle it.
We are quick to judge others for their “irrational” arguments that justify their actions. We, of course, can see things more objectively and have more facts at our command. We can easily spot bias in others, but are incapable of seeing it in ourselves.
One of the most important aspects of development in life, is the ability to see yourself, other people and the world through additional perspectives. This is the ability of detachment and being able to see the bigger picture.
As children everything is about me. We are egocentric and unable to see the perspectives of others. When we move to the next stage we are aware of our social group and take into account others beside ourselves. This stage of life too is limited, and hopefully later we are able to move to a higher perspective of life, whereby we are able to see beyond just ourselves and our small social group, to a more world-centered view.
Our bias will automatically delude us into thinking that this is the case with us, but the more we see things as separate, the unhappier we'll always be. Conversely, the more we realize everything goes together and depends on everything else, the more liberated we'll feel and the more successful we'll become.
Many adults never more beyond that egocentric stage. So if you still only think of yourself, that's exactly where you're stuck and you'll have to look into why you're stuck there. There are many 48 year old teenagers charging around.
So after seriously judging yourself, you can truly say you are a world- focused person, aware of your links to others and the needs of others. You need a final step here. You need to step back here and become the viewer of your life. This will give you more control over your feelings and reactions. Instead of being that angry, irritated person who's watching their life spiral out of control, you now still have that angry feeling but can stop it before it consumes you. You have it but it's not totally controlling you – you suddenly are aware of it and can consequently take steps to control it.
You can become the arbiter of your destiny. You suddenly have strategies that you can use throughout your life at your fingertips. You're no longer a helpless victim of your emotions. Step back and see them for what they are. You are the powerful force in your life.
c. Look at the function of your right and left brain
Psychological research shows that at twenty-five we are pretty much set in our capacity for happiness. Yes you can keep telling yourself that you're going to change and think more positively, but strategies have to be in place to do this – to really have faith in yourself.
Our past behavior can using predict what our lives will be like, using facts and logic. That's our left brain coming to the fore and as it's the dominant hemisphere, so it's usually how our lives will continue. Research has found that greater activity in the left cortex, means more positive moods. So how can your life be altered, by turning your thoughts from negative into positive?
Relaxation leading to a quieter mind is the key here. Studies have shown that this leads to increased activity in the left brain. Total relaxation of the mind can be brought about through meditation.
Just spend initially five minutes a day quietening your life. Just sit somewhere peaceful where you feel comfortable. Breathe deeply and allow your body to relax. Tense your muscles at first and then let go. Start with your feet and legs and move slowly up your body through your torso, shoulders, arms and up to your neck, face and head. Allow yourself to fall into a regular pattern of breathing. Breather in on 1-2-3 and out for 1-2-3 for five minutes night and morning. It's a small thing to do but will change your life, as your brain will tell your body you're more relaxed and you'll notice it in every corner of your life. This is a good starting point for change as being able to physically change your thoughts into more positive channels, has got to be a great springboard on which to base your life.
So you're altering your analytical thoughts, how then do you bring into play the more creative and intuitive side of the brain – the right side? This side is the one to get you into touch with your higher self, so that real changes can be achieved. This is your faith side.
Being ruled by your left brain, means you're no risk taker and your whole life is only logic and detail orientated. You'll always dwell in the past and expect this past to control your future. You'll never be able to trust yourself enough to have faith in yourself and from there go onto believe in the bigger picture of life.
Getting into touch with your higher self, is the way for you to become a future-orientated person and to stop dwelling in the past. Giving yourself some me-time and becoming a more relaxed person will certainly help your quest. Your brain will have room for thoughts other than the everyday. Bigger picture thinking will come more often into your mind.
Another interesting way to activate your right brain intuitiveness, is by using automatic writing. This is where you actually use a pen and paper to record your thoughts, so you can access and dwell on them throughout your day. You will have many questions you've often thought about but were afraid to ask, as you never expected an answer.
At the top of the sheet of paper write down:
USE RIGHT BRAIN
You are going to write under this heading. As the right brain controls the left side of your body, you have to use your left hand. Writing with your left hand will be difficult, unless you are already left-handed, at first but just take it slowly and easily.
I know you will have thought of many questions, but don't ask everything at once. Start with just one earth-shattering one such as:
WHO AM I?
Could you really find this out? Well try it. This is where I started and have never looked back. But how can you trust the answer? How will you know it's not just you answering? Well it is you answering – the you of your higher self. The you that knows all the answers. The you that is God. This belief will gradually begin to dawn on you. From here you'll trust your answers more and more and belief rapidly follows. In fact when you find your questions being answered before you even formulate them, then you'll know you're truly in touch with your intuitive side.
This increased trust will of course lead you to finally have faith in yourself. You've pushed yourself out of your comfort zone and discovered the faith you never would have believed you had.
d. Using the other 95% of your brain
Everyone is so used to using such a tiny part of their brain, that they don't even realize that there is another untapped 95% available. This is the subconscious which holds all the answers from your higher self. This subconscious is your guide throughout life, that leads to problem solving and decision making. Even when the facts are all on the table, what you finally decide to do with any problem does come with a grain of intuition at least. You might argue and argue with yourself to find the perfect answer, but how often are you told to sleep on it and there's the answer.
So how do you access this untapped potential?
The keyword here is sleeping on it. That means we're slowing down our brain waves.
1. Delta waves – 0-4 Hz are slowest during 3rd to 4th stages of sleep
2. Theta waves – 4-8Hz are when we're falling asleep
3. Alpha waves – 8-12Hz are when we're relaxed and alert. These decrease with concentration or busy activity.
4. Beta waves – 12-26Hz are during high stress or when we're busy or anxious.
5. Gamma waves – 26-80Hz are during problem solving or higher level concentration.
The brain can produce a variety of these waves at any one time. High beta and low alpha thinking is in times of depression and high stress periods. These are times of muddled thinking and wrong decision making. Most people's life is stuck in beta mode. The optimal brain times are when the brain and body are relaxed and alert. This is when the best life decisions are made.
Many go through life with the belief that to achieve any success in life, requires ruthless ambition and struggle. Intense busyness is necessary to achieve any of your goals. By the time this success is reached, you'll wind up exhausted and unhappy because your life has gone out of balance. Your whole time and energy have been so consumed for such a long period, that your life will be totally out of harmony and you will have negated all you set out to achieve.
You have to put yourself in harmony with nature and realize that forcing energy through aggressiveness and competition will only slow your progress. Unwavering faith in yourself and never giving up is an unstoppable force. To have this faith in yourself you need to calm your body and mind. You are already spending five minutes a day calming your body through breathing. Just add to this mind relaxation. Sit for a few minutes in a peaceful place and if you can't do this, sit your mind in this place. Think of the most beautiful and restful scene you can remember from life or print and return there whenever you need to. It's serene, soothing and so settling.
Use this hidden strength of inner peace here. This will access your alpha waves and from there your inner self. Increased peacefulness will give you increased brain activity and consequently alertness. Your questions will begin to be answered before you even ask them.