In the bigger picture – think of your entire lifetime here – if we want to achieve anything beyond the mundane and mediocre, which most mindful leaders certainly do, then it’s important to cultivate our faith in ourselves, our own inspiration, and our ability to figure things out no matter what. Of course, this is much easier said than done if you’re not sure where to begin, but once you know how to start, life might just begin to flow effortlessly for you as you build a solid foundation for your next level of success (no matter where you’re starting from). Read on to learn how you can start building your faith.
When most people speak about faith, they are probably talking about God or their particular religion or belief system. To really understand faith, it’s much more helpful to build faith in yourself and your own abilities within this life and physical reality (including your ability to recognize everyday opportunities and miracles), so let’s scrap all that religious stuff for now and focus on ourselves and our skills. After all, God helps those who help themselves, right?
A Parable and 4 Ways to Build Your Faith & Rise Above the Chaos
Ok... I know I said no religious stuff, but this story proceeded to pop into my head, and I feel like it’s a perfect example of what not to do.
Have you ever read the story of the man trapped on the roof of his house during a flood? He prayed and prayed for God to come down and save him, and so God sent a person in a boat and at least two other rescuers including a helicopter. Each time, the man refused, saying that God was on His way to save him. When the man drowned and went to heaven, it was a facepalm moment because the man was surprised he was dead. “Why didn’t you save me?” he asked God. God replied, “I sent help several times and you didn’t accept it!”
Of course, this is just from the top of my head, but you can understand how frustrating it might be to watch another person miss, bypass, or completely ignore the opportunities presented to them due to their own finite thinking and misunderstandings.
Knowing this, it becomes easier to begin seeing subtle opportunities (as well as obvious ones) as the miraculous manifestations that they are rather than ignoring them in favor or a massive and obvious, from-left-field type of miracle that we haven’t developed the enlightened abilities to manifest (yet).
The first step is building faith in yourself and training your intuition. Here are four ways you can begin to help yourself.
1. Cultivate your faith in YOU.
This begins first with self-worth and realizing that yes, you DO deserve to achieve your goals and dreams. If not you, then who? If not now, then when? No one else dreams the exact same dreams as you, and no one else can offer the same talents, insights, or creations, although some may complement each other, especially if you collaborate with other like-minded people. However, it is never the exact same, and your voice is needed to make a difference... if you choose to believe it is.
2. Cultivate your faith in your ability to figure things out.
This includes training your skill set, getting plenty of practice with said skill set, and allowing yourself to solve problems on your own. Of course, you won’t be perfect at everything right away... so this can and probably will create conditions for you to have to work through doubts, fears, preconceived notions, and conditioned belief systems about yourself, failure, and other deep-seated topics. This can happen organically over time, although the more you are able to accomplish (even small things, one at a time), the faster you will realize and release any emotional blockages you may have about success or following your dreams, which will allow you to pick up momentum.
3. Cultivate your faith in your own inspiration.
Inspiration can be tapped into and accessed if we practice doing so, which may seem daunting to anyone who has ever experienced something like writer’s block. You cannot force it, as this cuts off your creative flow. However, you can coax it gently out of hiding and allow it to come out and play as a form of practice as well. Let’s put it this way... the more often you follow your inspiration – your bliss – the more it will want to come out and play in the future. The more you create and follow your bliss, the healthier, happier, and more balanced you will be as a human being.
4. Cultivate your faith in your daily habits and disciplines.
Many people shy away from the word discipline because it often has negative connotations. However, I’m here to remind you that these negative connotations exist only in our minds, so it’s up to you to rewrite your definition of the word if you so choose. Your daily habits – the small, bite-sized chunks of activity that result in much bigger achievements – are what will result in the future you dream of becoming a reality. It often doesn’t matter whether you are good at these activities at first or not... what does matter is your commitment to the activity on a daily basis. This is true whether you’re losing 100 pounds, building a bridge, or writing a novel; a small chunk of daily activity is the best way to go about it, even though at times it’s easy to be overly ambitious and then subsequently get overwhelmed and resentful about it. This is something many of us still struggle with, which is why it’s so important to go back to #1 and work on your self-worth. Self-worth is directly related to healthy boundaries, so if you’ve been a people-pleaser your whole life, it’s important to have a focused definition of integrity and make sure your priorities are straight.
I certainly hope that you find this information useful! Remember to share if it resonates, and keep coming back for new material for the rest of the month.
To learn more about the Mindfulness Movement and the International Mindfulness Federation, please visit:
