– Dr. Brian Martin
Faith in this context has nothing to do with religion. Faith, power, acceptance, deserving are all the same thing. Everyone has been born with the ability to have and use the power of free will and faith. In the purest form faith means believing in something that has not been proven to your mind or believing in something more real than what your mind thinks. For instance you don't really need faith to believe 1 + 1 equals 2, but you may need faith to believe that one person added to another person can equal more than two.
Many of us walk around with this sense or thinking that we are not lovable, valuable or deserving. We feel stuck trapped, powerless, and numb with the sensation that something is wrong with us or we are broken in some way. First things first………YOU ARE NOT BROKEN!! You have not been created to suffer and you are not alone. Those sensations are actually part of your minds protective programs and survival reflex we all learn in childhood, which we forget to update when we are adults. Those sensations are actually signals from deep inside our hearts that “something needs to happen”, the mind incorrectly interprets them as “something is missing”, and they really mean it’s time to move. Your cocoon of survival sleep is over, it’s time to wake and start your life, and it’s time to use your greatest gift of life, your free will. You are ready to thrive. That uneasiness or conflict you feel is between the force inside of you pushing you to awaken and your mind trying to stay protected and the same. Your heart wants to move and your minds want you to stay the same. Don’t worry that your mind temporarily still thinks those non-deserving things; even though it is powerful remember it is only a computer recycling the same information (I must protect and prevent any hurt) over and over. Try not to take your mind too seriously; after all it still thinks you are a powerless child that will die if it gets hurt…..what does it really know? Your mind still does not know yet that you even have free will, that is until you show and teach it. Just in case you were not sure……you are not that powerless child anymore and you are not your mind’s hurt either. You are now different than you were as a hurt child; you are an adult that can choose to create happiness, you can now ask for love if you get hurt, you can clean old hurts, all out of the power of your free will. You are now a person with the capacity to choose, you are now a person with an open slate of possible identities, you can even mix and match them, you can even change them regularly if you don’t like them. This is your life, it belongs to you, this is how much power you have, to begin you must awake and choose to accept it. If you can do this, you have done your first action of faith. Say I have free will and with my free will I choose to be happy.One day my twelve year old daughter came up to me frustrated and crying, she said Daddy I don’t know what’s happening, I think I am losing my mind. I said Aleah you are not losing your mind, tell me what’s going on. She said, well I am thinking all of these things and I am feeling all of these things, and its making me crazy. I said Aleah, everyone has two parts to help them through life, you have a powerful mind that acts very much like a computer, it thinks and collects information and tries to protect you and help you survive. You also have a part of you that feels, that’s your heart, it is the part where new ideas come from; it is the part that is closest to a playful child and it is the one that connects you to all of the energy around you including love. When you where younger they never talked at the same time, if you ever got in trouble your mind would immediately shut you down to protect you. Now that you are older they are both talking at the same time and they are both saying different things. When this happens, it creates a lot of conflict and confusion. What’s happening is that they are waiting for you to pick which one to follow. You are now becoming conscious. Aleah they both work for you, but without you to guide them, they will both fight in their own way taking you and your body for the ride. My daughter said, that’s it…..all I have to do is pick which one I want to listen to? Yes…it is that simple. Within seconds she had picked, her crying was replaced with a smile and her frustration replaced with peace. This was her first act of free will; this was her first action of faith.
Life is a buffet, and faith is your spoon
That word “faith” can mean many different things, in this context faith means the power to create peace in times of uncertainly and despair. It is this faith that has the power to transform fear in to excitement, doubt into curiosity and conflict into peace. Faith gives you the power and freedom to move you past you safe comfort zones, to overcome any obstacle, clean any hurt and obtain all the peace, joy and love that you can. Life is a buffet and faith is your spoon. Faith is something that exists and can be used only in the present moment. With faith you can love as much as you can before you die, you can live to love and love to live. Faith is a thriving action involving feeling and a choice unlike the survival reflex which only uses thinking and reacting. In total, faith involves; awareness, feeling, and your unique power to choose. It is not something you just have by reading a book, understanding faith and actually using it are two different things. To have faith you must use it.
Playful Faith
In times of conflict, faith guides us to the most efficient and fun way to connect to the force, energy and rhythm that is within us and connects all of us. In this context the term “Playful Faith” helps describe what faith is really used for. If you choose the most amount of “joy”, “peace”, “love” “gratitude” in every situation it would be through the action of faith. Faith is an intentional action; it is the action of choosing your hearts fun more than your minds fear, even when your mind has some really good arguments. It is basically the action of you seeing and choosing your heart’s direction. Faith uses the power of free will and choice to play through painful situations even those that are triggered by old hurts. Faith is knowing that LOVE is the strongest force, even in the presence of fear. Faith is the action that brings you closer to love, peace, joy, even when you feel lost, powerless, out of control, conflicted, full of shame, guilt or fear and every fiber of you wants to run. In fact, in a decision between love and hate or love and fear, it would be the action of faith that would give you the fastest route back to peace. Bottom line faith is the action of choosing your heart over your mind.
When to use the power of faith
In this context active or playful faith as I like to call it, is not needed in peacetime or when you are in a state of gratitude, remember in gratitude you are already connected to love and peace. The ability to be grateful however in times of conflict and stress is definitely guided by the action of faith. Faith is only used or needed in times of conflict, faith is not really needed to stay the same or suffer. For example you don't need faith to stay conflicted, stuck, sick or depressed. You do not need faith to be the best “miserable” person or to become unhappy. Faith is reserved for those actions that align or increase your; ability to feel (awareness), healing, gratitude, peace and happiness. In fact in life it is impossible to be happy, peaceful or experience deep love through life unless you have faith. Faith allows you to see the present moment as safe, the future as good, and the unknown as exciting. With faith you feel confident and powerful. Faith allows you to feel grounded even when you have thoughts of being out of control.
Faith is a Friend
Faith is just like having a true friend; true friends celebrate you in the wonderful times and also shine to guide you through times of conflict. Do you call upon your friend faith even in the times when you feel all alone, conflicted, sad, helpless and out of control or do you suffer alone? Well you should, because that is what faith is the best at? Your action of free will to call upon your friend faith to help you also starts to reprogram or teach your mind how to be peaceful. The action of faith teaches your mind that the unknown is not always scary. Faith eventually tells your mind that even if you don’t understand something you can still move. Once you start to use faith, you will start to feel the inner peace even “assumed” worst of times, you become more awakened, more aware and more likely to have new levels of faith. Consistent use of faith becomes simpler even though the obstacles appear on the outside to be more difficult. Having faith sets in motions the opportunity to have different degree of being more and more open. With each new opportunity for faith comes even greater awareness, openness, love and connection. These are also known as “jumping points” or “leaps of faith”. These “Leaps of faith” or jumping points are opportunities. These however if you are still stuck, numb or the unaware are also known as; confusion, conflict, anxiety and even depression.
Purpose of Faith – Faith guides you, protects you and cleans hurt
There is no shortage of love or faith; and there is more than enough love and faith available to clean any hurt, accomplish any goal or create any life you want. Using faith is designed to build self esteem, peace, create joy and clean past hurts change unlovable and numb to lovable and alive. With faith you are not focused on the problems or the many hurts. With faith you are not focused on always “stopping hurt” or “letting go”. Faith is the action of choosing or “letting in” the most love, peace, light, happiness, joy, playful, fun, openness, god, in any given difficult situation. The action of faith and “letting in” love is efficient, automatically “letting go” as it cleans and heals. Through faith you light areas that used to seem scary and dark. Initially your own hurts give you plenty of opportunities to have faith. Once used, faith immediately uncovers new peace, inner power and possibilities, allowing you to move to the next moment with increased awareness and self-esteem. With every unknown or powerless sensation comes the opportunity to have faith and with every application of faith arises more self-esteem, confidence and peace. You start to recognize the pattern, its Fear, Faith, and then Fun. So, it’s always open, then conflict, then more faith, then more peace. Just like a step, until you’re finally clean. Clean means as if you’ve never been hurt. The more your survival reflex wants to distract, shut down or run away the more your faith is needed. You start to increase your faith muscle, you become stronger and faster. You may even start to seek out your fears, using them as a opportunities with use and increase your peace, gratitude and faith. Through the action and application of faith you become a love seeker.
Results of the action of faith.
Trusting you’ll be ok even when your mind says the opposite
Surrendering to “what is” as opposed to “why it is
A sense of peace even if hurt still exists in the world
Sense of being connected and not alone
An Increase in self esteem
Increase of awareness
The increasing ability to see the love, joy, peace, opportunity in every situation
Triggers are opportunities for Growth
Your mind’s survival reflex is not going to let you consciously remember every one of your childhood hurts and traumas. In fact because pain is painful, unless triggered a past hurt and the corresponding protective mechanisms (closed, non trusting, afraid of the unknown) will continue to exist. The downside of waiting for time and suffering to push you into an awakening, or the longer the childhood hurt is left unresolved or unloved the more elaborate the walls fears and protections. The action of faith brings your hurt to you; the action of faith allows you move beyond your hurt and kiss-your own boo-boos.
Building the Faith Muscle
In the emotionally awakened person (someone who has started to feel) past hurts are often triggered up to the present moment. These “triggers” when combined with faith can actually assist movement and change. These are personalized faith building exercises. I mean, you really would have to have faith to see the most amount of peace and love when you are stressed, lost and sad…..right? These events can be triggered by a situation, triggered by a person, class, lecture, or they are “open ends” which are opportunities to create your goals. If you have written some goals or have asked the universe for something expect these “triggers”, “open ends” opportunities to come up more often. This is especially true if any of your previous hurt is getting in the way of your future happiness. These prepare and groom you for the new you. In other words be careful or be ready for what you ask for because you going to get it. Faith is the action that redirects and reprograms the minds perception; faith shows the mind that; vulnerability is not the same as weakness but rather strength, our openness is a better protection than our closed walls, our fears as opportunities for growth. Repetitive use of faith has the added benefit of retraining or reprogramming the survival reflex into a thriving reflex. Making choices from faith also known as following your heart allows even your own mind to witness the outcome. Your own mind does what a mind does best, it gathers proof. Eventually even your own mind learns that faith beats fear and that the only way through fear is faith. The mind will never understand the force that leads or guides faith, it may never be able to comprehend the unknown, but it does learn to trust the action that you do called faith. Like a good computer gathering data, the mind learns that having faith allows its survival when it is trapped in the unknown and freaking out trying to find the answer that it now has a friend in faith. You mind has become friends with your heart. At this stage your mind even starts to help you, so instead of your mind conflicting with the heart they now share a common way to remind you to have faith. Having faith becomes your new protection. Faith directs us to be purposeful, peaceful and grateful.
In the spiritual sense faith is the act of using your free will to move towards god. The ability to have faith is a human gift, it’s something you use while you’re alive, and it’s not something you would use once you are dead? It is one thing to have faith; it is another thing to use it when you need it the most. Anyone can have faith when everything is going well; it’s the action of faith when your mind thinks you are in trouble that gives faith the power to move anyone at anytime from surviving to thriving. Your greatest challenge is not going to be finding faith, it is contained in everyone. Your greatest challenge will be more around the acceptance that you are in fact that loved and given such an amazing power. The power of faith, allows every soul a uniquely human and spiritual work of art. It has the power to create childlike adults with playful expression and unpredictable purpose and joy. Even though every one of us has the power to have faith, you still have to accept it and use it, which in itself is your first action of faith. Faith has to be used, it cannot be on a shelf, it has to be claimed and aimed. Conflict in the mind creates conflict in the body, which manifests as more suffering, disease and lost time and potential. We all have built into us a reflex to survive but we also have the choice through faith to thrive. Faith is here to help you. Faith does not abandon you, you have to abandon faith. Faith is a true friend, are you a true friend to faith?
With faith you can change
Surviving into Thriving
Feeling out of control into to Freedom
Past Hurt Reflex into Current Love Reflex
Avoiding pain into Seeking love
Constant Conflict into Consistent Peace
Protective and Closed into Open and Adventurous
Fear into Excitement
Doubt into Curiosity
Mind and Heart conflicted into the Mind helping the Heart
Powerless into Choice
Numbness into alive
Conclusion
We are free to be powerful in this life when we are alive. When we die, the earthly version of you is gone along with your ability to choose in this life. The ability to have choice is what makes up the power to have faith. Faith is choice put into action, and not just any action it’s an action that leads you directly to see the joy, happiness, love, peace, childlike, god in every situation. Even though we all have free will, why would we ever use it to move away from something good? If you have free will why would you use your free will to move away from the light, love, peace or joy? Faith is not needed to feel alone, stuck, resistance, fearful. Even after we are awakened and aware we can still operate from our childhood survival reflex, we can still be triggered and distract, run and push away. As amazing as the survival reflex is to protect us and help us to survive our childhood, it fails quite miserably when we are adults trying to live without the action of faith.
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