Welcome to the Grow Inward Podcast, I am your host Adrian Petrillo.
If I were to ask you to describe how and where faith plays a role in your life today, how would you answer that question? The word faith is often most generally associated with god or religion, but I would argue that it plays a much broader role in your life than that, and it absolutely should when it comes to inner work and inner growth.
I would like to point out that these conversations and ideas I have been presenting so far this season have all been centered around connections, and I believe that your connection to faith is a great concept to consider and one that may be very different from your initial thoughts around this subject. I think that the common association of faith from a religious perspective is both valid and valuable, and I think that faith in this specific form provides a great deal of comfort to all who practice it, including myself.
When I think of faith, the meaning behind it that immediately comes to mind for me is the ability to cultivate a certainty or a sense of trust in a process, even in the absence of any evidence or proof that it can be realized. Very often in cases of faith specifically, evidence or proof can only be found after we are able to trust in the process with a willingness to persevere for as long as it takes. Even then, there are some instances where faith is a never ending process of trust in something which we will never be provided with physical or tangible evidence of?
I find this quite fascinating, that we are all endowed with this choice so to speak, in that we always can choose to trust or to dismiss our own thoughts and beliefs. What is even more fascinating in relation to this idea are the many studies which show that in the absence of having to actually choose to believe in something and instead being presented with something that appears to be true or beneficial, the results are often the same or better, even when the thing we believe to be effective is literally not even a part of the experienced benefits or solutions? A great book that illustrates exactly what I am talking about is the book You Are the Placebo: Making Your Mind Matter by Dr. Joe Dispenza, which I have linked to in the show notes and I highly recommend you read that book if you find this subject interesting. There are some incredible examples in that book that will leave you questioning what you think you know about faith and the power of belief.
I have talked about mindset many times on this podcast and I would like to illustrate not only how important mindset is but also how your connection to faith plays a significant role in creating and maintaining a growth oriented mindset in general. When you think about shifting your mindset to something more supportive that will help you to better meet your goals both personally and professionally there is no dismissing the fact that faith will play a significant role in this process, mainly because of the unknown nature of the actual outcome when first beginning. There must be an ever present element of faith in your own ability to do whatever is required to ultimately reach your goal, especially when faced with the inevitable challenges and roadblocks that will present themselves along the way. When you do begin to see some results that validate your efforts it becomes much more apparent how the role of your connection to faith can be an extremely valuable, and often necessary tool that extends far beyond religion.
In one of my recent episodes we discussed your connection to thoughts, and I think that faith plays a really important role in that process as well. Since your thoughts are the real driving force behind the quality and effectiveness of the mindset that you are able to ultimately cultivate, it is worth considering the importance faith can play in a very practical application which I speak about so much. There isn't anything super complicated to explain here, but bringing some awareness to a part of the process of cultivating healthier and more productive thoughts is noteworthy.
If you find yourself ruminating often on less than positive thoughts, you are certainly not the minority. I believe this is something that most of us struggle with and want to overcome. Mindset is ultimately where we make meaningful shifts, and creating empowering new thoughts to practice and build upon within yourself will help you to facilitate these shifts more and more over time. The thing is that often overcoming our thoughts and replacing them can be a significant challenge, and this is where our connection to faith comes into play. Again, we must have some element of trust in our ability to do what is necessary to overcome these challenges, but often our own personal history does not provide us with evidence that we are capable of this, in fact it is often quite the contrary. This is precisely where we must cultivate faith in our ability to overcome these challenges. Once again, there is nothing overly complicated here as far as illuminating this connection, but rather the difficulty often lies in an unwavering faith in our own ability to rise to the challenge and break through it once and for all.
Isn't it kind of interesting to deconstruct some of these things that we tend to think about on a very superficial level much of the time? I mean, it isn't like you don't ever think deeply about how you connect to things, but it isn't something you probably really sit down and tear apart to discover just how much of a role it may be playing in your thoughts, beliefs, skills, or abilities. What about your relationships, trust, confidence, or potential? Faith plays such a big role in all of these things in all kinds of different ways that are more significant than they seem at first glance.
Let's visit another aspect where faith can play a significant role in your life, and that is intuition. It's kind of a perfect example to use in the context of faith, because it is one of those things that has no tangible evidence that you can lean on to prove that it will be successful. Faith is all you have when it comes to intuition in the moment. There may be some historical evidence you have experienced over time that says you can trust it, but more likely than not it is not empirical evidence, but probably more anecdotal in nature.
I like this topic of intuition because I find it to be one of the incredible gifts that we all have, if we can only tune into it. I believe it can help us to make the right decision in many cases where we have nothing else to go on, but it requires an abiding trust in your faith and nothing else so often. I have read stories along these lines where someone has this intuition at the last moment before boarding a plane that they must not get on this plane for some reason. Logically this makes no sense, but something in their body is screaming loudly at them, and so they decide not to go. Later they find out that the plane crashed and had they been on board they could have lost their life? Now I know that is an extreme example, but there are documented cases such as this.
It is a perfect illustration of going on nothing but faith that their intuition should be trusted above all else, even in the face of being ridiculed for believing in such nonsense. This has happened throughout history with all sorts of different examples proving that there is absolutely something to this, something that cannot be easily explained or proven by science.
I want to come back to the area where faith is most often associated with which is religion or spirituality, because it is a great example that you can look to and see in many others around the world. While religious beliefs vary in so many different ways, they all tend to have a commonality at the center of them, which is a belief in a higher power. There are many people who claim to have a direct connection and knowledge of this higher power, even to the point of describing a very real and absolute relationship with it, however, there are few if any instances of actual physical proof that everybody can clearly witness and see for themselves in a way that is undeniable proof which we can all agree upon. And yet, the faith of so many remains unwavering and as strong as any belief that they hold.
When you think about faith from this perspective, it is interesting to consider how powerful of a role those thoughts play in the lives of those who practice it and all of the ways in which this affects their lives. I would argue that creating and maintaining such powerful thoughts and beliefs about anything in your life is going to significantly contribute to the quality of it, good or bad alike. That is a very powerful idea, and one that you should stop and think about often when it comes to creating what you would like to see in your own life.
I tend to come from a more spiritually oriented point of view in much of what I talk about because I do believe that having faith in a connection to something higher or beyond yourself is of great value to all. Finding deeper connections with your own higher power by looking ever deeper within yourself is an extremely gratifying and beneficial pursuit, especially in a world that seeks to pull all of your attention away from you and instead encourage you to focus that externally.
The practice of taking time to seek these connections internally will always provide much more value than these external things, and your connection to faith does play a significant role. There isnβt a rule book to follow or a specific path to take, this is very unique to you and there is no guarantee that you are doing it right, and this is where faith is needed. It is important to have faith that what you are doing or pursuing is providing value, or that you will see some tangible benefit for all of your efforts. I believe that all of the time and effort you spend on learning and growing will always be beneficial, and often it just takes time and reflection later to see those benefits. You may not always see those along your path, but the higher you climb along that path things do become much more clear as you look back at all you have experienced.
I want to invite you to really think about how powerful of a role your faith is actually playing in different areas of your life, especially in what you believe is possible for you. Try to cultivate a stronger sense of faith in pursuing and achieving all of the things that you want out of life, and put it to work in your favor. Create your thoughts and beliefs and then connect your faith to each of them with an unwavering sense of knowing that you will bring them to life. Learn how to have more belief and faith in yourself and discard all doubts to the contrary. This is a very powerful way to create better things in your life, and to change that which you want to change.
Our connections to faith are as varied as our personal experiences, and if you take a moment to look a little closer at these I think it can be very illuminating and insightful. I think you can easily begin to see the frame in which I am placing faith and your connection to it, but also how it is more significant than you may often take time to appreciate. You must exercise a great deal of faith in all areas of life which require you to stretch yourself, and inner growth is certainly no exception. I would encourage you to explore your own connections to faith, think about how you can strengthen them, test them, and use them in ways that inspire and improve your life. This is just one small part of the endless possibilities within ourselves just waiting for us to explore and discover something new. You are an infinity of possibilities in an endless sea of mystery, and everything is connected!
Until next time, never underestimate the power you have within you and keep growing inward.
