‘Dawn begins at midnight…’
Faith is often misunderstood by the thinking mind. It isn’t a leap into the unknown necessarily, but a subtle way of seeing in the dark, an inner certainty and trust in our deepest truth. Belief and doubt are of the mind, but faith is of the heart… It is a felt sense, a way of perceiving, a passionate intuition. Our faith, empowered by our Love and Presence, supports our life’s flow. It is akin to courage, it isn’t passive. Faith inspires action, it is something that moves us and effects outcomes, it makes things possible. The faith I am referring to arises from our heart, and is a ‘knowing’, an embodied trust in something both deep within and beyond us that is fueling and guiding us. Call it the Divine, Spirit, Life, the Universe…what ever language resonates, faith is the something that we need to carry us forward.
Faith acts ‘as if’ – it’s an inner lighthouse that helps you keep going, making headway toward the shore no matter how dark the night. Faith is the bird that sings before dawn, it is the gratitude given before the way is shown. In the Yoga sutras, the word for faith is ‘Sraddha’, meaning our willingness to go beyond the limits of the known, to meet the unknown. It gives us energy to fully show up, because each new moment, in truth, is a meeting of the unknown. All forward movement and growth require that faith – in yourself and in Life. In times of disorientation and shift, like we are in now collectively and personally, our faith is a lifeline.
Faith sustains us like the earth that holds us, and the sun that rises each day. So how do we cultivate and lean into our faith? In the Wisdom tradition of Yoga, it is said that faith blooms when the mind focuses on truth…the truth arising in your own heart. The regular practices of taking the time to come close to yourself in moments of inner quiet, meditation or prayer is a beautiful way of aligning with and cultivating faith, as are grounding and connecting to the earth, and honoring the simple, sacred rituals of caring for ourselves and our beloveds. Moments of awe, wonder and appreciation of the beauty and bounty all around us are good faith fuel, as is time with the friends and family that speak the language of our hearts. Remembering what is most important to us nourishes our faith, and gives us the energy we need to go on. In a way, if we have faith, we have everything. Even when the way ahead is not clear, our vision can be…we can see with our hearts the Heaven right here on Earth.
‘Faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.’ Hebrews 11:1
I hope you enjoy the short (13minutes or so) guided grounding and nourishing meditation below.