Faith: A Journey from Disbelief to Belief

The very essence of the word 'Faith' is Belief about self, or others, or in the existence of a higher power in the universe. There are so many popular beliefs about faith in different forms and existence. In my understanding, it is one of the many positive words that we come across in so many motivational and life transitioning speeches of some of the successful people we know. At that moment, we may feel a rush of abundant faith and positivity down our bodies. Our mind may be filled with all-conquering thoughts, but it’s just a matter of time when we start experiencing the earlier feelings of dismay and disbelief. I am sure all of us have experienced this time and again. 

For all of us, this journey of faith is not an easy one. As far as my understanding goes, it all starts within. So many times, we fail to make sense of why we are not able to put our faith in people and situations despite our familiarity with them. Before we struggle any further and ponder on how to overcome this, let’s get to its root cause. 

Generally, we are not able to have faith in externals because we lack it for ourselves. It is a reflection of our disbelief towards our identity. We give, what we have and the same goes with faith. When we don’t have faith in our self, we can’t put it in others. No techniques can indefinitely help us with something unless we work on its root cause. And how I see it, faith is not something that can be forced. It is not something that can be learned or trained or taught. It is cultivated with understanding, patience, and time.

1. Understanding- Understanding here implies consideration, and compassion for self and then for others.
2. Patience- Patience here points to being calm and accepting to oneself despite all the shortcomings and then doing the same for external events and people
3. Time- It is only with time that patience and understanding will develop gradually. Faith can never be a quick fix. It takes time to settle in. 

As stated earlier, it all starts from within. For all of us, it is the most important to accept our self-sceptical outlook and then we can work our way through faith. Acceptance is a challenging step for anyone but once done, accomplishes half of our journey towards faith. But will acceptance alone help us row to the shore? Definitely not, this is followed by a journey of “Self-Discovery”. Discovering the reasons for our disbelief in the self, rationalising to what extent these are just beliefs or whether it is a reality, and then bringing a progressive change. If the lack of faith is a mere belief that has developed due to external opinions, unaccountable failures, or distorted self-image, then we need to take conscious steps towards accepting and understanding our self, being patient, and taking the due course of time to bring a change. All is within, just a gradual realisation is the key. As far as reality is concerned, it would also require a conscious drive from our end but more, in the direction of skill or experience or personality or emotional development. The understanding, patience, and time would be the requisite elements here also. But the difference is that belief is a mental block even when all the necessary resources are at one’s disposal. But if the reason for lack of faith lies in reality, there is a more concrete requirement of systematic changes in one’s mental, emotional, or physical states. Beliefs are not confirmed whereas reality is unchanged and undeniable. The cognizance of whether something is a belief or a reality is important. 

The two important areas of ‘Self-acceptance’ and ‘Self-discovery’ will open the door to ‘Faith in oneself’. This faith that we develop in our self will then eventually resonate with other people around us. It will give us a new perspective on faith, we were oblivious to. When we will start feeling safe within, we will start feeling that security in other’s emotions and feelings too. 

When we talk about the spiritual journeys of many renowned people, it’s a common proposition by them that the higher power resides in us. That is because there are so many aspects of our self that we have yet to discover, that as we get closer to them, we get closer to that higher power. So, this journey of disbelief to belief can only be made to the end, if we explore and first put faith in our existence, mind, ideas, abilities, skills, choices, emotions, etc. 

Another side to it is when we want to be trusted and believed by others. Achieving this requires no separate formula. Imagine you want to convince one of your friends to use a mobile phone of a certain brand but you haven’t tried it yourself or have no reviews from your near and dear ones. Likely, you may not be able to convince your friend also. But if you are a user of that product or some very close relatives of yours have also appreciated, there are high chances you would be able to put forward sensible arguments about that brand. In the second case, it was easier to convince because you had developed faith in the brand yourself which reflected in your logical, clear, and definitive arguments. This is because you believed in the brand so strongly that it was mirrored in your conviction about the brand. The same is the case when it comes to us. Unless we show that faith in us, no one will. When someone has self-faith, it shines out in their personality and actions, and attract other’s faith towards them. 

Start your journey within and knock confidently on the gateway to faith.