We have talked about 1) Rhythmic Alternation and 2) the process of building positive energy around a task you want to do, but aren’t looking forward to doing. There is one more element of success without stress that needs to be addressed, because without it, you won’t do the other two. That is faith.
Now, this faith is not the faith that you’ll get everything you want as you want it. But faith in what is given to you — whatever it is. Faith that whatever happens, the outcome is meant for you to work with. Meant for you to go further with. Meant for you to use as a guide, a support, a way to elevate your game. And that it will lead you to something better than you may have originally imagined.
For example, let’s say you’re trying to build an online business and you find you’re getting really tired of doing your social media marketing. Do not take this that something is wrong with you. Recognize that these emotions, this lowering of energy, is a sign that this is not what is meant for you to do right now. You’re losing your joy here right now, or you would be feeling joy. This doesn’t mean you just stop social media marketing in general or give up on your business altogether.
Maybe you need to take a break, alternate to another task. Maybe you have to build up the positive energy around the tasks before you can feel inspired to do them again. Or, maybe you need to find another way to get them done: ask a student, get an intern, hire a marketer. Whatever you do, look for ways that, when you feel them, you feel your energy coming back to life.
If, in the above situation, you decide to not have faith in what was given to you, you might — if you weren’t paying attention to your energy state — try to push through and force yourself to do it. Stay up later. Get up earlier. Exhaust yourself doing something you’re not enjoying because you think the universe can’t figure out a way to help you through this without you having to force or pressure yourself. This takes you out of balance. When you’re out of balance, not only are you fighting the ease and flow of your life, you shut yourself down to your inner wisdom as well. And then you’re truly lost.
It takes faith to imagine that following your positive energy is the answer to your questions, especially when you’re lost. It takes courage to open yourself to the possibility that maybe you’re not here to suffer, or force yourself to do something, or beat yourself up because what you were told you should do is not where your joyful energy lies. It takes great strength to follow your own joyful way and release yourself from bondage to anyone else’s agenda.
It’s like that quote from Henry Ford: “Whether you think you can, or you think you can’t, you’re right.” You’re always creating and connecting to the image of yourself either succeeding or failing. And this connection brings back to you what you have focused on, whatever it was. That’s the same with faith. If you spend your time thinking about, talking about and feeling like you’re failing — like there’s no reason to have faith — like you can’t do it — then that is what is true for you.
Every moment of every day, you can choose to have faith. It’s up to you entirely. It’s not something that someone “happens” to have.
Faith comes from your intention to focus on outcomes you want to have happen, not the things you worry about. It comes from your ability to keep balanced even when things don’t go your way — and things are made to not go your way. Until they come back around. Like everything else in the material world, challenges come and go in cycles. Like the waves of the ocean and the seasons and your breath. All in Rhythmic Alternation.
There is something you can do right now to help yourself build your faith: Take a long, slow deep breath and then ask yourself this simple question:
What would it feel like if it all worked out perfectly?
No matter what you’re concerned about, what would it feel like if it all worked out perfectly?
Don’t try to figure out how it could happen or what steps need to be in place, just focus on the feeling. Let all thinking go, and feel the feeling of the outcome you would like to have. Experience it now.
This is the way to open yourself, strengthen yourself, prepare yourself for a life beyond what you’re now experiencing. Keep in touch with this energy as much as possible. When you feel it waning, bring yourself back and reconnect with it. This is the energy that opens the door to all of the things that you want in your life.
This ability to feel these things here now sends out this energy which can only come back with the same. What we send out, comes back to us. If we send out success, we get back success. If we send out balance, balance comes back to us.
This means that in order to have success without stress, we need to feel our way through life, and allow ourselves to choose joy, beauty, balance and order. Through rhythmic cycling through the day, building the energy you want to experience and choosing to have faith in everything the universe brings us.
This is how we move forward without pushing, pressure, force or overextending ourselves.
And that is golden.
*A version of this article first appeared in The Redding Sentinel, Redding, CT, in 2023.
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