SUCCESS-ATTITUDE: Developing faith

Why do we have faith in small things in life? It is because, we have learned it and developed it over a period of time. But, no one has taught us to how to have faith in bigger things. As we are children, we learn things by imitating our elders. Unfortunately, since, they lack faith, we do not develop it. The children of parents who have strong faith do not need to work on developing it. For them it comes naturally.

However, not many are this lucky. Even the schools are doing a poor task of developing faith. The world around us is also naturally negative, that tells us that how useless we are. And we believe it. So the onus of developing faith lies entirely on us and we better do it as it is our life. Here are the techniques that can get you started. But remember it is on you to feed your faith so that it grows bigger than the mountain that stands between you and your success.

Accept the existence of Higher Consciousness:
This is the first step towards developing faith. As humans, we are conscious beings. But there exists a consciousness higher than ours. It is usually known as the God. You may call it anything, it is on you. But I still feel that it is more effective to call it the God, as we are taught to believe in it as creator. I am not talking religion here. I am simply talking about a name given to the Higher Consciousness on which you can depend. Accept it and believe in it. After all we talking about faith aren't we?

Believe that the Higher Consciousness is powerful:
Once you have accepted it and named it (I am still calling it God), now is the time to believe that it is powerful and always with you. It is said that God plus one is majority. So, if you believe that God is with you, you are already in majority. Also know that it is God who has bestowed you with a gift of Dream. God wouldn't have given you something that you can not handle. So, whatever be the circumstances you can always turn to God (or higher consciousness) for help.

Communicate with Higher Consciousness:
People call it prayer. I call it talking to God. Yes you can talk to God. You ask and it will be fulfilled. But first ask.

Here, you will ask me, that there are so many people who pray, but their prayers are never answered. Yes it is true. There are two reasons for it:

1. Most people do not know how to pray. Their prayer lacks faith. More often, they will challenge God, by saying "If you exists, let my prayer be answered." In this form of prayer the basic premise of existence of higher consciousness is doubted, so there is no question of faith. Remember, Faith never asks for proof.

2. The favors asked for in the prayer are not in the line of the will of Higher Consciousness. Either it may not be good in someway, (people are not aware of it), or God is saying 'No' to a smaller thing, as it wants you to have bigger things. It is same as a mother says no to chocolates to her child, as she wants her child to have stronger teeth with which it can enjoy other things.

So, first you have to learn the correct method of praying. Here I am giving you a guideline that may be helpful, but you are free to develop your own:

1. Close your eyes. This will help you to concentrate and overcome distraction. Once you master the art of praying you will not have to close your eyes, but you will be able to pray effectively even while driving.

2. Concentrate on the higher consciousness. If you want to give it a shape, a definitive form, go ahead. But feel that it is there near you. Believe that it can listen to you.

3. Go into submission. This is the most essential part. I have dedicated one entire portion of this site on the Power of Submission. Submission is unconditional surrender to someone. You surrender to the higher consciousness, while praying. You simply accept its authority.

4. Dare to ask. Your God is big enough to provide you with what ever you want. Believe in this in the way a child believes in her parents. So ask, for faith, ask for strength, and ask for success. But remember that your prayer will only be answered if what you have asked for will cause no harm. Tell God that you know that even if your prayer is not answered you know that you are eligible for bigger and better blessings. This is a final affirmation of your faith.

5. Visualize your prayers being answered. Imagine that you have received what you have asked for. There is power in visualization (I have covered it in Power of Positive Visualization).

6. Thank God (the higher consciousness) as if your prayers have been already.

Feed your Faith:
Your faith is reinforced when it is fed. And how you feed it? You feed it with positive testimonies of other people. When you hear or read the positive results that other people have received, your faith gets stronger. That is why church has the tradition of testimonies as it gives people an opportunity to be thankful as well as help others by feeding their faith.

If there are no people around you who are in habit of testifying, read books and other materials. There are a number of books you can buy on Amazon.com that helps you to feed your faith.

Another way of feeding your faith is by talking about it to others. Speak about it as if your faith has already performed the miracles. And you will see the magic. More is discussed about it in the section Success Programming.

Translate the faith in Higher Consciousness into faith for self:
Once you have developed faith in higher consciousness and its authority you will have no problem in translating it for faith in your own self. Now that you know that God is on your side, and that your dreams, aspiration is all as per the will of this higher consciousness, you will automatically develop faith in your self.

However, there may be one obstacle here that many of us face. And that is a poor self image. If the way we see ourselves is poor, we can not have faith in ourselves. We can not see ourselves as a deserving candidate to receive the benefits from higher consciousness, and actually we don't. So, we need to work on this part of our personality that has been dealt with in Section for Self Image.