By Eesha Gorti in collaboration with Edha Singh
The uncertainty of our circumstances right now has caused a justifiable amount of chaos and confusion around us all. So, pause. Take a second with me here. Take a few deep breaths if you need to, relax your shoulders, lean back against something, and unclench your jaw. Close your eyes, and visualize your happy place. Is it a bridge overlooking a dam that you saw on your last vacation? Is it a corner in your room that you sat in to calm yourself down the last time things started to feel like they were too much? Or is it a person? Your best friend, or your sibling who has stood by you through it all? Found it? Good. Now hold onto that.
These elements that you call your home base, have so much more of an impact than we think they do. The faith we maintain in them, the hope we draw from them, they mold us.
Think about the way these things inspire you. Did they help you start that passion project that you’ve been procrastinating for months now, or did they hold you up when things didn’t feel like they were going to be okay? That’s an energy that we create, not only for ourselves but for everyone in our ecosystem. That energy fuels you.
There is an immense tide of people that today identify as believers of God or a Higher Power but not to a particular religion. This shift in ideology is also accompanied by a rising number of atheists. And yet every person has certain belief systems that we can debatably classify as faith. Faith today represents the individuality of humanity, the ‘vibe’ we all carry and that little bubble of feel good energy that we retire to.
People often misconceive the spectrum that faith belongs to. It isn’t just God, it isn’t just your religion, it can be anything that keeps you going. Something that when you think about, or feel around you, makes you want to pause time and essentially become a part of your surroundings. A memory that has you buzzing with excitement and delving into nostalgia, or a topic of discussion that fills you with ambition. That. That’s what you keep your faith in.
Faith is what drives mankind. Faith in structural or non-structured ideas doesn’t matter as much as the concept that we all must find things to hold on to. Faith for many is found in religion with the feeling of oneness the community experience brings and for others in the path they embark upon on their own to find their connection with the universe. The little rituals you create, however little, add up to the abundance you receive in your life along with a smooth daily flow you want to establish. They give you that extra push you need on a day you find hard to crawl out of bed or find tempting to crawl back into bed. It builds up an infinite energy source that helps you carry on day after day, especially on the days you walk alone.
But also think about the people that love you and care about you. What’s their reaction when you bring up this driving force? Can they see the way your face lights up and the way your energy could light up a room in that moment? Let me answer that one for you. Yes, they do. Even if they don’t explicitly process the moment, they subconsciously register the change in your demeanour. The power in that feeling is unbreakable. In expressing your article of faith, or to put it aptly, your credendum, you transferred that energy that you were feeling onto them. You created a bubble of good vibes and energy that can’t be put into words, yet make perfect sense.
Now, that faith of yours, becomes a driving force, not just for you, but for everyone around you. Even if it doesn’t affect them directly, it incites the feeling that consumes them when they think about their credenda. Process the depth of that for a moment. Your happy place did that for your environment. It collectively drove forward not just you, but something much greater. And you know what? We as a society need that. That reminder of the good that exists not just in our lives but infectiously spreads from others’.You created a ripple effect in a pool of mundane. You really just created an energy equivalent to a Thanos snap by simply talking about your faith.
I have a friend, if you go to Greenwood, you probably know him, but he makes sure to schedule inspiration for himself. He creates his happy place. Every night he listens to jazz music, and he could go on about it for hours at a stretch. He goes to rooftops late at night with club soda, to listen to his music, and just revel in that energy. Even thinking about that puts a smile on my face. Just to know that he has identified his element and the visualization of knowing that it’s something he’ll hold onto forever gives me some kind of hope. Creepy? Probably. But I think it's beautiful.
There are others who find their place in their cappuccino at night, evening walks with their dog and music, a simple daily routine of waking up with gratitude and counting stars with their siblings. Some find it in inanimate objects that they hold dear to themselves, and inexplicably can't part from. And that's okay.
Our belief systems are for us and their understanding to the world is not even secondary. The feelings and experiences you carry can only be gauged by you. Inspiration in those lightning striking moments is very rare, and is more about the daily faith you incorporate in your life. If a cute pink pillow is your comfort provider and is what it takes to provide your daily inspiration, then so be it. Our faith systems are filled with rituals that ignite hope, passion and let a serene calmness wash over us because that feeling of belonging and home is met.
The extent of things you keep faith in goes much beyond that. It extends to smaller and larger things, things we can’t even process the magnitude of. It branches out into something as easily dismissed as your favourite playlist to something as heavy as what you want to accomplish in your lifespan. No, that doesn’t necessarily mean wanting to become an accountant at a large corporate firm. It can mean a social issue that you’re zealous about, or art that you want to spend the rest of your life discovering. Think about it this way. Create a mental video montage of what you want your life to look like. Be as creative as you want, the sky isn’t the limit, it’s just the beginning. Dream so big that your dreams scare you. Let your beliefs become larger than you on that day and inspire your lifestyle.
That pulsing ambition, and the perpetual desire to reach that point in your life, that’s your cause. Not to sound ‘holier-than-thou’ but word of advice? It doesn’t matter when, and it doesn’t have to be rigidly defined, but find your cause. And exploit it. It’s a never-ending reservoir of energy. And it belongs to you.
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