How do you bring faith into reality?

 A leap of faith begins with radical awareness of where you are.

Faith is not some abstract, egotistical demand that the fantastical is actually real, solid, attainable, without question.

Faith is not a list of dogmas and doctrines that need to be believed and upheld in order for you to belong to a group or a club or to get a ticket into heaven when you die.

Faith is not a platitude or a trope or a standard. 

Faith is more how to believe than what to believe. Faith is our small but necessary "yes" to any new change or encounter. Faith is an opening of the heart, no matter how small or how large.

Faith believes and hopes and lives as if Ultimate Reality/God/Jesus/The Divine/That something more that lives and breathes in the fabric of the universe is accessible to us—and even on our side.

So, how do you do it?
How do you bring that sense of faith into reality?
How do you know what is real?
How do you take your dreams and your sense of what's possible into actuality?
How do you know if what you're experiencing is the right interpretation of reality?
Or are you just getting it all wrong? 

Start here, right where you are, with what you have, with who you are.

As with everything, there are two sides to the coin of possibility, and we rarely discuss all the ways in which possibility can become a prison you find yourself trapped in. 

Dreaming about all the possibilities - all the ways in which life can and may happen, all the feelings and achievements that are waiting for you out there somewhere when this happens or that takes place or when and if and where - is incredibly intoxicating.

Dreaming about what life could be like often feels better - in the moment - than actually living those dreams into being, and many of us get stuck in that dream-like phase and can become worried, afraid, and frozen from making choices to live those possibilities into being; the dream is just too compelling to leave behind, and the risk that it won't turn out the way you dream feels too much to bear.

If, for instance, you dream about being a writer, imagining what it would be like to write a book, get it published, receive the praise of your peers and readers, travel to promote it and talk about it, bask in the glory of your words and work and the impact they're having, can almost seem more fulfilling than the work of living that dream into reality. The hard work of showing up to an empty page, of making words and concepts and ideas come together coherently, of sending your work out only to be rejected time and time again, constantly putting yourself and your work out there amidst the critique of the crowd which always seems louder than the praise of your friends can seem daunting compared to living in your imagination. 

For you to be here, some of the possibilities you dream about need to die, some of those dreams need to wake up, need to submit to the choices that you're making, need to align with the direction you're choosing to leap in.

There is any number of possibilities awaiting your choice, your yes, your leap… deciding to leave fantasy land and put skin in the game on your dreams is a humbling, courageous practice. The humility of being here, of allowing yourself to radically experience the ground beneath your feet, of taking the next right considered action, is more powerful than all the imaginary places you end up visiting in your dreams.

Faith, in this sense, is the willingness to say yes to the here and now, and make a choice, take a step, take one or any of those dreams and give them skin and blood and breath and life. 

Mindful Prompt: Every step of faith starts with the awareness of where you are, what you have, and who you are, and the humble and bold agreeance that where you are, what you have and who you are can move beyond here to create and move and become even more. 

From my upcoming series, "How To Be Real" this week with a subscription in the App.

Written by Liz Milani
Instagram: @thepracticeco