Jen: 0:02

My name is Jen Briggs and welcome to the whole shebang where, on Mondays, you get what else but a mini bang. These short episodes are really meant to meet you where you're at, to help you set an intention or focus for the week, to consider a perspective that maybe you haven't before, and to answer the most common questions that not only propelled my personal and professional growth, but the best of the best I see around me. This is where we unbecome shedding the layers and the old ways that aren't serving us anymore, and where we continue becoming, stepping into and magnifying more of who you really are and who you're meant to be. So buckle up buttercups. We're diving in. It's time, guys. It's Mini Bang Monday.

Jen: 0:45

Guys and gals, gals and pals, today we're talking about faith. Out of all things. I had an aha moment, probably a week ago less than a week ago, actually because it was in between these mini bangs where I realized that I have I'm going to call it a knowing, but not the knowing I've been talking about, not just an intuitive knowing, but all of a sudden I woke up and was like whoa, I have this belief right now, in sort of universal provision, I'll say, or universal orchestration, that I don't feel like I've experienced the way I'm experiencing it now, which is kind of wild, so I'm going to talk about it. Hopefully this lands and resonates with some of you. So, historically, when I've thought of faith or when I've talked of faith or experienced it myself, it's been kind of like almost like a hope, like, yeah, I have a logical belief, or I have logical hope that things will work out or that I'm on the right track, or you guys can name a situation when you're kind of like, yep, I'm going to choose to believe, I'm going to choose to have faith. It's almost like choosing to love or choosing to be committed, it's it. It feels more like a logical choice, or that's what it's felt like me in the past. For for me in the past, like, yeah, like I, I'm going to choose to believe in this thing, and that's sort of like level one. Faith for me, in my experience, is a choice to make, to like walk forward, to not succumb to fear, to not entertain fearful thoughts. It's a, it's almost like a disciplined way of being or thinking to walk forward in life and and that's what, that's an aspect of it. I think that's valuable and important.

Jen: 2:38

So I was the other day I was trying to explain this. I think I was talking to my sister on the phone and I was explaining that I had this moment and the best analogy I could think of was like a chair. At the time, you've probably heard this analogy that that when we every time we sit on a chair, or the fact that I live on the fifth floor of an apartment, I have faith that this thing isn't going to topple. Somebody knock on wood somewhere? Well ya, because they have Apartments have toppled before Anyhow, and chairs have crumpled. Maybe this whole mini bang is worth shit. Maybe this whole analogy is not a good one. Anyways, we're going to keep running with it.

Jen: 3:21

So when you sit on a chair, you have faith that it's going to, that's going to hold you up, right. But I don't just have faith. I don't have faith in this chair that I'm sitting on right now, because I built it and, ironically or not, a couple of weeks ago I put out this, this like live on Instagram, cause I had this big aha where I thought, oh gosh, this YouTube thing's going to work or I'm on the right path, and you know how I know it's going to work Because I have a track record of things working, which is true. But that's kind of a faith that's like level two of faith. That's looking around and still logically going oh, let me put these dots together. Yeah, this makes sense. Or that's going yeah, I built, put these dots together. Yeah, this makes sense. Or that's going yeah, I built this chair and I know how I built the chair and I know what kind of screws I used and I know how much weight it'll hold.

Jen: 4:14

I logically know that the odds are good that this chair is going to hold me together and I can have faith. But to me that's not even really faith. That's like fact and a lack of fear based on fact, which doesn't really require a lot of faith. It's you know. So it's like oh yeah, my logic is telling me that I can believe. So there's kind of blind belief or like I'm going to choose to believe and there's factual based belief which can contribute to faith, like. But the faith that I'm talking about I'm going to call this level three.

Jen: 4:49

This is where, if I'm running with this chair analogy, it's not even a thought that crosses my mind, it's not even an option that this chair. I don't think about whether the chair is going to hold me up or not. I don't even think about it. Think about whether the chair is going to hold me up or not. I don't even think about it. And even if I did think about it, there's no option except for it to hold me up because that's what it does, or gravity the way that's. That's better. This is a better analogy because, as far as we know, unless the earth spins off its axis, gravity will remain. We have faith that when we go walk outside, we're not going to float up into the sky, but we're not thinking about gravity. We're not thinking about gravity holding us to the ground where we don't have to. It's not even a thought that we have because we just know. We just know it in our being. It is a part of what it is to live in this human life and this current experience that we're living in right now.

Jen: 5:49

And this realization that I had was that, like somewhere along the lines, I lost resistance, or I lost I don't even want to call it fear, but I lost kind of that, like, like it fell away this, like what if? Or parsing through data or wondering and I'm just using me as an example because obviously it's the closest one to me and this is where a lot of my ideas come from is my own experience. So if I'm looking at what I'm doing with a podcast or with YouTube, it started out as like, oh, this just feels so in alignment, and because it feels so in alignment, it has to work, and and. But then you have these moments of fear. Or then you have these little glitches like, uh, but you know, for you it might be a relationship or a job, or uh, is there going to be the money that you need, or is the health going to turn around the way you need it to, or whatever. So you're, you have right, doubts, fears, sort of I don't want to call them glitches, what a hangups, little snags in your inner being that we can get stuck on. And so, in preparation for this mini bang, I was just kind of thinking about this, and I don't know if this means anything to any of you guys, but sometimes, when I think, I think in pictures, and when I think about the resistance that we have within us, that shows up as fears or doubts or thoughts or snags, whatever those are.

Jen: 7:24

I've had this image lately in my mind, two images actually. One is like if we have this center column and hang with me. I mean, if you want to hang with me, if you don't, you know, push fast forward. But one is that we have this like center column in our body Energetically we actually do from the crown of our head to the bottom of our feet, and I sometimes view that like a big glass cylinder running through my body that, like water, can channel through and can run through and love can move through, run through, their inspiration can move through there.

Jen: 8:00

And if you've ever watched the show what's the show called? I don't remember the name of the show I want to say like plunkets or something, but you've seen people at the top of. They're standing at the top of this, like they're like several stair, like a staircase up. Plunko, plunket, somebody tell me. None of you can tell me right now. Anyways, you drop like a pet, you drop a chip in the top and there's a bunch of little pegs that like zigzag the chip all the way down to the bottom of this. This like game board basically. And so I imagine sometimes that when things are getting snagged up in us energetically, we've got this center column, but then there's these little like pegs that are hanging out on the side that cause cause things to get snagged up on the way down. They can still move down, but it's just not as free and as clear.

Jen: 8:53

And then the other day I had another image of like an octopus arm. You all already think I'm weird it's why you're here with me, probably you're weird too I mean, that is a compliment like an octopus arm running up the inside of my body and like little suction cups from the octopus arm, like getting stuck onto thoughts, ideas, whatever, so so that things couldn't move as clearly down my center column. And then I realized, somewhere along the way, the resistance removed. Now, this is where I was asking you to hang with me. I think these ideas are interconnected.

Jen: 9:37

I think that faith might have to have more to do with releasing resistance so that we become more in alignment with universal design and with nature, and it might have less to do with choosing to believe, with muscling through in a way of believing. It's like and that's maybe a subtle difference, but I don't think super subtle I think to become aware of where we have resistance and to let the resistance go, because I think that faith, love, freedom, radiance, all of that is the core of who we are. Everything else is just layers of gunk on the top. So, instead of having to become more of something this is the undoing that I talk about, or that you hear in every intro it's like what are we undoing? We're undoing this layers of gunk on top that create resistance within us. So as I again, as I was sitting down, I was like oh, what am I talking about this week? I ask that every week, like what should I? What should I speak? Cause there's all kinds of things we can talk about on here, right?

Jen: 10:48

So I pulled out the first book I saw on my bookshelf, and it's this one. If you're watching on YouTube, this is going to be on YouTube soon. It's August 1st. So if you're listening to this, whatever the date is today in July, all of these are going to be up on. All my episodes will be up on YouTube so you can watch. And then you can see the cover of the book I'm holding up right now, which is the seven spiritual laws of success. So I pulled it off the shelf.

Jen: 11:11

I opened the first page that I saw, and this law is called the law of least effort, and I've referenced this in a couple other episodes. I actually can link them in the show notes if you want to go back and listen to this, because this will kind of bolster up these ideas. But on the front, the first page of chapter four, the law of least effort it says nature's intelligence functions with effortless ease, with carefreeness, harmony and love. And when we harness the forces of harmony, joy and love, we create success and good fortune with effortless ease. So I was like, oh, it is that ease it goes on in the first few pages to talk about. Here's another quote from Lao Tzu L-A-O-T-Z-U an integral being knows without going, sees without looking and accomplishes without doing so. It's like achieving more and doing less.

Jen: 12:15

Now, where this pulled together for me is well, throughout the chapter there's little pieces, but on the very last page of this chapter it says this make a commitment to follow the path of no resistance. This is the path through which nature's intelligence unfolds spontaneously, without friction or effort. Do you guys see this? This is where it's all coming together. This is why I really believe in synchronicity and serendipity. By the way, because I asked like, hey God, what should I speak about?

Jen: 12:51

Pulled this book out and then read this and I'm like, yes, this is how these ideas come together, this idea of faith in universal orchestration, universal provision, universal guidance, that the faith is in the certainty that the universe is the way that it is and it is relinquishing resistance. Okay, sorry for that big pause there. Now I'm going to. I'm just going to start reading the quote again. How does that sound? Okay, make a commitment to follow the path of no resistance.

Jen: 13:26

This is the path through which nature's intelligence unfolds spontaneously, without friction or effort. When you have the exquisite combination of acceptance, responsibility and defenselessness, you will experience life flowing with effortless ease. When you remain open to all points of view, not rigidly attached to only one, your dreams and desires will flow with nature's desires. Then you can release your intentions without attachment and just wait for the appropriate season for your desires to blossom into reality. You can be sure that when the season is right, your desires will manifest. You can be sure that when the season is right, your desires will manifest. This is the law of least effort.

Jen: 14:18

And earlier in the chapter he talks about, this is Deepak Chopra. He talks about a flower doesn't need to try to bloom, birds don't try to sing, and I've referenced this before in some of my episodes that nature doesn't try to accomplish what it needs to accomplish it. It accomplishes it in the right time, in the right way. It is, they are laws, the law of gravity. It is law, and what gets in the way is one of the things I should say. That gets in the way is us just resisting what is not nature natural. So what is faith, then? To me, right now, faith is it's like a knowing without thinking. It's just, it just is. It is knowing without thinking that I'm not going to float in the clouds when I walk outside. It is knowing that the flowers blossom in the right time, that the birds just sing, that we are nature, that we are connected to nature, that when we are in alignment again, when we are really in alignment with what is totally natural to who we are, then there's just like no question if the chair is going to hold us up, it just is because it's law, it is because we are nature, it is natural because we are nature.

Jen: 15:51

So this week I think, when we feel that resistance, or when we sense that resistance in our body, in those snags, whether they're doubts or there's fears, my two cents on how to handle those so that they can be moved out of the way. It feels really simple, but I think it's actually just bringing awareness to them. So, um, you know, if I had a thought that was like oh, like a week ago, a week ago, when I'm having a thought like, ooh, jen, you don't know how to do Adobe pro, you're just going to need to hire somebody. You sure you want to hire somebody? And me, just like being the observer of that thought and having a loving, compassionate, patient, patient approach with it and just going huh, I see you, I see that thought. It's like shining a light on it causes it to dissipate and acknowledge it. Rather than fighting the thought, when we resist the resistance, we just create more of the same. It actually makes the thing bigger. If I was like no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, then I'm just putting this focus on this thought and making a fight out of something that doesn't need to be a fight.

Jen: 17:16

If you've ever been a tug of war like actual tug of war, pulling a rope, there is no game. If somebody lets go of the end of their rope, there is no war, there is no fight. Without resistance on the other end, there's no more resistance. So when we feel the tension within us, when we feel something wanting to pull, to push, to fight, we can go, I see you. And then we can let go of our end of the rope by not resisting it back, by not fighting the resistance, we just acknowledge it and walk away.

Jen: 17:53

And many of the times, when they're those little thoughts, that's the ego. This is part of how I think we bring ego death too. When we acknowledge it but don't feed the ego with more fear and more time and more thoughts the ego slowly starts to die and realizes that it's also like a child. Have you ever had a child who throws tantrums? And then you decide you're going to finally put your foot down on something? The tantrums get bigger and louder before they go away because they're actually seeing how far they can push and test you. I think our egos are like toddlers and so they bring in resistance in the way of fear or doubts or whatever it might be. And if we fight it back, if we show up to the fight, to engage in a fight, it's going to create more resistance. But if we just say, no, that's it, I see you, I can appreciate that fear and I'm going to walk away from it. Eventually it tires out and it's like all right, I know that that doesn't work anymore, and I think that that's how you start to elevate to the next level and raise your vibration further.

Jen: 19:04

Now sometimes we might have bigger fears and they're not just little flitty thoughts, they're bigger. I think the approach is the same, but with a little bit more nuance to it. In psychology we call this parts work. So if you have a part of your mind that is really loud, or maybe it's been through a form of trauma, maybe even just a mild trauma, that you were bullied by somebody or you had a really horrible experience in the past and it just feels like a harder thing to get past in your mind, sometimes we need to give that part of ourselves the microphone and let them speak and be heard so they can stop screaming.

Jen: 19:48

It's like all right, child, I hear you. Tell me more. I love you, I care. Tell me more. What else are you afraid of? What else do you want to hear? Okay, great, that's interesting. We're still not going to eat candy for dinner. I hear you. I can appreciate that you want that right now. Fear I can hear that you're afraid of being exiled from that community. I can hear that you're worried about what people will think we're still going to do this.

Jen: 20:23

So sometimes you just got to give the mic to that part of yourself. Journal about it, talk to a friend about it, let that be heard. But it doesn't mean that you go in there and go. You know what, maybe you're right. We just give them the mic so that that voice can feel heard and then we integrate love, compassion and move forward and I think you will see the resistance start to strip, cause I was reflecting for this.

Jen: 20:47

I was like where did that resistance go? How did I handle it? This is just my experience of how I handle it. When those things come up and then to wake up and go, oh, I just feel like I know I'm not going to float away. I just feel like I know this chair is going to hold me. I just feel like I know that I'm on the right path and this YouTube thing is going to work. Whatever work looks like. I just have a knowing that is without evidence, that is without data, and that is not just a blind hope, it's not just a wish. It feels like a knowing, like a law, like I'm living in a universal law right now? Wow, that's a wild.

Jen: 21:37

So where do you have resistance this week?

Jen: 21:40

Where? Where is faith? Where do you need faith to abound? And if it's not abounding, and if you're at level one and you're like I'm just choosing this right now, that's good too. You can work with that and then start just becoming aware of when your mind brings in fear. Just remember this too. Just quick reminder for you you are not your thoughts, you are not your feelings. You are the being that can observe your thoughts and observe your feelings. So when your thoughts show up and their doubt and their fear and their, whatever they are, you are not that thought. That is not who you are, because if you can observe it, there's a deeper sense of your beingness and that is your true being. Let that part of your consciousness be in the driver's seat and you can love the other parts of you, cultivate that faith and that knowing.

Jen: 22:44

And if you also here's the other thing if you're not in alignment in any area of your life, this won't flow the same. I don't hate to break it to you, because I want you all to live in alignment to the best of your ability. And that evolves over time, over and over and over, if you're doing something that is way out of alignment with how you were designed and what you incarnated here to do this, this, like this, doesn't work. The same. It's like frogs don't fly, duh, you know, like what are the other Struggling to find? Oh, ducks don't swim? Yeah, they kind of do swim. Birds don't swim. Like eagles don't swim under the water.

Jen: 23:41

Anyways, we can try to be something we're not. We can try to do something we're not. We can try to fit someplace that we don't belong. We can try to muster up faith for something that is not in alignment with where we're headed and that will not be in line with nature, but as much as we line up in our natural capacity, I think the faith just naturally follows that, because you start to feel it click in. So that's my wish for you this week Let go of that resistance, love it, acknowledge it and keep making choices that feel really in alignment with who you are and watch the magic unfold. Babes, all right, have a banging day, thank you.