you are the future and your beliefs
shape your future now the future is not
something way off in the distance it is
right now whether your beliefs are
positive or negative matters set in
another way your positive thinking
refers to your faith your negative
thinking refers to your fears and they
do influence your life there is a very
close connection between faith and fear
and when we get everyone to understand
that connection then we have the
potential to shape the minds of this and
future generations and we don’t even
have to use electric shock I’m just
joking let’s get started by talking
about faith a mentor of mine shared with
me a quote that literally changed the
way that I think while he was working in
Chicago he met a man by the name of
Clarence Smith essen not a celebrity a
doctor or a scientist he was just an
ordinary guy like you and me well okay
not like me because I’m a woman but
Clarence had this indefinable quality
about him and one day he was asked to
share his view on faith because he
seemed to have so much of it so Clarence
summed it all up in this one statement
faith is the ability to see the
invisible believe in the incredible and
that is what enables believers to
receive what the masses think is
impossible now I studied that quote for
a very long time
years actually now that may make me
sound like a slow learner but when I get
it I really get it because I was
studying the mind and why we do what we
do it led me to talk about this
connection between faith and fear and
what they have in common let’s start off
by breaking down that quote just one bit
at a time
faith is the ability to see the
invisible now I know that everyone here
at some point or another in their life
has wanted something so bad that you
could see it and you could feel it yes
are there any children here today
because children are really good at this
I want you to imagine with me a child
that wants a dog he’ll do anything to
get it and he’ll start off with a simple
question and of course those puppy-dog
eyes mom can we get a dog and then he’ll
do everything he can use every trick in
the book to convince you of all the
benefits of owning a dog well it’ll be
cute and cuddly
it’ll give companionship to the family
he’ll even get more exercise because
he’s gonna take it for a walk every day
oh and don’t forget he’s going to pick
up after the dog what do you think he
wants the dog so much that he can see
himself holding the dog of his dreams
until eventually you take him to a
shelter or the pet store and he’ll know
the right dog when he sees it but up
which leads us back to faith is the
ability to see the invisible next he
talked about believe in the incredible
now that’s a difficult belief and we’ve
all heard incredible stories that were
hard to believe at least to us a few
years ago I was in a car accident my
pregnant daughter and one year old
grandson were in the car with me we were
pulling an empty 24-foot cargo trailer
when we hit black ice the trailer
jackknifed we were rolling down an
embankment the three of us walked away
from that vehicle with one slight bump
to the head all the passer byes were
saying the same thing I can’t believe it
we all have faith in some way or another
and faith can be learned it can be
developed believe in the incredible and
then he finished up by saying and that
is what enables believers to receive
what the masses think is impossible now
how many of you have heard an incredible
story that was hard to believe you were
skeptical it’s too good to be true it’s
outrageous
maybe it’s outright impossible except to
the person who believes they have no
doubt I believed and anyone who is
watching that accident happened might
have thought the worst they might have
thought it impossible that we could walk
away from that
belief allowed me to receive what most
might have thought impossible now right
about now you might be thinking she’s
crazy
well Shh don’t tell my husband because
he doesn’t know that yet dr. Jordan
grassman who is the director of the
cognitive neuroscience section at the
National Institute of Neurological
Disorders and Stroke had this to say
neuroscience research supports the idea
that the brain is primed to believe
primed to believe he said well you know
that was quite a mouthful
that I just had to remember about the
National Institute of Neurological
Disorders but I believed I could and I
did you see we’re primed to believe what
then does faith and fear have in common
well let me tell you a bit about myself
before we get into the fear I am a
certified thinking into results
consultant an author speaker coach most
importantly I am a mother I have more
than 30 years invested in raising five
children so remember that dog back there
that I’m still cleaning up after I would
like to share with you a story about our
children because it illustrates this
faith and fear connection one summer we
had taken them to Mount Rainier the Sun
was shining the sky was blue there was
even a bit of snow on the ground and off
in the distance
was a stream not a lot of water in it
maybe a foot or so and the surface of
that log had been shaved flat to create
walking surface on one side of the log
was a simple handrail attached now two
of our children took one look at this
bridge and they went without any
hesitation they crossed it our oldest
child took one look at that bridge and
stopped I went over and said come on
let’s go uh-uh
there was no way he was crossing that
bridge now what did these two have in
common at first glance they may appear
to be complete opposites but let’s take
a closer look because they were both
right in their own mind these two looked
at the bridge and they believed without
any doubt this was the way across and
off they went this one took one look at
the bridge and believed without any
doubt this was an unsafe crossing there
was no way he was planted now they were
both looking at exactly the same thing
yet two had faith one had fear because
of what they believed even though none
of them could see the evidence to
dr. Michael Innes licked Oh before I
tell you that I did go over and talk to
this one and I walked him through his
fear and yes he did cross the bridge now
dr. Michael Inslee he focuses his study
on a brain wave called air related
negativity erm which spikes when people
make mistakes and it causes this slight
anxiety you know the one he calls it the
O response which is both subconscious
and emotional in one of his studies
he found that this whole response was
people who had faith now I have a lot of
faith but that’s not to say that I have
no fear because I do and fear can at
times protect us but more often than not
fear stops us from achieving great
things now let me take you back to
Clarence mythos in’ because after
analyzing what he said i played with
this idea of inserting fear in the place
of faith and this is what it sounds like
fear is the ability to see the invisible
like my child who feared the bridge
being unsafe to believe in the
incredible like the passerby x’ who
feared the worst and then and that is
what enables believers to receive what
most people think is impossible now if I
had let my child stand here and believed
in his fear then it would become his
truth I had to get him to change the
vision of what it was he saw fear is a
belief but where does it come from
well dr. Rick knew eart shares his
findings from the New York University
study which is the first to examine
brain basis of fears acquired indirectly
from the observation of others what that
means is you don’t even have to
experience fear yourself
you can acquire it from seeing others
experience it and if you take a closer
look at some of your fears
you might find that to be true the
connection between faith and fear is the
invisible belief that it exists wow this
is a game-changer you guys imagine if
this were taught in school imagine if
this were taught in school every man
woman and child needs to know how to
turn that negative belief into faith but
wait we’re missing an ingredient it’s
kind of like having the hot dog without
the wiener in every single example that
you can muster up the person whether it
be in faith or in fear has to apply a
vision and that triggers an emotion once
you believe you’ve got it it’s like the
child wanting the dog crossing the
bridge or not in every single case the
person applied belief and vision and
that was the driving force behind their
belief the next time that you are
standing at the foot of your bridge that
is waiting to be crossed
choose the vision of what it is you want
stay focused on him the longer you stay
focused on what you want the more
positive emotion you will apply to it
and it will become believable it will be
your truth and once you believe you’re
there and neuroscience research supports
you and truth be told I didn’t want to
cross that bridge either the future is
not something way off in the distance
you are living it right now your beliefs shape your future it’s your choice