Cold Water Therapy Expert, Mat Scott, Plunges in Cold Lake

Read time: 4 minutes 13 seconds

Summary: A short sharp dive into one of the most fundamental aspects of being human. The ability to have faith during difficult times.

At University, I lived with a Geordie lad called Joe. One day, when I was engrossed in a philosophical debate with my friend, Joe interrupted us and said, “Mat, why do you always have to get so deep?”.

I laughed because he was right.

Why was I so keen on discovering the deepest truths of humanity? Why couldn’t I just enjoy a game of beer pong like all the other students?

Looking back now, this period would mark the beginning of a time when I needed to have faith. Faith that things would work out and that I would be ok, even when I wasn’t. At that time, I had no direct evidence to suggest things would change anytime soon. Yet I still ploughed on with sheer faith that things would get better.

Which begs the question, where does faith come from? How could one believe a situation would improve if history hadn’t suggested otherwise? This question has fascinated me for some time and I think I may have discovered the answer…

Faith Vs. Belief

Firstly, let’s define the term: faith. The dictionary defines it as “confidence or trust in a person or thing” or “belief that is not based on proof”. Whilst I don’t disagree with these definitions, in a way, I also feel they are somewhat inadequate. How can you have trust and confidence in something that you have no experience with? Because trust and confidence are built through experience.

Similarly, the term ‘belief’ suggests that you’re identified with a conceptual idea in your mind, but faith, it would appear, is much deeper than that. It seems to stem from something outside the parameters of the mind.

Let me explain…

Hove Personal Trainer, Mat Scott, trains in Private Studio Gym

One of the most beautiful aspects of ‘waking up’ is the process of disidentifying from the thinking mind. I.e. to realise that the voice in your head is not who you are and instead start identifying with yourself as the observer (the one who experiences your thoughts and emotions).

Shortly after this event, I started noticing a correlation between my internal state, i.e. when I stepped into the internal observer self, and how things unfolded externally in my life. Even when I hadn’t acted upon anything. It was like the Universe somehow knew.

Are our internal and external worlds connected?

For example, last year I received a bill for a fairly large sum of money to repair the roof of my flat and I had no choice in the matter but to pay it. But I didn’t have that money. So initially, this sparked fear as I love where I live and it made me question whether I’d be able to stay there.

After a few days of heavy mind activity (as my brain desperately tried to work out how to solve the external problem), I came to a simple conclusion. There was nothing I could do about it and so why stress? Unbelievably (if like magic) the next day, I received an email to say that the works had been postponed until 2026, and I had a whole year and a half to save for it.

Incredible.

Was that just a coincidence? Or was the process of letting go of my fear somehow connected to the external circumstances changing?

Well, in isolation, it would be easy to argue the former. But over the past 7-8 years, I’ve noticed these serendipitous ‘coincidences’ happening time and time again. To the point now, where I’m convinced that my internal world directly affects my external world regardless of any external action.

And I think this is why…

I have to thank one of my favourite writers, Eckhart Tolle, for sharing his insights on the matter. And that is…

“suffering is designed to bring about the conditions for us to awaken”.

Or in other words… “its purpose is to bring about the evolution of consciousness in humans and the burning up of the ego (identification with the conceptual sense of self)”.

At first, I found this idea radical and hard to believe fully. It didn’t align with my very scientific/western conditioning and required a belief (or, more accurately, faith) in an idea bigger than all of that.

I think the reason I resisted it for so long is that only through EXPERIENCING it happening both in myself and others did I start to glimpse the magic of it. And no one telling me to ‘believe’ would have done that.

Which leads neatly back to the concept of faith. If my faith has become an experience that I’ve built trust and confidence in through experience over time, is it really faith anymore? Or is it more of a deeper knowing of what I am capable of and what really matters in life?

Did faith serve its purpose to help get me here before I’d gained direct experience? And if so, is it built into our psyche from birth? Or is it a belief constructed through collective experiences disguised as faith? I.e. through osmosis, our subconscious picks up on so many moments of fortune favouring the brave that it’s enough to keep us going in difficult times.

Personal Trainer in Hove, Mat Scott, trains shoulders with gymnastics

Conclusion

Ultimately, this process has shown me that the only reason I needed the world to change was because I’d decided how my external circumstances needed to be for my internal world to be ok (which was based on past impressions from things that historically made me feel good and things that made me feel worse).

By dealing with any fears/unpleasantness in my internal world and returning to my natural state of wellbeing, I no longer needed the world to be a certain way for me to be ok again. And at that point, there was no further purpose for me to suffer. So the world changed accordingly. Or so it would seem.

Tell me your thoughts

What do you think? Have you had any experience with this notion? Can you provide any examples of when having faith has guided you to a better situation? Let me know in the comments.