How to Develop Real Faith

Ten years ago, I hit rock bottom for about the tenth time. I was battling depression and an addiction to psychiatric medications. I barely had enough money to pay next month’s rent.

With nowhere to turn, I, an adventure writer by profession and at heart, decided the only option I had was to hit the road again. I pitched the New York Times on the idea of hiking Israel’s Jesus Trail and writing about it.

After completing the 40-mile hike, I decided to stay. I crossed over into the West Bank, and walked in Jesus’ footsteps there. I spent 70 days crisscrossing Israel and the West Bank. I was searching—for myself and for my place in the world again.

I didn’t rediscover my faith in Jesus again. But I did rediscover a different, more elemental type of faith.

When I arrived back home in the States, I was on fire to understand why I had suffered from depression my entire life, and I was dedicated to heal. I had a renewed faith that I felt in my heart and body. Faith in myself, faith that I was on a good path.

I was ready to get off the drugs that numbed me out. I was prepared to stop searching “out there” and begin searching “in here.”

Faith is a misunderstood word. It does NOT mean the same thing as “belief.” To believe is mental. Faith is felt.

Today, ten years later, I’m a different person. I’ve been on a long journey to heal the PTSD I’ve suffered from since I was a child. I’ve healed the shame-based depression, too. I’ve also been clarifying my own thinking about faith and its connection to our ability to feel deeply. I now see that so many of us are cut off from our deepest feelings. The typical American stares at computers all day and then is so brain-weary at night that all we can do is stare at the TV. It’s numbing. And over time, we have forgotten how we FEEL. And get this: How we feel about things is how we decide what we care about, what we value most. No wonder we’ve lost interest in nurturing our natural environment. No wonder we are paving over and drilling for oil in our most sacred natural places.

It’s all connected.

I believe that deep feeling is the doorway to the sacred—to our souls.

I believe we must begin to reconnect with our deep feeling if we are to reconnect with our souls and to collectively find a good path forward

Here are some things I do to stay connected with my deepest self.

•Slow down.
•Walk.
•Turn off the news. (Yes, read the news on an app, but don’t succumb to the sensationalism of TV news industry.)
•Light a candle and listen to music that stirs your soul rather than defaulting to TV.
•Meditate.
•Pray.
•Talk to each other. Start a conversation with a stranger. Or maybe your neighbor you haven’t spoken to ever.

Most important, try to feel. Make a list of your deeply held values.

If these ideas interest you, I hope you’ll consider preordering my forthcoming memoir, Into the Soul of the World: My Journey to Healing. The book, which will be released on March 21 of next year, is now available on Amazon and from other booksellers. Here’s a link to purchase my book.

Here’s a quote from the book:

“My story, at its core, is about faith. Not religious faith. A faith that is more human and essential. Faith in myself, a deep knowing in my heart and body that I was on a good path, an elemental trust that taking one more step forward would lead to where I needed to go without self-betrayal. A faith that, when the world pushed back and set me on my heels, maybe forcing me to backpedal, I could adjust my course a few degrees and then take another step forward. I would get back on my feet, dust myself off, and, leaning into the headwind, restart my journey with one more step forward. And another.”

Here’s the book summary and my author bio:

Suffering from PTSD and severe depression from past trauma, battling an addiction to overprescribed psychiatric medication, and at the rock bottom of his career, journalist Brad Wetzler had nowhere to go. So he set out on a journey to wander and hopefully find himself—and the world—again.

Into the Soul of the World is Wetzler’s thrilling, impactful, and heartrending memoir of healing—physically, emotionally, and spiritually. An adventure journalist at heart, Wetzler mixes travelogue with empowering insights about his inner journey to better care for his own mental health. Journey with him as he travels across Israel and the West Bank, before moving on to India, a candle-lit cave on a mountaintop in the Himalayan foothills, and a life-changing encounter with a 100-year-old yogi.

Wetzler’s writing is full of the poignant, amusing, and occasionally heart‑breaking situations that unfold when we finally decide to confront depression (or any mental health struggle) and declare ourselves ready to heal: How do we heal our past and thrive again? What does it mean to live a good life? How can we transform our suffering and serve others? His answer: live to tell the story and find the humility and courage to be the best human you can be.

If you’re interested in learning how to write your own memoir, drop me a note at brad@bradwetzler.com. I’d love to tell you about my upcoming online memoir writing class, Writing to Find Your Fire, which will begin the first week of January.

OK, I’ll see you next time here at Enlightened-ish.

About Brad

Brad Wetzler began his writing and publishing career serving as an editor at Outside magazine, where he worked with some of America’s finest nonfiction writers. He later turned in his editor’s pen for a writer’s and traveled the world writing about adventure and exploration, business, politics, the environment, sports, yoga, and wellness. In midlife, after recovering from a long, debilitating depression, he became a certified yoga teacher and began exploring and writing about our inner landscape: psychology, spirituality, meditation, and yoga.