Trusting The Path Ahead
A segment of the weekly newsletter is a weekly theme and this blog post is an enhancement to that section. Each weekly theme is an invitation and encouragement meant to help the reader better connect to themselves. Please note that the selected themes can be reflected upon at any time and are not limited to the week the themes are shared and published.
Theme: Trust
This week’s theme is Trust and the focus is on “trust” in the verb sense of believing “in the reliability, truth, ability, or strength of” YOU (Oxford Languages). The emphasis is on how trust relates to you and your experience. In my opinion, trust is a practice of doing and of surrendering; it’s saying, “I trust myself to do my best and I surrender expectations around the outcome.” This trust-in-self can show up in many forms, from trusting the nudges of instinct/gut feelings to trusting when it’s time to walk away from a person or situation. There is an element of unknown when it comes to trust and, for many, that is actually the hardest thing about trust. For example, you can trust yourself to show up consistently, but the unknown result of that showing up may lead you to waiver on whether it’s worth it to show up in the first place.
Understanding what it means to trust yourself and how that trust manifests itself can be a challenge, but the invitation this week is to silence the noise of the world for a bit in an effort to (re)connect to yourself and (re)discover that inner voice that speaks the words of your desires and dreams.
Practices for Reflection
Start by taking a five deep breaths to ground yourself. Then, reflect on any or all of the following questions:
What does it mean to trust yourself?
How does trusting yourself look and feel like?
Recall moments when you trusted yourself and acted on that trust.
How do you cultivate more trust in yourself?
Can you trust the path you are on without knowing the final destination?
Personal Reflection
I’ve been pivoting and transitioning over the past year and it’s been hard to trust that I am making the right decisions. Even the word “right” is one that I have had to let go of and trust that “best” is what serves me right now. Can I trust myself to know what is “best” right now? That’s the easy question to answer as I have gotten clear on my values and have focused on making decisions that align “best” with those values. It’s the follow-up question of “Can I trust the path I am on without knowing the final destination?” that has been the harder one to answer confidently. I am trusting in the small steps I am taking, but I doubt myself and question whether those small steps are taking me forward or leading me in the direction I want to travel.
Trusting myself is both hard and nuanced. I can trust myself in one scenario, doubt myself in another, and completely silence myself in another. Heck, even unpacking what it means to trust myself leads me in circles around myself, making the practice of reflecting on trust-in-self the most beautiful display of mental gymnastics ever. What I know for sure is that trusting myself feels easier when I’ve given myself the time and space to bring in clarity and feel grounded. I can’t trust myself without hearing and listening to myself first. I can’t trust myself if I am always hearing the words of others, listening to what they think is best, and doing as they do.
