Trust

Trust: that word we were taught as children. Trust your family, the people close to you, and do not trust those you do not know. Do not take anything from someone you do not know, and do not talk to strangers, we were told. But very early on we also found that thin line between the one and the other. I do not trust you because I do not know you — but nice to meet you, my name is such and such, let us play; and there, through a bond, however small, there is already trust.

Trust was always shown to us as something outside ourselves: trust others, trust your teachers, the authorities, your parents, your brothers and sisters. But not so often did we hear: trust yourself, trust your judgement, what you think, what you say. And the same thing happens here: are we known to ourselves? Sometimes not knowing ourselves is what leaves us without enough trust in ourselves, and it makes sense: if we do not know ourselves, how are we going to trust ourselves? If we do not know ourselves, how are we going to trust that we will do good work, that we will find our way and that we will meet our goals? If we do not know ourselves, how do we cross that thin line between not trusting and trusting ourselves?

From experience, I believe the key is to free yourself from the noise around you: the noise you make yourself with everyday life and conflicting thoughts, the noise that keeps you from hearing your voice — not only your inner voice, but your voice in general. You notice that when you begin to give less weight to other voices and to concentrate on your own, something very important happens. You begin to recognise yourself, and you look into your own eyes in the mirror and feel that you know yourself a little better each day, and you begin to accept yourself and to care for yourself more genuinely, because that love comes from knowing yourself. You recognise your strengths, your weaknesses, but above all you recognise what you value, what lifts you, what makes you get up each morning and say yes to life in spite of everything.

And there, in that moment, you feel trust in yourself, and you can say with certainty: “I trust myself because I know myself; I like this, I do not like that”, and you will feel at ease saying it. In the end this can help you grow in the limit situations life puts us in: situations we cannot change, that we cannot leave, but that we can accept, and from there create the new reality we want to live.

Tatiana Sedano