Trust is defined by the Oxford English Dictionary as a “firm belief in the reliability, truth, ability, or strength of someone or something.” It is the foundation of any healthy relationship, including oneself. There is no one more important to trust than yourself. Self-trust can boost your decision-making skills, improve your self-confidence, and even reduce stress levels. Psychology Today explains that “people who do not trust their own knowledge, beliefs, commitments, and emotions suffer from a lack of self-trust.” When a lack of self-trust extends to most areas of a person’s life, he or she may begin to view him or herself and become untrustworthy to him or herself. There are a variety of reasons and circumstances under which a person may lose trust in him or herself. Fortunately, self-trust issues can be fixed.
How To Develop Self-Trust
There are several ways to cultivate and improve self-trust. To help mend your self-trust issues consider implementing the following suggestions:
- Be yourself: when you share your authentic self with others, they will treat you with more trust, which can in turn help build up your self-trust.
- Honor the promises you make to yourself: making a commitment to yourself and following through helps to build trust.
- Avoid people who undermine your self-trust: surround yourself with people that support you and want to see you succeed.
- Set attainable goals: although there are benefits to aiming high, it is helpful to your self-trust to start small. When we set unrealistic goals, we are often met with failure. Set smaller goals that enable you to succeed. Achieving smaller goals along the way can help you gain confidence and trust in yourself.
- Be kind to yourself: recognize that no one is perfect and be understanding towards yourself when you make a mistake.
- Nurture your strengths: while trusting yourself means being able to try different things without being too self-critical or judgmental, when working on building trust in yourself it can be helpful to focus on doing things that you know you are good at.
- Be decisive: often when we lack trust in ourselves it can manifest as constantly questioning our decisions or actions. Breaking the habit of questioning your decisions by making and sticking with a choice can help build trust in yourself.
- Spend time with yourself: when we lack self-trust, we often develop a habit of looking away from ourselves as it can feel uncomfortable to spend time looking inward. Carving out time to focus on your inner thoughts and making a practice of patiently looking inward can help you get to know yourself better while simultaneously building up your self-trust.
Unfortunately, there is no quick fix nor are there unanimous guidelines that are universally effective in building self-trust. Building and enhancing self-trust is a process that does not occur instantaneously, be patient with yourself and know that in time and with a little effort, it can be mended.
Disclaimer:
The information above is provided for the use of informational purposes only. The above content is not to be substituted for professional advice, diagnosis, or treatment, as in no way is it intended as an attempt to practice medicine, give specific medical advice, including, without limitation, advice concerning the topic of mental health. As such, please do not use any material provided above to disregard professional advice or delay seeking treatment.
