26 Jul Exercising the Trust Muscle

Trust is something that can be given in an instant or built over time. Some people and things are easy to trust, others are not. When trust is broken, it takes time to restore. Trust in ourselves and our journey can be the most challenging of areas.

Wherever we are with trust, it is a ‘muscle’ that can be improved with exercise. Just like a physical muscle, trust is increased through resisting and testing. There are three priorities of trust that will help us develop a deeper trust.

1. Trust in the Divine– Whatever your belief (God, Buddha, Nature, etc.), if you trust that there is a force outside yourself that wants what is best for you, then you can approach life from a loving perspective. Even when we don’t understand when certain things happen to us, we can trust in the Divine that they are happening for us.

2. Trust in self– When we exercise trust in ourselves, we realize that we are learning and loving creatures. We accept that we will make mistakes, and that valuable lessons will come from those mistakes. We trust that our intrinsic value comes from the inside, and not from any external factor.

3. Trust in the journey– When we trust in the Divine, and trust in ourselves, then we can trust that this journey of life is perfect as it is. Any frustration that occurs is due to a misalignment between what we expected versus what happened. When we can eliminate expectations, and demonstrate trust in the journey, our trust grows.

Exercising trust is easy when things are easy, but grows stronger when things get difficult. This is when the dividend of exercising the trust muscle pays off. Nobody wishes for difficulty, but knowing that the gift of trust is a result of the difficulty makes the journey easier and more worthwhile.