Usually, when we think about trust, we think of trusting others. Trust is an important quality in any relationship, whether it’s familial, romantic, or professional. It doesn’t always involve another party, though. We also have to trust ourselves. Self-trust is one of the best qualities you can develop to improve your emotional and mental health. It’s an ongoing process that requires introspection and self-reflection. If you’re struggling with trusting yourself right now, don’t worry. By implementing some thinking habits into your daily life, you can build self-confidence and learn to trust yourself.
What Is Self-trust?
Self-trust is belief in yourself, your growth, and your integrity. When you have self-trust, you know that you are making your best effort to live a healthy and meaningful life. You feel confident in your choices because you know that your actions align with your beliefs.
Trusting yourself doesn’t mean that you always think you’re right or that you believe you’ll never make mistakes. There’s a big difference between self-trust and an inflated sense of confidence. Everyone makes mistakes, but self-trust allows you to forgive yourself for misguided choices because you understand your intentions.
Why Is Self-trust Important?
Self-trust empowers you to rely only on yourself. While it’s great to have trustworthy people in your life, the only person who is always with you is yourself. Relying entirely on others for guidance can be risky. No one knows your needs and goals better than you, so it’s important that you believe in your own ability to choose your path. Your loved ones can help you find clarity, but ultimately, your decisions should be your own.
People with self-trust are better at bouncing back after mistakes, too. When you believe in yourself, you’re less likely to be overly self-critical or react strongly after a small error. Instead, you’ll use the opportunity to learn and grow so that you avoid the mistake next time.
Self-trust leads to self-confidence and personal growth. It’s the key to having a strong, healthy relationship with yourself. When you have self-trust, you feel more secure in your relationships, your career, and all of the other major aspects of your life.
How to Develop Self-trust
Self-trust isn’t a quality that most people inherently have. Maintaining self-esteem and good mental health is a continued effort. Self-trust may come more easily to some people than to others. But everyone can take steps toward building trust in themselves.
Here Are Six Ways You Can Develop Self-trust
1. Acknowledge Your Emotions
Fear of vulnerability is one of the biggest obstacles most people face on the road to self-trust. Negative emotions like anger, shame, or disappointment are uncomfortable but unavoidable. You can’t control how you respond internally to something, so acknowledging and accepting your emotions is critical.
Making space to experience and process your emotions can help you accept yourself. When you understand both the causes and effects of your emotions, you can better understand yourself as a whole.
If you have a hard time recognizing your emotions, try to notice any physical symptoms you may be feeling. Some people feel muscle tension when they’re angry, and some feel fatigued when they’re sad. Excitement may cause a burst of physical energy, and embarrassment may make your face feel warm.
Develop the habit of regularly checking in with your body and mind to notice how you feel. Then, you can start to make connections between your emotions and your external environment. As you learn more about how you feel in certain situations and why you feel that way, you’ll start to trust yourself because you’ll feel more in control.
2. Be Kind to Yourself
Being kind to yourself is much easier said than done. It can get easier over time, though.
Many people have a critical inner voice that reacts harshly to even the smallest mistakes. If you’re always criticizing yourself, it’s hard to feel confident in your decisions.
When you notice this critical voice, try to take a step back from the situation. What would you say if a friend was in your shoes? You probably would not speak to them as aggressively as you speak to yourself.
Remind yourself that you’re human, everyone makes mistakes, and all we can do is learn from them. It’s unlikely that others are judging you the way that you judge yourself. You may not believe these affirmations at first, but say them anyway. Eventually, they may start to feel more valid.
3. Set Achievable, Manageable Goals
One of the best ways of building trust in yourself is to set and achieve goals. Every victory is another reason that you should believe in yourself. However, a common mistake is setting goals that are either too vague or out-of-reach.
Your goals should be specific and measurable so that you know exactly when you’ve achieved them. If you have a big long-term goal, break it down into smaller goals that you can accomplish every few weeks or months. Whenever you reach a goal, celebrate your hard work.
4. Take Risks
If you don’t have self-trust, taking risks can be stressful. Anytime you take a risk, though, regardless of whether it’s successful, you remind yourself that you’re worthy of challenges and self-growth.
Taking risks also allows you to see what happens when you fail. In almost all scenarios, even the worst possible outcome isn’t that bad. The potential benefits usually far outweigh the chances of you feeling rejected or embarrassed. As you get more comfortable with taking risks, your worries about failure will start to decline. You’ll trust yourself to learn and move on if the risk is unsuccessful.
5. Speak Your Mind
People with a strong sense of self-confidence aren’t afraid to share their honest opinions. There are times when being blunt or unfiltered is inappropriate, and it’s better to keep your thoughts to yourself. In most situations, though, if you feel strongly about something, you should speak up.
Your opinions are valuable, and most people will be happy to hear them. The more open you are about your ideas and decisions, the more confident you’ll feel. If you’re usually the type to stay quiet, speaking your mind may feel very uncomfortable at first. Each time you share your thoughts, you’re telling yourself that you trust your own opinions.
6. Work with a Therapist
Our minds are incredibly complicated. Sometimes, building trust in ourselves requires help from others. Therapy can be a great opportunity to learn about yourself, explore the reasons you may struggle with self-trust, and find ways to work on your confidence. Therapists are unbiased and nonjudgmental, and they can help you identify unhealthy thinking habits you may not have even noticed.
The Beverly Hills Therapy Group offers mental health counseling for a wide variety of concerns. If you’re looking for a therapist in Los Angeles to work on building self-trust or increasing your confidence, contact us today.
