Trust is a key to happiness. It is an essential element of any happy life and any healthy relationship — including the relationship we have with ourselves.
Data of The World Happniess Report writes that “We find that individuals with higher levels of interpersonal and institutional trust fare significantly better than others in several negative situations, including ill-health, unemployment, low incomes, discrimination, family breakdown, and fears about the safety of the streets.”
It is an essential element of any happy life and any healthy relationship — including the relationship we have with ourselves.
Trusting ourselves boosts our confidence and thus helps us to make easier and better decisions. As a consequence our stress levels go down. And the good news is that even if we don’t trust yet or enough, with the following techniques we can build up trust over time.
1. Train Our Self-Awareness
Self-awareness helps us to control our life. Being in control and trusting ourselves are closely related. The reason is that when we are able to reflect our own thoughts, emotions, patterns, habits and impulses. We can change them and make sure they reflect our values and goals. Here are three techniques to improve our self-awareness.
Technique 1
- In the morning: as yourself what is most important for you today
- At lunch: ask yourself how you feel
- Before bed: ask yourself if you are happy with your day.
Technique 2
To increase trust in ourselves we need to know what triggers us. We all do have pain points and therefore get vulnerable to manipulation. IF we don`t have to react to those triggers, we stay calm and in control.
Technique 3
Knowing our values helps us to understand who we are. The more we know ourself, the more we trust ourselves and can control our own actions.
2. Learn the Meaning of Emotions
You’ve probably heard that emotions have meanings. It is widely known that fear has to do with the flight and fight mechanism which can help us to escape and survive in dangerous situations. Anger for example reminds us to set boundaries and thus take better care of ourselves. This is especially important for the ones who are very kind and therefore tend to be taken advantage of. If we understand emotions we can better use them to our own advantage. They will make us more powerful.3. Stop Contagious Emotions
Sometimes emotions can be irritating and very hard to understand. One of the reasons is that emotions are contagious. As a consequence we often feel what others feel and don’t realize it. The emotions of others tend to disconnect us from ourselves. This can lead to a lack of trust and self-confidence. IF we understand what feelings are ours and what isn’t we have more power and therefore more trust.
4. Listen To The Gut Helps Trusting Ourselves
If we’re looking to build trust in ourselves, it can be helpful to pay more to our gut feelings. Many of us experience something that we would call gut feeling and that gives us signals what is good or bad for us. If we don’t pay enough attention to it, we later don’t forgive ourselves. Thus let`s simply try to raise our awareness. This strengthens our trust because we stop acting like a different person by paying more attention to what others say than what matters to us.
5. Find the Right Crowd
Have you ever asked yourself how to build up your trust to be yourself around others? If we start to feel insecure or uncomfortable around others, let`s be aware that there is a reason for it. Spending more time around people we feel most comfortable with, like our friends and close family, is a great training ground. If we feel uncomfortable, we can ask yourselves: why are we triggered? What do we need to do to feel better?
The bottom line
Trusting ourselves is one of the most powerful things we can do in our lives. It can help build our confidence, allow others to trust us more, and make the process of decision making much easier. It takes some effort: You will love what you can be.
