April 2023 - Building Trust

Building trust takes work. Why? Because trust always comes with action. If it does not come with action, it cannot build trust. In my own healing journey, I had to learn what action I needed to take to build trust - and for me, that was being vulnerable. See, I was raised not to share and not to be vulnerable with the deep parts of myself, but all that did was shut down my heart. I began to feel disconnected from myself and the world around me.

Over time my heart felt deprived of being really seen and really known. This created a gap of trust between myself and others - they couldn't trust me, and I couldn't trust them, but I also couldn't trust myself. It was only when I began to give my heart a voice that I started to build trust. Trust with myself to give my heart a voice and trust with others to share different parts of my heart with those I felt connected with.

And with how much work trust can be to build, it doesn't take much for it to be broken. As Dr. Daniels puts it, "Trust is built in droplets and lost in gallons." So, how do we know when trust has been broken? There are a couple of signs that will tell you when the trust levels are not where they need to be:

• When trust is low, anxiety is high. You can tell when there is a low level of trust because the anxiety that is felt in the relationship is at a high level.

• When trust is not present, fear replaces it. You can tell when there is a lack of trust because fear will take over.

So, look for the signs and then determine what action needs to be taken to restore trust to its proper level - because every relationship moves at the speed of trust, and in order to build trust with yourself or with others, there must always be action!