A key component for how to trust in yourself is finding your inner compass and maintaining a connection to it. The Solar Plexus is often referred to as the ‘seat of personal power. ‘Experiences in early childhood will largely influence one’s connection to this energy center. Energetic imbalances or ‘blocks’ may manifest in ways that negatively affect a person’s self-esteem, confidence, and feelings of personal power. Outwardly, one may express apathy, insecurity, or a seemingly opposite extreme of seeking power and control. Often this disconnection results in a lack of body awareness and diminishes the ability ‘to know’ based on inner sensations.
The Experience of Disconnection
Correcting imbalances is facilitated by body-centered attention to this power center; thus, leading to a more balanced expression. Not surprisingly, many trauma survivors feel disconnected from their inner sensations and sense a detachment from their abdominal area and lower body. Finding your center and staying there for increasingly extended periods will quickly improve body awareness, familiarity, and comfort with how connection feels. With practice, reconnection to the solar plexus will result in subsequent shifts in feelings of self-empowerment and transfer outwardly to more balanced self-expression.
For many who’ve experienced trust violations, acute physiological distress may be felt when approaching new situations. In an attempt to self-protect, you may unconsciously seek to find ‘evidence’ that will help you avoid repeating previously mapped-out experiences. The perceptual lens is skewed toward finding danger or expectant adverse outcomes. Inner distress drives the need to feel in control and avoid experiencing another violation of trust. This is one of the ways that our emotional armor is built. The greater the perceived risk, the more vulnerable you are likely to feel.
We’re never so vulnerable than when we trust someone – but paradoxically, if we cannot trust, neither can we find love or joy.
Walter Anderson
How to Trust in Yourself by Developing Self Awareness
There is a heaviness that accompanies holding on to what is unhealthy for us. A continued mismatch between what you desire and “what is” will be felt as inner turmoil and distress. You are NOT stuck. As you learn how to ground and become more aware of your inner sensations apart from internal chatter, you’ll gain skill at reconnecting to your inner knowing.
Your inner compass always knows when there is a mismatch between your true heart’s desires and ‘what is.’
Know that suffering is a signal for change. The longer you hold on to what is not working, unhealthy for you, or not in alignment with what is right or true for you personally, the more emotional and physical signals will be beckoning you to change. Greater connection to your inner compass will increase your confidence and trust in yourself so you can make positive changes.
If you are consistently feeling like” a duck out of water” at a job, in a relationship, or are including activities in your routine that don’t feel right, it’s time to find those places that feel like home. Those places where you feel confident, lose track of time, smile, and engage with others effortlessly… these are signs of the right path. To find your niche, start by checking in on how you feel in a given environment, and get into your flow! Take note of the type of environment that feels right for you. The path is made easier when we feel comfortable in our skin.
One of the truest tests of integrity is its blunt refusal to be compromised.
Chinua Achebe
A Personal Note: An Early Lesson in Self Trust
Raisin cookies that look like chocolate chip cookies are the main reason I have trust issues.
You know raisins from chocolate chips! Trust in yourself more, and you’ll know what you are “eating.” When I was young, my sister used to ask me to share my ice cream cone, and we’d switch cones. I’d start to lick mine, and she’d eat more than half of the cone she held. Then, she’d ask me to share it again. I shared whenever she asked.
I eventually caught on that she was tricking me, and honestly, I continued to share it long after I knew it was just a ploy to eat more of my ice cream. Believe in your ability to know raisins from chocolate chips and decide to weigh the pros and cons of your cookie choices. So it’s not about trust in others… it’s about how to trust in yourself and your ability to make decisions for a higher good based on that knowledge.
You Hold the Key!
Everything you desire to know is within you. Higher knowledge and the answers to all that you seek come with connection. That is the connection you have within yourself, to your inner sensations, and ultimately to the consciousness of all that is.
For more information and supportive services to help you know how to connect to your inner compass and how to trust yourself more, please visit my Coaching Services or Metaphysical Services (Spiritual Tools 101) pages. If you’re interested in supportive services to assist you with creating a living environment that will support intentional living, please visit me here: Estelle Bonaceto. Wishing you much growth, healing, empowerment, and peace as you work toward taking greater energetic self-mastery
