I don’t mean think about trying to trust. I mean actually fully release and trust that you will be caught.

No, it’s not easy. I held onto life with a death grip for a very long time. I could not imagine a world where I trusted, leapt, and didn’t fall into the abyss while the universe laughed at me. Never mind that my method of clinging resolutely to those things which no longer served me at all kept me miserable and stuck. It was what I knew, and I made a decision to stay trapped in the familiar rather than leaping into the unknown.

So, acknowledging how hard it is to fall backwards without the surety you’ll be caught, I ask you this – what does not trusting bring you? What is that doing for your life that is so positive and uplifting? I’m willing to bet the answer is pretty much nothing. Fully trusting is a choice. So is living in fear.

To be clear, you are not trusting that you will get the perfect outcome you hope for every time. That expectation will leave you constantly disappointed and dissatisfied. You are trusting that no matter what happens, it is happening for your greatest good.

It’s absolutely not easy to feel this way when incidents in your life are painful, confusing, and disheartening. Looking for the gift in the heartbreak, the lesson in the suffering, is a skill that you develop over time. But you can build it, and you can change your outlook on the difficulties that arise in your life.

Trusting that everything is happening for you, and not to you, is just another neurological pattern, one that’s currently unfamiliar. You don’t understand how to do it because the neurological patterns you already have are likely quite the opposite. You developed them when you were young and your brain tried to protect you from trauma. It was helping you survive, but you are stuck in these old habits that are no longer necessary. Thank your brain for trying to take care of you, and gently tell it that this is now hurting rather than helping you. Tell it that you are going to find a better way for the you that lives in the here and now.

So what if you just trust? You’ve tried other methods. They aren’t working. Why do you continue sitting in patterns that are clearly dysfunctional just to avoid the unknown? What is so very frightening about it? Nothing, really. Your brain is manufacturing that fear to keep you stuck, and we aren’t doing that anymore, okay? The story around trust that you carry with you isn’t real. It’s time to let it go.

You can retrain yourself to not only learn to trust, but to get excited about leaping into the unknown. After all, it’s full of possibility. When you look at it that way, when you shift the feelings of fear and anxiety into feelings of excitement and hope, it flips the scenario. Wouldn’t you rather live in anticipation than dread?

You’ve got this. Your life is not meant to be wasted away trapped in a pit of fear and worry. You are not meant to stay safe and unhappy. You can begin to trust yourself and, in turn, the universe. Everything is out there waiting for you. Sending love.