Trust

I haven't had much time to write, as I'm gearing up for the academic year at work and about to get on a plane to California for a conference, but I've decided to share some thoughts I've been having lately about trust. I wish that when I was a young woman someone would have had a talk with me about trusting myself and my own intuition.

Trust is something I've wrestled with in my lifetime - trusting my gut, trusting people I've just met, and learning how to trust again after that trust has been given and destroyed. I've improved on all of it through the years, but one thing I think people struggle with the most is trusting themselves.

This idea of "trusting your gut" is actually very valuable. I never used to pay attention to my gut feeling, but now it's my bible. It's not some spacy notion or telepathic ability. It's a feeling, a judgement, a perception. We are all intuitive in our own way, it is built into us as a defense mechanism. We often know something before we even know we know it, because of this "gut" feeling.

Ever been in a place you don't feel comfortable - like something is just "off" but you don't know why, and then something bad happens (you get mugged, a fight breaks out, etc.). That uncomfortableness you felt was your gut trying to tell you something. Ever been in a dating situation where things were just a little not right....not enough to be bad, but enough to be wary? I don't have to ask how that situation ended, because I've been there myself. That time, I didn't trust my gut and ended up hanging on too long to something that was too wrong.

I've learned to hone and sharpen my "gut" instincts now. I make myself pay attention to it. I look for the flags, I feel the feeling, and I pick it apart. I have literally stopped what I was doing and taken a moment to say "Okay, what is going on here? What am I feeling exactly, and why am I feeling it?"

Sometimes it takes a minute to get to the root of it. Other times you don't figure it out right away, but you have to trust your gut anyway. But trust me, it's saved me from a lot of tricky, dangerous, awkward, and just plain unneccessary situations!

Listen to your intuition. You'll be glad you did, I promise.