When I was on my leadership course in Copenhagen recently one of the pieces that particularly spoke to me was around trust. I’d noticed I’d already been practicing trust on my flight over there. For some reason over recent years I’ve become a little afraid of flying, but on the short trip over to Denmark I spoke to myself calmly and authoritatively, reminding myself to trust that the pilot, air stewards, fellow passengers and plane engineers all had the intention that the plane would arrive at its destination. I stepped into trust and it really helped to alleviate my fear.
The course helped me make sense of the approach I had taken whilst airborne.
Trust can take the form of having faith that others, nature, and the universe have your back. It can also show up in relation to ourselves – self trust: having faith that we will deal with whatever comes up, that we are naturally creative, resourceful and whole and that we are capable of weathering way more hardships than we might have ourselves believe.
Stress, overwhelm and burn out often arise when we hold the story that we are not capable of dealing with all that life throws up. It arises when we hold the belief that the world is against us and we can’t trust the people and systems that surround us. Those stories can lead to paralysis for fear that any steps we take might end in catastrophe. Buying into those stories can be exhausting and can leave little room for creativity or freedom or joy.
My course taught me that trust is a powerful place to be. That when we let go of needing to control everything and remember that so much occurs regardless of our input, we become free.
We have it in our power to trust, and talk to ourselves in a way that has us believe that we are supported, and that we are capable and that whatever happens, we’ll be ok.
Having trust feels lighter, freer, more joyful. Surely that’s the place we all really want to be. So my question to you this week is this – how trusting are you of yourself and the world around you? I’d love to hear your thoughts.
Sending love, Hannah
*Image by Greg Rakozy www.unsplash.com