Trusting Yourself And Your Intuition

What does trusting yourself mean?

A definition of trust as a verb (www.dictionary.reference.com) is, “to rely upon or place confidence in someone or something.”

Trusting Yourself - Graffiti on Brick Wall "You are Underwater"Trust Your Intuition First!

As you are developing your intuition and your awareness of who you really are, are you relying upon and placing confidence in yourself and what you know to be true for you?


"This above all: To thine own self be true."
~William Shakespeare


Trust As A Process

Trusting yourself is a process. Your self trust grows with your intention and allowing of it, more and more every day.

And your level of trust can be different about different things. You may trust your instincts and yourself in some things, like driving your car or caring for pets, for example. But maybe you need to establish greater trust in yourself/your intuition about other things, like being a loving parent or leading a meeting at work.

Trusting yourself more and more as you are developing your intuition is not different from trusting yourself more and more doing any other thing. You are gaining confidence in something and seeing yourself as successful at it.


"People become really quite remarkable when they start thinking that they can do things. When they believe in themselves they have the first secret of success."
~Norman Vincent Peale


Along the way, if you notice you are feeling stuck, fearful, incapable, unworthy, or any other negative feeling it is definitely worth noticing and changing your underlying limiting beliefs.

Supportive people - a new tribe you choose, and other inner and outer supports will also speed up your experience of trusting yourself more and more.

You are hard-wired to receive intuitive information from your bigger Self in Spirit. Intuitive information that guides you in making good decisions for your best, most joy-filled life. So how can you better allow what is naturally yours?

Noticing Your Thoughts/Beliefs

From the time you took your first breath on this planet, and even before that in utero (on an empathic feeling level), you have been influenced by the belief systems of your family, friends, and culture-your social tribe. This includes anyone in your life in authority or anyone you have given authority to.

The messages forming these belief systems can be fear-based and limiting to your personal experience. Often they are aimed at preserving the group and creating conformity, at the expense of the individual.

When you continue to look outside of yourself for validation of truth, to your social tribe, it’s like trying to see your reflection in a mirror with the mirror turned away from you, outward. Flip your mirror around, see your own true reflection and Truth within!


"I have everything I need to enjoy my here and now – unless I am letting my consciousness be dominated by demands and expectations based on the dead past or the imagined future."
~Ken Keyes, Jr


In her book Sacred Choices, medical intuitive Christel Nani points out that, “a limiting belief will severely hamper your ability to follow your guidance or inner knowing.” How can you be trusting yourself, following your intuition when it directly conflicts with your social tribe’s belief of acceptable behavior?

Not all of your social tribe’s beliefs are negative and limiting. Many are positive and supportive, informing you of ways to navigate in your Earth experience.

If you are giving power and truth to the personally negative and limiting beliefs though, it may not be an exaggeration to say that your health, well-being, happiness, and passion for your life are restricted to the confines of the beliefs themselves. Not to mention a self-image that interferes with trusting yourself and your intuition.


"There is no passion to be found playing small - in settling for a life that is less than the one you are capable of living."
~Nelson Mandela


How about some examples here?

If you would derive great joy working as a florist, but your parents always want you to follow in their footsteps as lawyers, there is a conflict there.

Or if your parents long for grandchildren but you have decided not to have children.

Or if you wish to let go of a cultural expectation that life has to have suffering and struggle, and to allow more ease and joy into your life.

Or if you are holding onto a belief that you can’t do _______because you were told you could not do it by anyone you saw as an authority, or whose opinion you respected.

The good news is, you always have the choice to change your beliefs, begin trusting yourself more with following your intuition to bliss. Listening to and following your intuition, your Spirit, rather than obediently following negative beliefs you were at some point programmed with dissolves inner conflict and raises your energy levels. It just feels right, feels better, is a big, fat relief!

Beliefs are just thoughts you listen to in your mind over and over. So the first step is to notice when you are feeling less than joyful, and take note of what your thoughts are at that time. Are there “shoulds” involved?

In developing your intuition, your relationship with your Source, are there fearful messages you came to believe about becoming more intuitive or psychic? I know that as a teenager, I saw some films that portrayed psychic abilities (same as intuitive abilities) as something to avoid and be very wary of. These films did not convey the truth about developing a relationship with our bigger selves in Spirit that I have come to know! Perhaps the bigger social tribe, or culture, prefers familiar fear, staying smaller in perception?


"Within you right now is the power to do things you never dreamed possible. This power becomes available to you just as soon as you can change your beliefs."
~Maxwell Maltz


Trusting Yourself In Choosing New Thoughts/Beliefs

Your feelings are caused by your thoughts and beliefs. So once you have noticed you are feeling less than joyful, and have identified the thoughts and beliefs underlying your restricted feeling, you are ready to choose your new beliefs.

What thoughts and beliefs feel better to you in each moment? Commit to letting yourself think them over and over. Come to believe them, to create your wanted reality! (Click here to link to my trusting yourself meditation page.)

These chosen positive thoughts, affirmations, are even more powerful when you say them looking at yourself in the mirror. Give it a try!

Remember, trusting yourself, and trusting your intuition about your life, is a process. Be very patient with yourself as you are hatching new beliefs! In the perfect time for you, you will come to see that nothing can replace the Truth of your clear intuition!

You are creating your own chosen belief system with your intuition, communication with your Spirit Self. Your intuitively chosen thoughts create your new feelings and beliefs, which create your new belief system. Then this new belief system shines on you and your life and attracts greater and greater potentialities.


"There is never a better way of inviting it into your experience than getting really, really excited about something. The more you are – negatively or positively – the faster, the faster it comes. The more excited you are the faster it comes. And what gets you excited? Talking about it. Or talking to others who are excited about it."
~Abraham/Esther Hicks


Supportive People and My Giraffe Story

As you are trusting yourself more and more with your intuition or anything else, supportive people can be validating and uplifting, encouraging you to stay on your chosen path.

It’s so helpful to have other people you can talk to about your new chosen thoughts and beliefs. People who will be openly accepting of you and respecting you.

A plus would be that they are also making similar changes (or have already made similar changes) in their thoughts and beliefs. They may have the desire to be, have or do similar things, and you can cheer each other on!

I first learned to ride a unicycle when I was a pre-teen and then put it away until college. Since then, I have gotten it out for a fun ride (and amazing exercise!) from time to time. My children love cheering me on while I am riding and it gives me the feeling that if I can do this, I can do lots of other things!

So, a couple of years back, with the support of a professional clown neighbor Gregory May, I learned to ride a 6 foot tall “giraffe” unicycle!

I had seen Greg riding it in performances, and he had an open invitation to me to learn whenever I wanted. I just had to have time to get my belief system lined up with it!

Then, one day I felt the inspiration to first get out my regular unicycle and gave it a whirl around the neighborhood. Then I asked Greg for my elevated unicycle experience!

He had to get out a ladder for me to mount the unicycle, and at first I stabilized myself by holding onto his head!

Then I let go and I did it! I rode the “giraffe” unicycle for maybe 30 feet before I jumped off on a turn. I did this twice and was exhilarated! I had prepared myself mentally so that no thoughts interfered with my experience, and I had the support of my neighbor Greg who was already doing what I wanted to learn to do!

I had come to trust myself to do something I previously wouldn’t even consider possible for me, and I had had the support to make it happen! When I look back on that experience, I find it interesting that it never even occurred to me to make a plan for how to jump off of the higher unicycle onto the street pavement. I was in such a zone of confidence, trusting myself, that I knew it would all work out perfectly, and it did!

Trusting Yourself - Support List

Other than having supportive people in your life to encourage you in trusting yourself more, here is a list of other supports:

  • getting enough sleep and rest – perceptions can be distorted with sleep deprivation, and too much busy-ness drowns out your inner voice
  • eating intuitively – following your body’s guidance about what to eat and when will give you the best health, energy and clarity of perception
  • exercising and moving your body – listen to when your body needs to move, and how it most enjoys moving, what kind of dance or other exercise it/you most enjoy
  • celebrate things you have done while trusting yourself – journal them, talk with supportive others about them, give yourself wholehearted pats on the back!
  • accept that we grow through trial and error – seen this way, mistakes are not really errors, but gifts to help us redirect our focus as we choose
  • love yourself and forgive yourself - as you grow in self-awareness, treat yourself with at least as much love and respect as you would a dear friend
  • asking, intending, praying in whatever form works for you – this is acknowledging what you want and that you are open to assistance and guidance from the bigger part of you in Spirit
  • know that you do not need to earn your worth – you are worthy of your Good just for being you!
  • identify yourself with your bigger Spirit aspect more and more – this helps your faith in yourself to be more grounded in who you really are (for me, meditation has been integral to this identification)
  • follow your intuition about when to say yes and no – if it feels right, say yes, and if something does not feel comfortable or right to you, let yourself say no and mean it, and not feel guilty about it
  • try new things you are drawn to – even if they are things you previously thought you could not do, you might really surprise yourself!
  • connect your awareness with your angels and spirit guides to see and be seen through the eyes of unconditional Love – if this is in your chosen belief system
  • avoid making promises you cannot or know you will not keep – only make promises you are guided by your intuition to make
  • fill yourself up with happy every day – having fun, not taking life so seriously, you feel rejuvenated and more in tune with your intuition, with communication with BIG YOU in Spirit

What would you add to this list? I’d love if you’d share it with me!


Be the BIG LOVE you are!

~ Karen Whitaker
Life Transformation Specialist

Last updated June 20, 2015

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