“Let’s talk about trust baby, Let’s talk about you and me, Let’s talk about all the good things and the bad things that may be, let’s talk about trust.”
(me paraphrasing “Let’s talk about sex” by Salt-N-Pepa)

A big part of being able to feel safe is your ability to trust. To trust yourself and those around you. If you’re experiencing trust issues, feeling unsafe, and want an easy way to start to build trust in yourself and self-regulate when you’re not able to, please read on…

As a yoga teacher and breath coach, my first priority when working with clients is breath work. Now this doesn’t have to be complicated, even simply becoming aware of your breath on a daily basis, can mean a big difference in your mental and physical health right away.

Two types of trust.

Let’s first establish what we talk about when we talk about trust. If you look up the word in the dictionary, it will say something like this – Trust is a firm belief in the reliability, truth, ability, or strength of someone or something. Which is only 50% of what the words encompass. The dictionary leaves out the most important part. Trust doesn’t just relate to the external world and the people or things in it. The most important trust any of us can cultivate is to trust ourselves – our mind, body, and intuition!

So, really trust is two separate things; you can learn to trust yourself, your body, and your intuition, and you can place your trust in the external world around you, people, situations, and actions.

Trust is like having faith, not the religious kind but, faith in the future, in yourself, and in the fact that things will work out.

Trust is a key concept for setting any intention, making progress, and achieving goals. You have to be able to trust the future, in order to build agency and empower yourself.

One profound way to start the journey of trust is to practice listening to your body and trusting what it reveals, to honor your experience and your body’s inherent wisdom.

When you know that you can count on yourself to self-regulate and to care for yourself no matter what happens, your trust in yourself grows. Trust requires consistency, patience, courage, and self-acceptance to grow. But you can start by taking just one small step today and lay that first brick in building a trusting relationship with your body.

A micro-step in building trust.

Try this short meditation to instill the first seed of trust in yourself, trusting your breath.

In the morning sitting on your bed, try to take 3-5 minutes to become aware of your breath before you do anything else. Place your hands on your lower belly, and allow yourself to experience your breath.

Connecting with breath. Time: 5-10 minutes

1. Transition to sitting comfortably in a way that supports a relaxed alertness.
2. Close your eyes or rest your gaze softly on a point on the floor in front of you.
3. Recognize the fact that you are breathing – become aware.
4. Consciously gather your attention and bring it to rest on the breath.
Notice the cadence, feel, sound, which body parts are moving, and how it feels to be breathing.
5. If your mind wanders, bring it back to the breath.
6. Notice where in your body you feel the breath most. Breathe with an awareness of breathing.
7. Use the breath as a resting place for your attention, trusting that each breath follows the next.
8. Trust that you can handle any thoughts or emotions that arise by simply returning to your breath again and again.
9. Relinquish any desire to control or steer your thoughts or your breath. Simply be with the breath.
10. Continue simply breathing, being with your breath, trusting in the process of breathing for as long as you like.

Trusting that you have your breath, that it is always there for you, will prove an invaluable tool for your journey. For now, simply plant a seed of calm reassurance one breath at a time.

This exercise is taken from The Soulful Coffee Club.
If you would like more like this on a daily basis –  Check out The Soulful Coffee Club.