Trust me when I tell you to trust yourself

My favorite quote is “Trust yourself” because it is so simple and empowering. The author is my college friend Bekkah Fry and she said it to me 15 years ago. Though I do not remember what we were talking about, I remember her saying, “You have to trust yourself, Connie.”

“Beg pardon?”

“I said ‘Trust yourself.'”

Bekkah is a clear-headed nurse with psychology and philosophy degrees. She is an art-loving, book-reading mama-of-three who is logical, loving and loyal. She can pinpoint the source of any problem without batting an eye and does so with warmth and authority. So when this brilliant, respectable woman advised me to trust myself, I was shocked.

No one had ever said anything so radical to me before, and no one has ever since. In fact, I’ve never even heard it suggested to anyone.

Here’s what I have been told or have heard, repeatedly, over the years:

*Trust your doctor

*Trust God

*Trust science

*Trust the process

*Trust your coach

*Trust your partner

*Trust your boss

*Trust your teammates

*Trust your stylist

*Trust your mother

*Trust yourself

*Trust me

And, of course, we’ve all heard the famous quote “Trust your gut” which I find unrefined and actually a little gross. I understand it’s about trusting your intuition and while that’s important, I stand by the elegance, wholeness and responsibility of “trust yourself.”

For the record, I’m not telling you to not trust people or concepts or science. I’m suggesting that above all else, you trust your whole self more, first and last.

Connie Kuntz is participating in #bloganuary. That means she is writing a new blog post every day in January. She learned about the challenge yesterday therefore this is only Day 2 for her. Though she is three weeks behind, she is enjoying the prompts, meeting new writers and reading new stories. Follow her on Medium or Twitter @connie_kuntz.