Yesterday, I walked into somebody who told me how much she appreciates my articles, as her friend recently told her about my Substack page. These moments make me smile and I feel grateful for all of you help spread the good vibrations. Since you receive my updates through email, you might not be aware of the domain where all of my articles are stored can be read or listened to, so here it is: dirkterpstra.substack.com
What is it about trust that humans seem to regularly struggle with? Is it only people we can’t fully trust or is there more to this apparently complex topic? Let’s have a closer look by zooming out.
The Program
Through hundreds of years of cultural programming, we have been taught to give our own God given power and intuition away and to rely on those who know “what is best” for us. That starts just after birth with our parents, then our school teachers and medical professionals are being brought into the mix. Maybe we are also being exposed to religion, university teachings and self-help gurus and before we know, based on the culture we grow up in, our worldview has been shaped and we begin to experience life through the lenses created by those around us.
My personal experience tells me that we have currently reached the most extreme version of this cultural programming—The news, our education system, political narratives, the medical system and even our neighbours and friends all clearly (and often loudly) let us know that the way we see the world and the role we choose to play in it is either right or wrong. We are no longer encouraged to learn how to think but what to think and if that doesn’t feel right to us, we are being shamed into submission. This trend has even reached such an extreme that the moment I write this article, the UK has more political prisoners than there are in Russia. Some of us have experienced censorship on social media (I have lost two accounts in the past five years) and others have lost their jobs a few years ago because they didn’t play along with the created narrative.
As a result of the above, I have never witnessed more confusion, anger and despair than ever before during my life in Europe and in Canada. That’s definitely not a time to trust. Adults and even children massively visit therapists and psychologists and the suicide rates are reaching an all-time high as well. But here comes the most interesting part of it all, as mentioned before: “We have been taught to give our own God given power and intuition away.”
Can we Learn to Trust?
During my work with those who have been traumatized by life, it’s normal for me to listen to them explain me that the only one they will ever trust in their life again is their dog. You might smile now and even agree with them, but how many innocent people have been attacked and badly wounded by dogs? Second in line is they prefer to spend time in nature and remove themselves from those who have hurt them in the past. But how many have been killed by avalanches, floods, wildfires and severe storms?
By now, you might have already discovered that I am confronting you with stark contrasts, and it’s my hope that it touches you in some way as it might aide you seeing things more clearly.
So what can we trust you might think. The answer is surprisingly simple: “We were all born with a highly sophisticated nervous system, an intelligent immune system, and the most reliable intuitive capacities.” I realize that this answer might come across as ‘over simplifying life’ or even as annoying, but then you haven’t yet understood the immense power of the programming I spoke earlier about.
We Can Indeed Trust
Yes, we can learn to fully trust our intuitive capacities, but only when we begin to focus inward and not by having our energy and focus flow away from us. We then intuitively feel when our dog is at ease or when it’s tense. It is time that we begin to take back the responsibility for our own life and stop blaming others when things are not going as we hoped they were going. The more we develop these intuitive skills, the less we enter into unhealthy relationships—either personal or professional. This personal paradigm shift takes focus and time but it’s so worth it—It’s how we break the cycle that has kept us a prisoner in our own mind and body. You have the capacity to choose freedom over oppression. No one is to blame as we co-create our own challenges in order to learn and grow. It all comes down to a choice, and if you feel you temporarily need someone to support you with this process, please do reach out, to anyone who feels good to be around.
I don’t write this article to provide you with tools and techniques, but to show you the foundation of where your challenges arise. Are you ready for the process of trusting yourself? When you begin to learn to trust your own wisdom and intuition, you automatically begin to stop blaming others and you start feeling that you can trust life. That’s when you begin to experience what freedom truly means!
Dirk
Your article made me wonder if I more often trust unconsciously or consciously or both. I once read that conscious awareness is necessary to access trust. Obviously trust can be used as a noun or verb and I am having a hard time explaining the ‘trust’ that I’m pondering. I guess I’ll just set intention to have a dream that might symbolically clarify the message that my AhHa is really trying to convey into words. Sorry for the garbled response 🤪 - but I did enjoy reading and listening to your substack. 👍♥️