How to Trust Your Authentic Self More at Any Age

Your authentic self is the true you. The you that stares back at you in the mirror. Unfortunately, we have learned every trick in the book regarding masking our true selves and becoming a shadow of who we were meant to be. One of the primary drivers of the journey into falsehood is that deep down inside, you may not trust your authentic self as much as you should. Believe it or not, this is not uncommon. The good news is that you can learn to trust the real you more, no matter your age.

To help you overcome this challenge, focus on a few of these tips to increase your trust in your beautiful self:

6 Tips to Trusting Yourself More

1. Silence Your Inner Critic:

One of the significant ways to minimize trust in yourself is perfectionism. No one is perfect. Period! Don’t confuse someone’s self-confidence with perfection. The media images that bombard your mind may seem flawless, but that’s your perception. Uber-confident people may surround you, but they, too, are not perfect. How do I know this? Because perfection and human frailty do not coexist. Do yourself a favor and let go of perfectionism. The next time your inner critic says something about how you’re not measuring up, Smile and say I’m doing my best.

2. Keep It Real:

This is an excellent way of saying: “Be yourself!”. That is who you and everyone else are hungry to meet. That’s right; you are good enough. Insisting on appearing as a theatrical character shows you lack self-confidence and fear that people are judging you. You are right; people are thinking, no matter how amazing you are. So do yourself a favor and drop the act; most people can see right through you. Practice being your authentic self around those closest to you. Resist the urge to change your voice or facial expression because a stranger enters the room. Over time, you’ll find that resisting the constant emotional labor of keeping everyone entertained will increase your energy and your trust in yourself. As you learn to trust yourself more, others will also respond by charging you.

3. Trust your instincts.

You won’t always be correct, but you will be more often than not. An instinct is something you feel strongly about and does not come only from experiences. They come from something internal that no one can honestly explain. It’s that inner voice that is telling you what to do. You need only listen. How often have you told yourself that you should have listened to your gut?

4. Learn to Trust Others More:

Try to rely on other people sometimes. Trusting yourself more can open you up to letting others into your life. It would be best if you had other people. The older you get, the more this becomes evident. We all need a sense of community. It’s not possible to know everything about every subject. Use the strengths of others to support your weaknesses. It will lessen the burden of having to do and be everything. 

5. Filter out some of the negative information: 

You get bombarded with negativity throughout your lifetime. You see it in the news, at work, and in many cases, in your own home. The more you learn to focus on positivity, the easier it will be to trust yourself. Negativity subconsciously breeds insecurities. Cult leaders use this type of fear to immobilize members. That’s how serious this can be. An excellent first step towards this goal is to take back your mental health by slightly avoiding negative people. They work hard to try to bring you down.

6. Take a Leap of faith: 

Be willing to take some calculated risks. Be wise regarding your choices, but don’t overanalyze every decision you make. If you do, you will never take action and stagnate. Our choices can move us forward. If you never take risks, you will train yourself not to believe and trust that you can make good decisions. This type of double-mindedness can lead to instability and fear. Not everything will indeed work out the way you plan. But you will never know unless you try. The good news is when you are ready to try, many of your decisions will work for you.

Final thoughts:

You may have had difficulty trusting yourself in the past. Welcome to the club. You are not alone. It is something that many people have experienced and found difficult to overcome. 

However, you can build new skills to help you believe in and trust yourself more. Remember to take it slow; this process takes time. Trusting yourself more can help you build better relationships with those closest to you. 

Trust is the foundation of any solid and healthy relationship, even your relationship with yourself.

So, embrace and trust your true self despite the messages telling you to become someone else.

Be well + prosper,

Elaine xx