We read a lot and talk a lot about self care. We all know that paying attention to our minds, bodies and souls is important. We know about the importance of exercise and good nutrition and sleep. Whether we do it or not, we know about mindfulness and meditation, journaling and gratitude practices.

But there’s a concept that, at least for me, is resonating equally, or perhaps even more loudly than self care. And it’s one that I have come to think of as self trust.

Maybe it’s my personality, maybe it’s my socialization, maybe it stems from the role I played in my family, but it seems to me that I am more accepting of anyone and everyone than I am of myself. If you share a new idea that you are working on, or excited about, I am 100% likely to greet that notion with enthusiasm and perhaps even suggestions or possible applications. I can cheerlead for others with the best of them and I love to do it.

In my professional life, I love folks to suggest new things and I am often a wellspring of ideas myself. I am invariably the first to say “Let’s do this” or “Let’s try this,” reaching always for the next great idea, for the next innovation or improvement.

I love my work, the team I work with, the conviction that what we do makes a difference every day. And I believe that I have more to contribute, work that is personal and goes beyond the professional career that I have built. And that is where I see and feel the need for more self trust, for more acceptance and belief in myself and my ideas.

There are so many things that I have thought about, so many roads I have started down and then stopped. I question myself in ways I would never do to others, questions that are well and truly negative, that challenge and undermine my skills, my expertise, my experience and ideas.

So often I have heard people say “If you were talking about this with your best friend, what would you say?” While that is, without a doubt, a worthwhile approach, it’s not one that has worked for me. I know all my insecurities and doubts intimately. I know all the vulnerabilities and the fears. And I let them circle around me like a funnel cloud.

What this brings me to is recognizing my need to trust myself, to counter all my efforts at emotional self destruction, to use the slightly convoluted phrase “self trust” as a reminder to let go of the doubts and hold onto my courage. If I truly trust myself, what can I do or, perhaps better yet, what can’t I do? If I trust myself, if I trust that I do have something of worth to contribute to the greater good, maybe I can begin to move myself out of my own way.

Our personal truth lies within us, in our heads and in our hearts. Giving ourselves the trust we deserve, the trust we merit, opens our lives, and our hearts, to even greater fullness.