How easy is it for you to trust other people? Do you trust people easily? Or are you often suspicious of others’ motives?
Do you trust life enough that you can quit your uninspired job as soon as you recognize it as such, and know that life will bring you something even better? Or do you need to slow things down and control the process, such as by trying to save up money doing even more work you dislike? Are you paying the price in frustration for your distrust in life?
Do you trust that if you leave your uninspired relationship that life will bring you an even better, more fulfilling relationship experience?
If you leap into your path with a heart, do you trust that life will have your back?
Your relationship with life exists in your mind. So you can change it any time.
Same goes for your relationships with other people. They exist in your thoughts and feelings. They’re mental and emotional constructs.
Here you realize you have two options. You could trust life. Or you could distrust it. I’d like you to mentally explored both possibilities and pondered what kind of life each possibility would yield. How would you live if you trusted life? How would you live if you didn’t trust it? I encourage you to ponder both options thoughtfully, such as by journaling about this, and see where it leads you. I think you’ll find this to be a very eye-opening exercise.
For me, trusting life is the better option. You might get screwed over in the short term on occasion, but if you really trust life, then you’d always give it the benefit of the doubt. This would cause you to reframe any seemingly negative experiences as life lessons. You’d forgive, extract the lessons, and move on.
You can also predict that this mindset would eventually attract some great relationships with genuinely trustworthy people. If you’re a trusting sort and you meet another trusting sort, you’re going to connect with a truly delightful depth since your relationship will be largely free of suspicion and shielding. The opportunity to enjoy deeply intimate, unshielded relationships seemed a bit intense but also very appealing.
On the other hand, if you chose to distrust life, You’d always be filled with suspicion. You’d go through life being shielded and feeling that you had to constantly protect myself. You’d probably be alone quite a lot, even in the company of others. You’d have to deny yourself the deepest forms of intimacy since that would make you too vulnerable. Who’d want to be in a relationship with someone who is always suspicious and shielded?
People who distrust life always try to force others to fit their expectations of eventual betrayal. Trying to connect becomes a chore as long as they remain committed to a deep-seated distrust of life. About all they can experience relationship-wise with that mindset is either more betrayal or more confusion and embarrassment when they push away someone who genuinely wants to connect.
Is that the kind of life you want to experience? How are you suppose to enjoy real intimacy if you always push people away due to suspicions and assumptions that may or may not be accurate? Is being hurt now and then really so bad?
On balance I think trusting is the better option because it would almost certainly lead to a more interesting, engaged, and fulfilling life. You might have to deal with some rejection and betrayal now and then, but if you maintained a trusting attitude, eventually you’d connect with some wonderful, like-minded people with whom you could share some deep and fulfilling bonds. The other path looked dark, dreary, and disconnected.