Ralph Waldo Emerson
Self Trust
Ralph Waldo Emerson (May 25, 1803 – April 27, 1882) was an American essayist, lecturer, and poet who led the transcendentalist movement of the mid-19th century. He was seen as a champion of individualism and a prescient critic of the countervailing pressures of society, and he disseminated his thoughts through dozens of published essays and more than 1,500 public lectures across the United States.
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This was someone I learned about in high school. I'm sure many of you did as well.
I pulled a particular quote from him that I just love.
The first and most important person you have to trust is yourself!
If we cannot trust ourselves then we won't really trust others and certainly can't be in control in our lives.
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It's really that simple.
But what if we don't trust ourselves?
How can we learn to?
Well, first you can start listening to yourself.
Most of us value the opinions of our peers over our own far to often.
We long for their appreciation and acceptance so much that it can drown out our own inner voice.
You've probably heard the phrase, "Go with your gut.".
Deep within each and every one of us we there is an often small inner voice that knows exactly what is best for us in every situation.
That voice, when actually listened to, will never steer us wrong.
Our intuition tells us what to do in literally every situation.
The thing that gets us into trouble is not listening to it and trying to think it out.
What happens is our gut tells us through a feeling whether something is right or not.
Then our mind starts to weight options.
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When our mind begins weighing options we start to forget which of the options our gut was telling us.
Our gut does not rationalize, so any decision made through rationalization was not made from the gut.
You see, intuition is a feeling not a thought.
When we feel something is right or wrong we need to act, not rationalize.
If we are very used to thinking through issues we may not even be aware that our gut has told us anything at all.
Yet, when we make a horrible decision we usually say something like "I had a feeling..."
That feeling, the one that went unnoticed or not acted on, that was your gut or intuition and it is always right!
Our mind can steer us wrong in so many ways because so many things are not what they seem.
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However our gut cannot see, hear, smell or taste anything.
It can only feel.
It can only sense.
In order to trust ourselves we need to listen to this inner voice.
If you have never listened to it, you may not hear it at first but we all know its there. We just deny that we could be that intuitive.
We don't trust ourselves enough to believe what our gut tells us.
So give it a shot.
Listen to your gut and act on its guidance without hesitation, before your mind can jump in and mess it all up.
Because Ralph was right...
Thanks for reading.
Michael David
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