Trusting Others

This is my twentieth post in a series, where each Monday (if possible) I will post about a point of reflection or insight that I will use to reflect and meditate on during the week. In order to make it a bit more focused and interesting, I will attempt to do this with topics beginning with letters from A to Z. I have often found that having a specific topic to reflect and/or meditate on during the week really lends itself to interesting insights and growth, because you not only have several days to reflect and meditate on the topic, but you have several days to put any lessons and insights that you discover to work in your every day life. For those that follow me on Twitter (@JasonLivingNow) I will try to write updates as the weekly topics come up during meditations, moments of reflection, or just during everyday life. To view the current and previous entries in this series, please visit the: Reflections and Insights A Through Z section.

Sorry for the long overdue post, I have been on a rather long vacation in Colorado with no internet access. Although I was unable to post, I must admit that the lack of cell phone or internet access, meant that there were few distractions, which was very refreshing! Also, when I returned from my trip I was slammed at work, so I have been working like crazy to get caught back up… so enough about my lack of productivity… here we go!

My son wasn’t too sure about trusting me that the rope ladder was safe…

T- Trusting Others: All too often we tend to distrust people more than we should. Distrust of others seems to be something that develops in our pre-teen years, and naturally carries over into our adult lives. While there are certainly people that cannot be trusted, we must be careful to not cast all people as being unworthy of our trust. Mistrust of others can lead to myriad of negative attitudes and beliefs, which only serve to harm our own mental and emotional well-being, as well as the well-being of others.

“You may be deceived if you trust too much, but you will live in torment unless you trust enough.”  ~Frank Crane

“I think we may safely trust a good deal more than we do.”  ~Henry David Thoreau

Developing close and meaningful relationships with others, both in our personal and professional lives, can be a vital component in living a happy and fulfilled life, and often the various relationships that we develop in our various walks of life, can help us in numerous and often unexpected ways.

In our professional lives, the relationships we develop can not only help us in surprising ways as our careers develop, and even change, but they make the work days much more enjoyable. Enjoying your work environment, and having personal relationships with those you work with, is very important since most of us un-retired folks spend the majority of our waking hours at work. I have worked at numerous jobs, and I can certainly say that the jobs where the employees liked one another, and enjoyed eachother’s company, were much more enjoyable, and much more productive places to work.

In our personal lives friendships can help us in the good times and the bad by lending us a helping hand, engaging in fellowship with us, and being a confidant when necessary. I can say that I am blessed to have good friends, who are like family to me, they have been there for the birth of my son, (in fact some of them beat my actual family to the hospital!), and all of the good times and the bad, always willing to lend a hand or raise a pint in celebration.

“There comes a point in a relationship when you realize that you trust someone enough to let them keep their secrets.”  ~Robert Brault

In our spiritual lives, trusting others allows us to meet and engage with mentors, and other people on the spiritual path, who can offer us advice and insights that can profoundly affect our lives. Finding a good spiritual mentor, or even a fellow seeker, can be vital, because they allow us to gain a different perspective on our path, as well as offer insights into our struggles and failures.

I have been blessed to have wonderful groups of friends in my professional, personal, and spiritual walks of life, and each of them have profoundly affected my life for the better.  In my various relationships, I have learned that I must not only trust others, but I must also be worthy of trust. Relationships and trust are a two-way street, and we must make sure that we are the kind of friend, mentor, or confidant that is worthy of the same level of trust and respect the we expect out of others.

Practical Tip: This week, focus on building and strengthening your relationships with those around you. If you have relationships that have fractured, spend some time reflecting on why they have fractured, and if they cannot be mended, use them as a learning lesson on what to avoid in the future.

I would love to see your thoughts and comments on what you have done, or plan to do, in order to develop trust with others.  I would also love for you to share any thoughts or insights that come up.

Please come back next week for the next installment of this series, and as always if you enjoyed what you read, please share on social network sites, subscribe to this site, and share this site with others!

Also please check out my book, “The Path: Using the Religions of the World as a Guide to Personal and Spiritual Development.” (Click on the book cover to view on Amazon.com)