Our trust can move in four directions: we can trust ourselves, others, reality, and a higher power.

Explore the four directions of trust in your life by drawing a compass, a trusty tool for finding our way on a journey.

Place the words “I trust” in the center of a circle. In the east position, write “Myself.” In the west position, write “Others.” In the south position, write “Reality” or “Whatever happens” or “How life unfolds.” In the north position, use whatever word represents God or a higher power for you.

Draw arrows from the center circle to each of the four points on the compass. Notice that people fall on the horizontal plane, and powers that transcend our control are on the vertical plane.

These four directions of trust become our main inner resources. We fall back on them throughout our life cycle.

Now think of your most recent concern or problem, or how you typically handle things. Ask yourself how you could trust in each of the four directions when it comes to handling this issue (or handling life in general). Do this by responding to the four questions or suggestions below for each direction of trust.

Trusting Yourself

1. What resources do you find in your body/mind, and how could you use them more?
2. How well can you rely on yourself to take action when you face a challenge?
3. What qualities, skills, and virtues do you trust in yourself?

Trusting Others

1. What kind of support will you ask for from your partner, family, or friends?
2. If people do not come through for you, what plan do you have for handling that disappointment?

Trusting What Happens

1. How can you say yes unconditionally to what is happening so that you can gain the serenity to accept what cannot be changed?
2. How can you say yes unconditionally to what is happening so that you can gain the courage to change what can be changed?
3. How can you say yes unconditionally to your inner wisdom so that you can tell the difference between what can and cannot be changed?

Trusting a Higher Power

1. If appropriate to your belief system, use devotion and prayer to build your personal connection to God or to a higher power.
2. Drop down into the heart place in yourself where there is an infallible source of unconditional love, wisdom, and healing power, and then picture yourself bringing these three qualities to bear on the issue at hand.
3. Ask for the grace of trusting the messages that come in the forms of synchronicity, dreams, intuitions, and in any other ways that seem to originate from a force beyond your own making.

Affirmations for Building Trust in All Directions

• May I grow in trust in myself by granting myself attention, acceptance, appreciation, affection, and allowing.
• May I grow in trust of others by asking for their support, appreciating their way of giving it, and not blaming or punishing them if they fail me.
• May I grow in trust of my present predicament as a path to wholeness and higher spiritual consciousness by accepting my here-and-now situation with equanimity as well as with some sense of humor.
• May I keep trusting graces from powers beyond my ego.

Adapted from: David Richo: Daring to Trust: Opening Ourselves to Real Love and Intimacy (Shambhala)