The meaning of trust

“Trust men and they will be true to you; treat them greatly and they will show themselves great.” Ralph Waldo Emerson

Trust is fundamental to our safety, autonomy, and self-worth as human beings. It’s the core foundation of every relationship we have. When we trust someone we feel safe to share our feelings, hopes and dreams. We feel we can talk about our concerns without any repercussions.

Where does trust comes from? Where does it begin?

Everyone has the need to trust someone. Even at birth we needed to feel the bond and trust of our mother holding us tightly to know she is there for us as the beginning of a trusting relationship.

We didn’t know anything about relationships but we were vulnerable to give trust to the people we love the most.

Trust comes from being vulnerable and open to others. Trust is not putting on a façade to make us look better in front of others. Trust sometimes means being able to admit you didn’t understand. Trust means you are willing to say you didn’t do something right but you are willing to amend and do it right the next time.

When you are willing to be vulnerable and open, the more trust you will gain from others. Trust doesn’t mean you won’t face disagreements. Trust allows us to disagree and debate in a respectful manner. 

It allows us to test each other ideas and innovative ways of doing things.

When it comes to developing meaningful relationships and trust between people, it is made of many many interactions such as taking the time to listen to other people, to understand them and to see what is important to them. 

Trust takes empathy. It takes the ability and the courage to sit down and shut up. Let others speak to you from the bottom of their heart. Hear their concerns and follow through on it can create a better trusting relationships.

We have to make and keep the promises we make to them. We need to treat people with kindness and courtesy because that’s where trust begins to form between people. We must live out to our daily commitments.

Care is one of the most important elements of building lasting trust. When people believe you are only concerned with your interests and don’t consider other people interests, they will begin to limit their trust in you because you only care about yourself. On the other hand, if you are willing to place other people’s concerns and aspirations on the top of your agenda, you will be able to expand the trust with them for the long run.

As you can see trust consists of many human touches but at the core of every person there must be trust to move us forward to trusting relationships. We need to begin to search within ourselves the humility and openness to let other people see what we are made of.

People want to be trusted and they will respond to your actions of trust. Whatever the situation, we need to get better at establishing, extending and restoring trust as the most effective way of communicating and relating to others. The results will speak for themselves.

“None of us knows what might happen even the next minute, yet still we go forward. Because we trust. Because we have Faith.”  Paulo Coelho