Welcome.
I am so glad you are here.
Today's Mandala Card is on the theme of trust.
Before we begin,
I invite you to have a pen and journal nearby.
This session will include a few quiet moments for reflection and journaling.
Now let's begin by arriving fully in this moment.
Being fully present.
Here.
Now.
Find a comfortable position.
Close your eyes if that feels comfortable.
And allow your shoulders to soften.
Let your hands rest easily.
Let go of any stress or tension in your body.
Take a slow breath in through the nose.
And a long breath out through the mouth.
Again,
Breathing in,
Calm and steady and breathing out.
Releasing tension.
One more time,
Inhale.
And exhale.
Letting yourself settle.
Feel your body supported.
Feel yourself relax into this moment.
Now bring your awareness to where your heart is in your chest,
Your heart space.
Imagine breathing directly into your heart.
With each inhale,
Invite warmth,
Gentleness,
And ease.
With each exhale,
Let go of any tightness,
Any worry.
Any need to control what comes next.
You may want to place a hand over your heart.
As a reminder that you are safe in this moment.
Trust lives here,
Not as certainty,
But as steadiness,
As peace.
I'm now going to share a reflection on trust.
And I want to begin with something that might reframe how you think about what trust actually is.
Most of us have been taught,
Without quite realizing it,
That trust means knowing how things will turn out.
That we can relax when we have certainty.
That we can move forward confidently when we can see the path clearly ahead.
But what if that is not trust at all?
What if that is simply comfort and a feeling of control?
Philosopher and theologian Paul Tillich wrote about what he called the courage to be.
The willingness to move forward,
Not in the absence of uncertainty,
But in the presence of it.
Tillich believes in genuine courage.
And genuine trust.
Is not the absence of fear or doubt.
It is the choice to act.
To move.
To live fully.
Even when the outcome is unknown.
Even when the path is not clear.
Even when the mind is offering you every worst case scenario that it can imagine.
And here's what's so important about that finding.
Trust is not a feeling you wait to arrive.
It is a choice you make.
In the middle of not knowing.
I've come to understand this more deeply as I've gotten older.
For much of my life,
I spent a lot of energy trying to anticipate,
Plan,
Prepare for everything that could go wrong.
Building elaborate stories in my mind around worst case possibilities that in most cases never arrived.
And what I discovered was that these stories did not protect me from difficulty.
They simply robbed me of the present moment.
They kept me living in a future that it hadn't happened yet.
Missing the actual life that was unfolding right in front of me.
What changed everything for me was mindfulness.
Learning to notice when my mind was spinning stories around uncertainty.
And gently bringing my attention back to what was actually here.
Back to this breath.
This moment.
This reality.
And that's why for me,
Placing a hand on my heart just grounds me in my body again and reminds me that I'm here,
Now,
Alive,
And that is enough.
What I found was the present moment.
Was almost always more manageable.
Than the future my anxious mind had been rehearsing.
That right here,
Right now.
I was okay.
I was supported.
I was capable of meeting whatever this moment actually held.
The stress and the fear that came from building worst case stories began to soften.
When I stopped feeding them with my attention and brought myself back to what was actually true right now.
This is what trust looks like in practice.
Not the grand declaration that everything will be fine,
But the quiet,
Moment-by-moment choice to come back to the present.
To loosen the grip of things that you cannot control.
To ask not what may go wrong.
But what is actually here right now.
Trust is the foundation that allows us to move forward with confidence and peace.
It is the quiet inner knowing that you do not have to have every answer right now.
That you can take the next step.
That you can meet whatever comes.
I trust in myself and in a loving universe.
I loosen my grip on fear.
I stop racing for the worst and begin opening to possibility.
Trust reminds me that even the unknown can hold an adventure waiting to unfold.
Not because life is predictable.
But because I'm supported.
Because I'm capable.
Because I'm strong.
And because I am not walking this path alone.
I am surrounded by a loving universe and I am learning and growing as my path surprises me through life.
Take a slow breath in.
And let that feeling land gently.
Now open your eyes if you have them closed.
I'm going to offer you a journal prompt and I want you to take a few minutes to write or simply reflect.
The journal prompt today is where in my life am I being invited to trust more deeply right now?
You might also explore where have I been building stories around worst case possibilities that have not yet arrived.
And what would it feel like to loosen my grip on that and simply be here right now?
What becomes possible when I choose trust over fear?
I invite you to write freely without judgment.
Let whatever needs to be expressed come onto the page.
I invite you to bring your writing to a close.
And now we will end with an affirmation.
I will say it first and invite you to repeat it after me.
Either in your mind or out loud.
I trust in myself.
I trust in myself.
I trust in a loving universe.
I trust in a loving universe.
I am supported as I move forward.
I am supported as I move forward.
Even the unknown can hold something beautiful.
Even the unknown can hold something beautiful.
Life is guiding me,
One step at a time.
Life is guiding me,
One step at a time.
Take one more deep breath in.
And a long breath out.
Each time you return to this practice,
You're strengthening something important,
Your ability to meet uncertainty with steadiness rather than fear.
Your willingness to loosen the grip on what you cannot control.
And your growing trust that the present moment is almost always more manageable than the future your mind is being rehearsing.
If today's practice resonated with you,
I'd love to invite you to go deeper.
I have a 10-day audio journaling course called Return to Joy.
A guided experience that combines science-backed reflection,
EFT tapping,
And journaling.
It helps you reconnect with what matters most and move forward with more lightness,
Clarity,
And joy.
And if you'd like to continue this daily practice with me.
Please follow me here on Insight Timer.
So you never miss a new session.
New practices are added regularly and I'd love to have you with me.
Until then.
I encourage you to come back to the present moment.
Again and again.
Putting your hand on your heart.
As a reminder when you need it.
Trust is not something ahead of you.
It is here.
Right now.
In this breath.
In this moment.
And the simple choice to loosen your grip.
And be open to what is.
May your day be filled with steadiness,
Peace,
And the quiet courage to trust what you cannot yet see.
