She Can Heal Podcast

Ep. 46 - How to Build Self-Trust: Unpacking the Roots of Self-Doubt

• Keila Aldea, LCSW • Season 2 • Episode 46

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Our childhood experiences, traumatic events, and societal pressures fundamentally shape our ability to trust ourselves as women, creating patterns of self-doubt and external validation-seeking that can last a lifetime.

• Childhood conditioning creates the foundation for self-trust issues through emotional invalidation, overcontrol, excessive criticism, and inconsistent parenting
• Trauma profoundly disrupts self-trust by disconnecting us from our bodies, shattering our sense of safety, and fostering shame and self-blame
• Society bombards women with messages that we're "too emotional," should prioritize pleasing others, must be perfect, and aren't as competent as we actually are
• Understanding these patterns isn't about self-blame but gaining awareness to begin healing
• Rebuilding self-trust requires compassion, patience, and sometimes professional support
• Journal prompts can help explore experiences of dismissal, childhood messages about behavior, and perfectionism as starting points for healing

If you're struggling with self-trust or not showing up authentically, share this episode with someone who needs to hear this message. Subscribe so you never miss an episode packed with valuable tips and insights designed to empower you.


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Speaker 1:

Hello and welcome to the she Can Heal podcast, a podcast aimed at helping women heal and thrive emotionally, physically and spiritually. I am your host, kayla Eldia. I'm a licensed therapist and a self-care advocate that is passionate about helping women take back their power and help them realize they're important, worthy and deserve the care and attention they give to those they love most in their lives. This show is meant to help inspire you on your healing journey, no matter if you're in the discovery phase and are just realizing that you have unhealed wounds, habits and mindsets that are keeping you stuck in your life, or you've been on this journey for a while and are looking for inspiration, encouragement and or new tools to help you continue on your healing journey. My goal is to help you realize that you can heal from all that life has thrown at you and are capable of evolving into your healthiest and happiest version. On this show, I will provide you with resources, tools and insights to help you heal and thrive emotionally, physically and spiritually, because you deserve all of that. So if you're ready to ditch the guilt and make yourself a priority, then you're in the right place, because the truth is that you can't pour from an empty cup, even though most of us do this on a regular, and we really need to stop that nonsense. So get ready to be inspired, motivated and equipped to truly thrive.

Speaker 1:

Hello and welcome back to another episode on the she Can Heal podcast. I hope this episode finds you doing well and thank you for joining me for another episode. So last week I talked about self-trust and I talked about the reasons why we need to start trusting ourselves more and also what are the negative effects when we don't trust ourselves, and I left you with three action steps that you can work on to increase your self-trust. After episode and after listening back to the episode, I realized that I left out a really important part and I thought that it would probably be a really good idea to revisit that and bring that to you. And what I'm talking about is how do we get to a place where we have very little to no trust in ourselves, like, how does that even happen? How this get created, created in us. I wanted to talk to you about that now, too, because I think it's important to also use that information to understand yourself more.

Speaker 1:

Sometimes it could be a difficult process of listening to information like that and then using that information, to feel bad about yourself and saying, wow, like I have really done a really poor job of trusting myself and setting boundaries for myself and really doing the things that I need in order to have belief and confidence in myself. But the truth is that when we listen to information like that, understanding that that is a portion that does happen and that's a normal part of the process. I know I've witnessed that a lot, being a therapist and helping women to understand themselves more, so I definitely know that that's part of the process. But, like I tell all my clients, that is just a lens that we're starting to use. We're trying to see it a different way and I know it's happened to me. I know that as I started to do more work on myself through therapy, through reading, through journaling, through all the things, there's been things about myself that I've realized, that I have abandoned myself in in decision making, in the way that I show up for myself or how I show up in my relationship, and just things that have transpired over time. That the truth is you don't see it, because if you're not there, if you're not in the place of awareness, you just don't see it.

Speaker 1:

Too many times I listen to women who talk about mistakes or parts of their lives that they feel that they have messed up, or they see their faults in, and now that they're working through it, now that they're processing it, it gives them this moment of self-criticism, of like. I'll give you an example. I used to work with a young woman and she was in a really unhealthy relationship and throughout the process of us working through it. And she was in a really unhealthy relationship and throughout the process of us working through it, while she was in the relationship, you know she didn't see things. You know he would do things that for me they were really unsafe and really I had. It just made me a lot of worry. But my job was to help her to see it herself right. It's really helping her to process it. And so she got to a place where she realized this is not a relationship that I want to be in anymore and she did end the relationship. And then, after she ended the relationship, we processed. You know what happened in the relationship and she would make comments of I should have known better, I shouldn't have stayed this long, I should have done this and I should have done that, you know, and in that moment I helped her to remind herself that she didn't see it that way when she was there right A couple months ago. She's not where she is today, and so she cannot blame herself for not seeing things that she just couldn't see right. She is in a place where she has learned about herself. She has learned about unhealthy relationships, and so now she has a different lens and a different perspective than she did when she was in the relationship, and so this is very similar.

Speaker 1:

This information is not for you to use it against yourself and say I have done such a horrible job Like why didn't I know this? Why didn't I change? Why didn't I do this? Why did I keep listening to this person? Why did I just not listen to? You know my gut instincts? Why did I ignore myself? That is not what this is about. This is about noticing and getting aware of yourself and your patterns, so that you could begin to make changes, because you can't change what you don't even see right. When you are not ready, when you are not in a place to make changes, it's because you don't even see that there is a problem. You don't see that this is something that you want to change.

Speaker 1:

There's so many different aspects of it, and today I really wanted to go into some of the key factors that contribute to us not having self-trust in ourselves. Right, because this is not something you're born with. Right, this is something that gets conditioned, that gets created throughout your life, during different parts of your life and different situations, and so I wanted to go over that with you, because if you did listen to last week's episode, you probably had a good idea of this is kind of where I'm at. Maybe these are the steps that I want to start in, of this is kind of where I'm at. Maybe these are the steps that I want to start in, but also I know I stayed with. Yeah, but why? Why does this happen? How did this happen to me? How did I become this way? Where did this start? And so I wanted to talk to you about that today, and I'm going to break it down into three key areas.

Speaker 1:

The first area is probably one of the most important parts, because it's your childhood, right? It's that our childhood conditions us to have the thoughts, to have the beliefs, to have the behaviors that we have today. Everything stems back to our childhood, and I'm talking about 50-year-old women who are crying in my therapy office because they are noticing things about themselves. They're having all these reactions and as we process it, it always goes back to their childhood. It's always connected to your childhood. So I wanted to start with our childhood first. The next one I will talk Because trauma is a huge part of the creation of who we are, who we used to be.

Speaker 1:

When we go through really traumatic experiences in our lives, it really can completely shred you of your personality, of your trust, of your self-love, of your self-care. It really does shatter your sense of self. And then the last one I'll go over is society right, and it is the societal messages that we receive as women that cause us to really have these beliefs and doubt ourselves from all the messages that we receive, either gender stereotypes or relationships or anything like that. And I'm going to leave you with something at the end of the episode that you can walk away with so that you can begin to process where you are and where could this be for you. And I'm sure that as I'm going, as I'm talking through these three areas, I'm sure that you will. You things will click for you and you would really understand where. But sometimes we need to go just a little deeper, and so I'll leave you with something at the end of the episode that you can walk away from to help you continue to process. Do this, do this work, all right?

Speaker 1:

So we're going to start with number one, which is the childhood conditions that you receive from your parents, caregivers, and I would even say just adults in your life, because we spend a lot of time with teachers, we might spend a lot of time with coaches, we might spend a lot of time with different adults that are not our parents, like caregivers, a lot of time with you know different adults that are not our parents, like caregivers, babysitters, and so this is not just from your parents and caregivers, but this is also any adult in your life. I mean, I've heard stories of coaches who will break kids down because they are not performing the way that they think they should, and they think that they need to break them down and make them feel so small that that's the way to help them, and without knowing that this is completely shattering this kid's self-esteem and self-concept. So when we think about this, I want you to think about not just parents and caregivers, but any adult that you've spent a lot of time with, okay. So number one is the invalidation of your emotions, and for us girls, women, that is a big one too, right? I think we get a lot of messages about our emotions, but it says if a girl's feelings are consistently dismissed, minimized, right, don't be so dramatic or punished. She learns that her emotional responses are unreliable or wrong, and this can lead to disconnect from her inner emotional compass and a tendency to suppress her feelings rather than trust them as valuable information. That's a big one, because this, again, can come from parents don't be so dramatic, right? Why are you making a big deal out of this? She wasn't really doing that, you're just making that up.

Speaker 1:

Or, if you're too excited, if you're, no matter what, it is right, it could be you're too sensitive, you're over dramatic. Sometimes it could even be the other aspect. It could be oh, my god, you're, you're too hyper, you're too much. You need to calm down. You need to bring it down a notch, right, and think about it. That will definitely cause you, especially as a child and this is messages that you've received over and over and over and over and over again it will lead to you suppressing your feelings, because now you're saying to yourself this is not okay, right, because if you think about it, your parents and your caregivers they are the first people that are in your life. Like you depend on them for everything. And the minute that you believe that you're being okay or rejected by your parents in some way, you are going to stop doing that because you don't want your parents not to love you. Right In our little minds, it's like if I keep being this way, my mom doesn't love me. She keeps saying me, she keeps telling me that I'm a brat. She keeps telling me that I'm too hyper. She keeps telling me this, so I need to, like, bring it down a notch, I need to put that away and I need to act in a way that she is going to accept me. And I'm saying she, but it's again. Think about any adult.

Speaker 1:

So invalidation of your emotions over control and lack of autonomy and it says parents who are overly controlling making all decisions for a child or not allowing them to experience natural consequences can hinder their development of self-reliance and independent judgment. The child learns to seek external validation and direction rather than trusting their own choices, and I think for a lot of parents, this is not something they do on purpose all the time. I mean, there's still parents who are over-controlling and they do not let the child do any decisions, which I've seen which can be really harmful for these kids, especially as they start getting older and start really knowing what decisions they want to make. I think of teenagers who their parents control the colleges that they're going, the major that they're majoring in. They have to okay their dress, which I get, like sometimes we as parents have to oversee, but to like, literally, I have to check in with my mom. She has to okay this dress, it has to be okay with her. You know that definitely is something that goes a little beyond the normal parents. Overseeing, you know, making sure that the dresses are appropriate or not, and even though, as parents, they might think that I know what's best for you, I know more than you know. That is not the way to help children learn to be independent Because again, this is another you're basically taking away the autonomy, you're taking away the child's ability to make their own decisions and learn from their decisions, which again will definitely cause you not to trust yourself, right? Because if every time that I try to make this decision, my mom or my dad or the coach or whoever it is, tells me that's the wrong decision, that's not going to work out. This is the decision you need to do. I can see how that can cause us to, over time, learn that I can't decide for myself, I'm not reliable, I need to rely on others.

Speaker 1:

Excessive criticism or lack of praise is another one, and it says constant criticism, especially if it's devaluing rather than constructive, can erode a child's sense of self-worth. Similarly, a lack of praise or acknowledgement for achievements can lead to a feeling that one's efforts are never good enough, fostering self-doubt. So, if you think about it, if you are constantly being criticized and when we talk about constantly, we're talking about over time, over time, again, again these are your caregivers, these are the people that you spend the most time with. So you're constantly receiving criticism about yourself, about what you do, the outcomes of whatever it is that you're doing, little by little, that is going to cause you to feel so unworthy and so bad about yourself and saying to yourself everything I do is bad, you know. Same thing when you are not receiving any type of praise or acknowledging your achievements, or even worse, I've seen, I've heard parents who their child is achieving above and beyond and it's never good enough. And I've seen kids in my office who are literally sobbing because they say I've hit this high milestone and my parents still says, but right, but you haven't done this, but you haven't done that. I got an A minus but it's not an A plus and that is very, very devaluing and that will definitely make you create a sense of self-doubt, that I am not good enough, but also that no matter what I do, it's just doesn't work out. It doesn't work out. And so now that is definitely going to cause me not to trust myself and to rely on myself. I have to rely on others, because the others are people who are telling me if I'm doing good or not.

Speaker 1:

Inconsistent parenting is another one. It says unpredictable or inconsistent responses from your caregivers can create an environment of insecurity. So if a child may learn that they can't trust their environment and then, by extension, they can't trust their own ability to, then, by extension, they can't trust their own ability to navigate it safely, which leads to hypervigilance and difficulty trusting their instincts. So growing up in a household where your parents are inconsistent, that they don't make you feel safe, that you can't really trust them, you can't trust your home because there's probably a lot of different elements that are, you know, making it not be that way. Either there is some type of alcoholism, substance abuse, mental health, whatever it is. That can be really really hard for children to learn to trust their own instincts because so much is inconsistent and unpredictable.

Speaker 1:

Okay, and the last one in this section is neglect, emotional or physical. So when a child's basic needs for attention, care and emotional support are unmet, they may internalize the message that they're not worthy of care or attention, leading to deep-seated feelings of inadequacy and a struggle with self-esteem. So of course, this is part of that traumatic response where if we are not receiving our basic needs right Food, shelter, love, support then they are going to learn that I'm not good enough and have no trust in themselves and always have to seek the attention from others, which can become a pattern of relying on others for their needs and for emotional needs and making decisions, and you can see why this definitely leads to a level of self, a poor self-trust. Okay, so that was childhood conditions. So, as you heard, our childhood can really develop these really unhealthy patterns in ourselves, just from all the different types of conditions that we might have faced in our childhood. And so I want you to think about yourself and you know, even if you need to pause and you need to reflect on this and kind of identify did I receive any of these, which I'm sure? I mean parents are doing the best that they really can? Um, if you're a parent, you know that for yourself. But right, also, there's also conditions that can cause parents to just do a lot of these things right, invalidate our emotions, a lot of self-criticism, lack of praise and consistency and all of these things, no matter what, are going to lead to us having this level of mistrust in ourselves and in our world. It's hard to really trust not only ourselves but just the world that we're in All right.

Speaker 1:

Number two is trauma, and trauma is a big one. So I'm going to go over three different areas that can lead to us not trusting ourselves and our world. Number one is the disconnection from your body and your intuition. So it says trauma, traumatic experiences, abuse, neglect, violence, etc. Can shatter a person's thoughts of safety and self-connection. To cope with overwhelming feelings, individuals may dissociate from their bodies or numb their emotions. This disconnection makes it incredibly difficult to trust gut feelings or intuition, as these internal signals might be associated with past pain or danger. This is a really, really big one because, yes, right, if you are disconnected from your body, if you're connected from your source, from your inner self, it's really hard for you to tune into your intuition, rely on yourself to guide you to make the right decisions, to be in the right places, and things like that.

Speaker 1:

Because, like it said here, depending on experiences that you've had that were traumatic, a lot of people will turn to disconnection from themselves, from their bodies, through a lot of different unhealthy coping mechanisms, right, so that might be drugs, that might be unhealthy relationships, such as you know, getting seeking sex, seeking connection or love from really unhealthy people. So there's so many different ways and those situations will lead us to develop this mistrust, because you're going to be around a lot of unhealthy people and situations that are going to give you a lot of different messages that are going to make you feel shattered, make you feel low self-esteem, make you feel like crap, like so many different unhealthy and really harmful behavioral patterns, thoughts, beliefs about yourself that can definitely lead to not trusting yourself and your world. Shattered sense of safety, soul trauma fundamentally disrupts the belief that the world is a safe place and that one is capable of protecting oneself. This can lead to a persistent sense of vulnerability and profound difficulty trusting your own judgment and navigating future situations. And then here we are right. You learn because of just things that have happened to you. Maybe it's an abusive relationship Again, maybe it was an abusive parent, an alcoholic mom, a mom that had poor, like bad mental health, and you're getting all these messages that it's so unsafe that you really have a difficulty trusting yourself, trusting your own decisions, and this is another really, really important point to make when it comes to mistrusting ourselves.

Speaker 1:

Shame and self blame is another one, it says. Survivors of trauma often internalize blame, believing that something about them caused the trauma or that they are inherently flawed. This self blame is a significant barrier to self-trust, as it reinforces the idea that one's instincts or decisions are reliable and lead to harm. Trauma is something that will completely shatter the person that you are. It will shatter your self-esteem, it will shatter your sense of safety and, of course, that comes with shame and self-blame.

Speaker 1:

How many times do I hear individuals blame themselves when others hurt them, when others might gaslight them, when others make them feel bad about choices and decisions. Oh, it's my fault, like my client that I talked about earlier, where she blames herself. I should have known better, I should have left. I should have never accepted that. And the truth is that shame and self-blame is not going to get you there right. It's not going to get you to trust yourself, and so working on yourself and learning these different ways of coping can really be helpful in learning that blaming myself is not the way that I'm going to learn to trust myself. But because we've been in these really unhealthy and harmful situations, I can understand why someone will come to a place to you know, use blame and to shame themselves, and so this is another area that can be really, really difficult and can really lead to us really feeling like a shattered person and we can't trust ourselves, we don't even like ourselves, we don't even want to be with ourselves because of all the crap that we've been through.

Speaker 1:

And I will add a caveat on here that if you are someone who's experienced trauma, this is not the work that you want to do on yourself. By yourself, I meant. Trauma can really be something that is so deep-rooted that if you are feeling triggered right now, I want you to take a deep breath. If you need to take a break, take a break. I know that I can feel my body being a bit reactive right, because we've all been through something, but if you are a person that has been through some really traumatic experiences, I want you to acknowledge that this is not the work that you want to do by yourself.

Speaker 1:

If you've experienced any type of trauma in your life and you've never worked with a mental health professional, I would highly suggest that you connect yourself with someone to work on this. This is not something that you want to do on your own, because it can be really overwhelming and you can actually re-traumatize yourself. So, finding someone, finding a licensed professional therapist that specializes in trauma, in trauma therapy this is where you want to start, and so for you, it might be this. It might be you know what? I've realized that this is where I am. This is really triggering for me, and I can see why what I've experienced has led me to be the way I am today. And also, this is not for me to do on my own. This is time for me to get help. Okay, so I just wanted to add that in there, because trauma is not something that we can just get over. We can't just, you know, try to hide it and avoid it. No, you're never going to fully be a healed, complete version of yourself until you have really worked through all your traumatic wounds. So I just wanted to throw that in there Again. Take your time, if you need to take some space, breathe and then come back when you're ready.

Speaker 1:

All right, we're going to move on to number three, and number three is societal messages and gender stereotypes. So, as women, this is a big one for us. Like we talked about earlier, right In childhood, your emotions can be invalidated. Well, this is true of society as well. We get so many messages from this world that will cause us to also Develop these beliefs and these thoughts about ourselves that help us, that do not help us, to be our authentic selves and get to a place where we can fully trust Ourselves completely. Okay, number one is Quote unquote Too emotional or, quote unquote too sensitive.

Speaker 1:

Right, and it says women are often socialized to believe that their emotions are a weakness or that expressing them makes them too much. This teaches women to suppress their feelings and doubt the validity of their emotional responses, hindering their ability to trust their inner emotional signals, their ability to trust their inner emotional signals. I see this a lot in therapy, where women always have to apologize for crying, always apologize for maybe getting upset or whatever it is, and sometimes even talking about their stuff. Right, they apologize and say I'm sorry that I am complaining. Right, and of course, as a therapist, I help them work through that. But also this is something that happens is that we are conditioned to believe that our emotions are too much, that it's not safe to show these emotions, and that can lead to us not trusting ourselves or or dulling ourselves down and not being our true, authentic selves. The pressure to please and confirm so girls are frequently us not trusting ourselves or or dulling ourselves down and not being there to us. On authentic selves the pressure to please and confirm so girls are frequently praised for being polite, accommodating, nurturing, and this could lead to a tendency to prioritize the needs and the opinions of others over our own, making it difficult to trust your own desires or dissenting opinions. I see this a lot as well. I'm sure that you can relate to this, where women are seen as caregivers, as the primary parent, and anytime that you try to do anything that prioritizes yourself.

Speaker 1:

We get the messages that we're selfish. Right, it's selfish for me to take a day off of work to just go and, you know, have a day to myself. That's selfish. You have your kids. What about your kids? What about your husband? If you feel tired, what do you mean? You're tired, you're supposed to take care of the family or you're supposed to be this way or that way, and that could definitely lead to us not trusting that the decisions that we're making for ourselves are good. Right, it's that we've learned that? Oh no, I have to confirm to these specific stereotypes I have to be this way or that way.

Speaker 1:

Unrealistic expectations of perfection is another one. So it says. Society often bombards women with unattainable standards for appearance, success in both career and family, and behavior. The constant pressure to be perfect can lead to chronic feelings of inadequacy and self-criticism, which makes it hard to trust that one is good enough. As they are right, that's a huge one. Right there, constantly receiving messages that were not good enough, and again, this going to lead you not to trust that the choices that you're making, the decisions that you're making, are good, right, that they're bad, that I shouldn't be doing this, that I should be doing that, and that's going to lead you down a path of serious mistrust.

Speaker 1:

And the last one is underestimation of your abilities and ideas, and it says in academic and professional settings, women's contributions or ideas are sometimes dismissed, interrupted or attributed to others. This can lead women to underestimate their own competence, question their intelligence and be reluctant to share their thoughts, even when they're highly capable. This is another big area that we struggle as women, because when we're constantly getting messages that what we're doing is not good enough, then that's also going to get in the way of you believing that you are capable, believing that you are able to achieve certain things, which is going to lead us to not trusting our abilities and also giving power over to other people, over ourselves. What they're saying makes sense I'm not good enough. This is going to be too hard for me, and so this is another area that we will definitely struggle in when it comes to our self-trust.

Speaker 1:

Okay, I don't know about you, but not only was that a lot of information, but it was a lot of heavy information. I'm here sharing this with you, but I'm also taking it in, and I can totally see how much, as women, we go through and why we develop the beliefs and the patterns that we do. I think we also need to give ourselves so much compassion just for being women and being exposed to all that we're being exposed to. I understand not everybody goes through trauma, not everybody's going to fall into all these categories, but I think in general women, we do go through so much because of the stereotypes, because of what the expectation is of women. And also I think that it's important to understand these conditions and this information because the power lies in ourselves. It's saying to ourselves I really need to build my self-trust, I really need to build my self-confidence so that I can become the person that I truly know I can be.

Speaker 1:

And also, this stuff has happened to me. I have gone through X, y or Z and now I can understand why I feel the way that I feel. I can understand why I'm constantly having these beliefs about myself, why I constantly am doubting myself. I know for me, definitely, just going through this, I can definitely identify the areas where what I've been exposed to and what has really caused me to not feel so confident about the choices that I want to make and showing up in the way that I truly want it's constant work to help yourself, to continually believe that you are capable, that you are good enough, that you do matter, and showing up in this world is something that you need to do. But I can also understand that this is heavy. It can be heavy and again I will come back to that you don't have to do this work alone that some of us need to seek professional help in order to process things so that we can start to understand, gain insight and gain that inner power for ourselves.

Speaker 1:

For some of us, it might just be doing the inner work ourselves, through journaling, through meditation, also through getting support from our family and friends. That could be something that you can work on. Sometimes it could be. Maybe I need to learn more about this, maybe if I related more with societal messages. Maybe I need to learn more. Maybe I need to listen to more podcasts about this. Maybe I need to read some books about this so that I can understand this more, so that I can empower myself to make the decisions and take the actions that I need to take. Whatever it is for you, I hope that this information was something that helped you to just empower yourself, because information is empowering, so that you can gain insight and you can. Again, this is all about learning about yourself so that you can take the steps to truly heal those parts of yourself, so you can show up as amazing woman that you truly are all right.

Speaker 1:

So, as I'm wrapping up today's episode, I wanted I felt like this episode needed definitely some guidance. I needed to leave you with something that can help you again. Like I'll repeat again, if you felt really heavy, if this is triggering for you and you felt like this is really deep rooted, I absolutely encourage you to reach out for some professional help and remind ourselves it's okay to ask for help. I did it and it wasn't hard. It was not easy for me when I started, but I will always say that was the best decision ever and I've gained so much inner strength, I've learned so much about myself and about my past that has really helped me to get to a place where I'm feeling so much confidence, so much better about myself, and so, if that's where you are but I want to leave you with some powerful journaling prompts and again, this is about finding quick answers, but it's beginning to go a little deeper right, getting some deeper understanding and compassion for your own journey. I'm going to give you three journal prompts that you can start to use for yourself, to just process and kind of see what comes up, and I would suggest, you know, finding a time where you're able to give yourself the space, make sure it's a quiet space, grab yourself your journal and just allow yourself to go deep with these journal prompts, without any judgment, because remember what I said earlier this is about awareness. This is not to blame ourselves, to shame ourselves. So it's going without judgment and using the lens of self-compassion.

Speaker 1:

So the first journal prompt says think about a time, or several times, when your feelings, perceptions or experiences were dismissed, minimized or outright denied by someone you trusted. How did that make you feel? What did you learn about your own internal experience in that moment? How did it impact your belief in your own judgment? The second journal prompt says reflect on your childhood and adolescence. What messages did you receive, either directly or indirectly, about how girls and women should behave? How were you praised or perhaps criticized when you expressed your true feelings, strong opinions or made independent choices? How might these early messages have influenced your willingness to trust your own instinct? And the third one says where in your life do you feel the most pressure to be perfect? What happens when you make a mistake or fall short of an expectation, either your own or someone else's? How does the fear of failure or judgment influence whether you trust your own decisions or seek validation? Okay, so that's all for today's episode.

Speaker 1:

I hope this episode really helped you If you are struggling with self-trust or any area in your life where you feel like not showing up authentically. Also, share this with a friend. Share this with someone that you know that really needs to hear this message. That's why I am here to share these messages and help you on your own healing journey. So, sharing this message and this episode with someone that you love and you think could really benefit from this information would be so helpful, not only for them, but for the show. Help the show grow.

Speaker 1:

And again, thank you so much for listening. Thank you so much for being here, and I will talk to you again next week, take care. Thank you so much for joining this conversation today. I hope this episode was talk to you again next week, take care. Thank you so much for joining this conversation today. I hope this episode was helpful to you on your healing journey. Don't forget to subscribe so you never miss an episode packed with valuable tips and insights designed to empower you. If you found value in this episode, I'd be so grateful if you left me a review. Wherever you're listening from and share your thoughts and feedback, this really helps me to reach more women, just like you.