This morning my dog, who loves to walk in the forest like all dogs, refused to go in. I tried to pull him along about 20 times, but he kept sitting and refusing to walk. Very strange.

Then my intuition kicks in and I suddenly wondered if he knows something that I don’t. Does he smell something? Does he feel something? A danger, a bear, a cougar?

I turned around. I was a little disappointed because I had gone out of my way to hike in this particular forest and path, but I had to trust. There must be a reason that I have no business in this forest this morning.

I believe that life gives me signs and that it’s up to me if I want to follow them. As strange as some of them have been, they have never let me down.

When I got back in the car, a French song about trusting yourself strongly was playing on the radio.

Trust.

That’s my word for today. What does it look like to trust myself? What does it look like to trust my life and the signs it gives me?

It's so hard to trust. It's hard to trust that everything is going to be ok. It's so hard to not try to control everything even if I know that doesn't work, and it is completely exhausting to live that way. It's so hard to relax and trust, and to not be at attention, hyper vigilant, on the lookout for problems and danger.

There was a time when I would have needed a much stronger sign than a dog refusing to walk. I would have needed a bunch of signs that would have escalated in urgency until I had no choice but to follow them.

I’ll never know if I was right for sure to turn around this morning, but I have less of a need to know. I decided to trust and that’s all.

I know that life's signs point the way like a lighthouse. I can trust them and myself to make decisions based on them.

And when I say inside: I trust myself, I trust life, I can feel my whole body relax.

My self-talk:

I trust.
I trust the signs that life gives me. They are the arrows pointing the way, they are the stepping stones.
I trust the decisions that I make.
I trust that when I make mistakes, I will learn from them and move on.
I trust my life.
I trust myself.

Thanks for reading.
Be well!

Maryse

PS. If you'd like to explore more about trusting and reading the signs that your life gives you, click here for a free exploration exercise to download.