Learning to Trust Yourself
Time will pass anyway, why not live the life you want?
How do you know what you can do? If you know what you are capable of because you *think* you can do it, then great! We are half way there. Belief in yourself is critical to making a decision to go and to push yourself outside of your comfort zone. But, how well do you know — and trust yourself — until you have the chance to experience it?
If I walked you to the edge of a beautiful waterfall and I told you to jump, would you do it? Trust me, it’s perfectly safe.
Would you do it? If yes, why? Is it because you trust me? Or maybe because you trust your own swimming/diving abilities? Or maybe because you’ve done something like it before — like jumping off a high dive?
If you wouldn’t jump, why not? My guess is because you don’t trust me, but more likely, you don’t trust yourself.
I can tell you from experience that it isn’t the jumping or even the falling that is scary — it’s the landing and the distrust of yourself that is. What if I don’t jump far enough and I scrape myself down the rocks? What if I’m not strong enough to swim up and away from the waterfall? What if hitting the water from this height hurts?
Well, the water rushing up your nose can certainly hurt but the experience is worth it. Plus, you learn that it’s usually pretty easy to swim away from the waterfall and that jumping is a whole lot of fun! Even better, you may trust yourself to jump next time. For me, I learned that I can look at something that scares me and try it anyway. How difficult can anything else be when I can cross a rushing river, climb up the rocks, and jump into the waterfall fed pool below?
Travel forces you outside of your comfort zone
Travel is certainly not the only way to be inspired or to learn about yourself, but it can be an incredibly helpful tool in discovering new ways of thinking, and learning what patterns and self-imposed constraints you may be living with. While traveling, you are unceremoniously forced to experience new things, new ways of life, and you have to build trust in yourself to meet the expectations of the new place.
Prior to traveling to Peru, I had never stayed — much less hiked — anywhere with a high altitude. Now, I can confidently tell you that I trust my body to acclimate and I trust myself to not give up. Not only could I survive at Cusco’s 11,000+ft. elevation, but I could climb around Machu Picchu. Since that trip, I trust myself to never give up on anything I set my mind to, and I trust my overweight body’s capabilities more than ever.
After falling through a rotten board (check out Let’s Talk About Weight (limits) for the full story), it would have been easy to give up on walking on my swollen and painful knee (I later learned I had chipped a bone when I fell). But, I didn’t give up. I got up before dawn and hiked Machu Picchu to see the sunrise.
To plan for that trip, I was walking every day but I would not have said I was ready — well, at least I didn’t think my body was ready to go on an extreme adventure like that. Even the day we left to Peru I wouldn’t have told you I was ready. But, that’s the thing, I might never have thought I was ready.
Maybe you don’t think you are ready for something currently. Don’t wait to be ready. Trust yourself or learn why you should trust yourself along the way. I know I’ve gained a lot of trust in myself while on my travels.
Trusting strangers
While traveling, you are very quickly forced to assess certain aspects of yourself like what you can live with and what you can live without. Packing a single suitcase for a long journey can be daunting because you have to figure out how to fit all the comforts of home plus all the necessities of your journey into a single small bag. Even before you leave, you learn about what you *think* you need and what you can most likely live without.
If you travel to a destination extremely foreign to your way of life at home, you learn how much you can handle and what you can live with in a very short amount of time.
While visiting Ghana, I realized it is possible for me to live without most of the things I hold dear, and I learned just how trusting I can be. With no reservations and a taxi that had already left us standing in the middle of a jungle, I had to convince the guards that it was ok for us to be there — because we wanted to stay in their treehouse we had read about. The finally agreed and let us pass. We paid and waited patiently for our guide to lead us to the treehouse.
We trekked several miles into the Ghanaian jungle with our guide using his machete to cut the tangled vines in our path (or what I assume was a path — honestly it looked just like the rest of the jungle). Somewhere on the journey my companions and I looked at each other, wondering if our guide was actually taking us to a treehouse…or just into the jungle to murder us. And what would we do if it was the latter?
It turns out that our guide was a very kind soul who felt responsible for that part of the jungle and he was so excited to teach us about it.
When we reached the treehouse, it was such a relief. The treehouse was built around the tallest tree and consisted of a single platform, a metal roof, and walls that were half made of mesh screening. Needless to say, there was no electricity and no running water, and the “bathroom” was near the base of the tree — a curved mud wall that concealed a hole in the ground.
Each of us carrying our own flashlights, our guide led us on a night walk. He let us hold snails the size of our heads, taught us to listen for the sounds of animals just outside the reach of our flashlights, showed us where and how to find clean water, and even taught us where to hide from stampeding elephants.
Hours later, laying on the bare mattresses on the treehouse floor, the sweltering heat finally subsided and was broken by the downpour of rain. The oppressive darkness was interrupted by bright purple streaks of light — a thunderstorm in the distance.
Your life and your time will pass no matter what you do. You can either trust yourself enough to pursue your dreams and live adventurously, or you can spend your time living a life that, secretly, you might not want.
So, what are you waiting for?
Leana’s an avid world traveler who has been to over 40 countries and will be venturing to her 7th continent in 2022. She believes in ubuntu and that adventures make life worth living. To follow her journey as a plus-sized woman with unquenchable wanderlust as she continues to seek out all that the world has to offer, you can check out The Overweight Adventurer.
