One of the most important things in personal development is learning to trust ourselves – our abilities, our instincts and our choices. However, when we keep on shedding our boundaries for others and ignoring behavioural patterns that are harmful for us, we start to trigger internal distrust. "Internal distrust can seep into our lives more subtly than we realise. It manifests when we ignore hurtful behavior from others and blame ourselves, or when we prioritize others' opinions over our own needs in decision-making. These behaviors not only damage our self-trust but also erode our sense of self-worth. Every time you set aside your needs or feelings to accommodate others, you're sending yourself a message that your thoughts and feelings aren't valid or important," wrote Therapist Klara Kernig.

Signs that we are creating internal distrust:

Ignore hurtful behaviour: Even when we know that a behaviour is hurtful, we tend to avoid it and do not speak up against it. This further makes us feel that we are to be blamed. This can also bring down self-trust and self-confidence.

Push feelings away: We feel that when we express our emotions, it is always too much for others. Sometimes we may feel that our feelings are not important to be discussed. Hence, we push our feelings away and choose to not express them to others.

Not making decisions: We should be in charge of the choices and the decisions we make. However, we end up gathering the opinions and inputs of others and based on that we decide things for ourselves to keep others happy.

Conditional beliefs: Rather than doing things that we want to do; we talk ourselves into doing things that we should do or are supposed to do.

Uncertainty: We always feel that we should be aware of everything – we cannot stand uncertainty and end up following others, even when we do not agree with them.

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