 Welcome back Psych2Goers! Before we start, we wanted to say thank you for all the love and support that you've given us. Your support helps us reach others on our mission to make psychology and mental health more accessible to everyone. So, let's begin! Do you struggle with sabotaging feelings of self-doubt? Do you feel that this has ruined your chances for happiness or success? Are you worried that you're doing this to yourself? Trust is when we have a firm belief in the truthfulness, strength and ability of someone or something. Learning how to trust yourself is the key to creating a healthy relationship with yourself, as it fosters a deeper sense of self-love, self-compassion and self-confidence within you. But, maybe self-trust doesn't come so easily to you. So, how can you tell if you lack self-trust? Here are 8 signs that you struggle to trust yourself. 1. You always second-guess yourself. You have a hard time making decisions no matter how small they might be. You often find yourself wavering between choices for long periods of time, unable to make up your own mind. Being indecisive and constantly second-guessing yourself shows that you're struggling to trust your own judgment. Indecision absolutely paralyzes you because the possibility of making a mistake fills you with fear. You feel overwhelmed when you have too much freedom because you lack the confidence to stand by your decisions. 2. You overthink everything. Once you finally do make up your mind, you immediately start wondering if you made the right choice. And, more often than not, you start seeing all the reasons why you should have gone with the other option instead. Anxiety, guilt and regret follows behind everything that you do. You overthink all your choices and behaviors because you don't have enough faith in yourself to believe you can do well and succeed. You're so convinced that you'll wind up making some kind of mistake that it makes you hesitant, timid and unsure of yourself. 3. You trust other people's opinions more than your own. Do you value the opinions of your friends and family over your own? Are you easily swayed by their opinions and can't make a decision without asking for their input first? Say for example, you want to buy something you've had your eye on forever, but because your friends tell you they don't like it, you change your mind. You're easily discouraged from your own desires and prone to pleasing others because the truth is you trust everyone else more than you trust yourself. 4. You don't validate your own experiences. Are you forgetful or do you easily get confused? You often find yourself feeling like you've left something behind or forgotten to do something important. If this sounds like you, it may not be because of absent-mindedness, but because you don't trust yourself enough to validate your own experiences. Whenever you think to yourself, I'm sure that I left it here, or I swear I remembered to do that already. You soon start to wonder if it's actually true. You often find yourself wondering if things are the way you remember them because you have this unshakable feeling that you've done something wrong or made a mistake somehow. 5. You're afraid to speak up. Do you struggle to make your voice known, even when you're with a group of close friends? You back away from being the center of attention. Studies show that when you have a tendency to be shy and quiet, you most likely also have a hard time trusting yourself. And this is what makes you so afraid to speak up. You're afraid of being judged or ridiculed if you truly speak your mind. You don't like to share your opinions, thoughts and feelings, especially when it will contradict those around you because you lack the conviction, assertiveness and self-confidence in yourself. 6. You try to control everything. Has anyone ever told you that you're too bossy or controlling? You often find yourself taking charge of things and planning ahead for just about everything? Another common way a lack of self-trust can manifest in our behaviors is through a strong need for control. You try to control everything around you and feel upset when things don't go the way you expected them to. This is most likely because you don't trust yourself enough to handle the curveball life throws your way. 7. You struggle to recognize your worth. When you're problems trusting and believing in yourself, you undermine your own success and belittle your own accomplishments. You struggle to see all the great qualities you have and contributions you've made because you fail to recognize your own self-worth. You feel embarrassed when people compliment you because you don't feel deserving of their praise. So no matter how much reassurance and encouragement people may give you, you still keep selling yourself short time and time again. 8. You're overly critical with yourself. Are you overly harsh, demanding and critical of yourself? This behavior is a definite red flag and indicator that you need to work on your own self-trust. Every time you make a mistake, no matter how small, you're always the first to point it out because you're your own worst critic. You beat yourself up over your shortcomings and find it hard to forgive yourself for the things you've done wrong. You dwell on your past mistakes and often find yourself grappling with self-doubt because you don't trust yourself enough to be more understanding of your own flaws and weaknesses. Just like with self-love and self-compassion, it takes time to cultivate a healthy sense of self-trust within ourselves. Self-trust is the ability to believe in ourselves in spite of our mistakes, forgive ourselves for our past failures, and still have hope that we are strong enough to overcome the problems we may face. Do you relate to any of the things we've mentioned in this video? I sure did. Let us know in the comments below. Please, like and share this video if it has helped you and you think it could help someone else too. The studies and references used in this video are listed in the description below. Hit the subscribe button and notification bell icon for more Psych2Go videos. As always, thank you so much for watching and we'll see you next time.