Self-Trust as a Liberatory Practice
Why trusting yourself is essential to dismantling oppressive systems
🌬️ Grounding Invocation
Before we begin, come home to your breath.
Inhale through your nose—hold.
Exhale through your mouth—release.
Let the day settle. Let the noise soften.
Place one hand on your chest, the other on your belly.
Whisper to yourself: “I am allowed to trust me.”
Let that land.
Let it stretch across all the places in you that were taught to doubt.
You are not broken.
You are (re)membering.
Let’s begin.
Trusting Yourself Is a Revolutionary Act
Self-trust isn’t just personal—it’s political.
Because if you were raised inside systems that taught you:
to doubt your gut
to second-guess your voice
to seek authority outside yourself
You need to be with yourself long enough to (re)member what’s always been true:
Your knowing is holy.
Your intuition is ancestral.
Your truth is a compass.
…then reclaiming your inner knowing is an act of liberation.
Oppression thrives when we’re disconnected from our bodies.
Colonization begins when we believe someone else’s rules over our own knowing.
Supremacy culture survives by convincing us we need permission to be whole.
But you don’t need to be more informed to trust yourself.
You don’t need to be more healed.
You don’t need to be more anything.
However, when we choose to trust ourselves—truly, tenderly, consistently—we begin to (re)member.
We begin to put the pieces of ourselves back together.
We begin to return to what colonization tried to sever:
– Our connection to the land
– Our relationship with our bodies
– Our trust in our communities
– Our ability to be whole, even in process
And that’s what decolonization is:
A return. A reconnection. A remembering.
Back to self. Back to spirit. Back to truth.
How Self-Trust Dismantles the Pillars of Supremacy Culture
When you trust yourself, you begin to unravel the lies you were taught to survive.
One pillar at a time:
Perfectionism → You trust that your process is sacred, not your polish.
Sense of Urgency → You move at the pace of integrity, not panic.
Objectivity → You honor intuition and emotion as valid ways of knowing.
Power Hoarding → You share your truth and invite others to do the same.
Only One Right Way → You make space for multiple truths—including your own.
Fear of Open Conflict → You trust that tension can be generative, not dangerous.
Paternalism → You stop outsourcing your decisions to those who claim authority over you.
Right to Comfort → You learn to sit with the discomfort of growth without abandoning yourself.
Individualism → You trust that healing happens in community, not in isolation.
Progress = Bigger, More → You define growth by depth, not volume.
Worship of the Written Word → You reclaim body wisdom, oral tradition, spirit-led knowing.
Defensiveness → You meet accountability with curiosity, not collapse.
Quantity over Quality → You prioritize aligned action, not performative output.
I’m the Only One → You ask for help. You remember interdependence.
Either/Or Thinking → You hold complexity without needing to shrink or split yourself.
Every time you choose your truth over compliance...
every time you pause instead of panic...
every time you whisper “I trust me” when the world says don’t—
you are dismantling supremacy from the inside out.
If you’d like to go deeper, my eBook Dismantling Supremacy Culture: Understanding and Overcoming Its 15 Pillars offers tangible tools and examples for personal and collective transformation.
Grab your copy here: https://desireebstephens.bio/shop/50ea9892-cedb-48de-bf77-65ba4629c70b
In this piece, we explore:
– How self-trust gets colonized by supremacy, religion, and fear
– The difference between impulsivity and embodied discernment
– How returning to your truth interrupts domination culture
– A ritual to rebuild trust with yourself after betrayal or burnout
– And why collective liberation begins with inner alignment
This is a paid article as part of our Season of Emergence series.
If this resonates with your bones, I lovingly invite you to become a paid subscriber.
You’ll receive the full article, reflection ritual, and prompts.
As always, gift options and scholarships are available at: scholarships@desireebstephens.com
You don’t have to earn your voice.
You just have to trust it.
Let’s keep walking home to ourselves.
Together.