Rebuilding Self-Trust in 2026: How to Reconnect With Yourself Gently
- The Broken & Beautiful
- Jan 7
- 3 min read
A Grounded Beginning to the New Year
As we step into 2026, many of us feel the quiet pressure to improve, fix, or reinvent ourselves. New years often come with urgency—new goals, new habits, new versions of who we’re supposed to become.
But what if the most meaningful way to begin this year isn’t by accelerating—but by grounding?
In a recent episode of Echoes & Edges, founder Patria Rector opens the year with an invitation: to slow down, come back into our bodies, and begin rebuilding trust with ourselves.
This is the work at the heart of The Broken & Beautiful Collective—healing that honors where you’ve been, without rushing who you’re becoming.
You Don’t Need to Fix Yourself to Begin Healing
Before any conversation about growth or connection, Patria invites listeners to pause. To feel their feet on the ground. To notice the support beneath them. To breathe.
Because so many of us were taught—explicitly or implicitly—that our inner world can’t be trusted.
Our instincts. Our intuition. Our emotions.
Often, we learned to question them in the name of harmony, faithfulness, or being “good.” But self-trust isn’t something you earn by doing life correctly. It’s something you relearn—gently.
When Peace Meant Self-Abandonment
Licensed therapist Janet Friesen joins the conversation to explore how many of us were shaped by messages like “live at peace with everyone”—messages that quietly taught us to override ourselves.
For Janet, peace once meant avoiding conflict at all costs. Feelings weren’t dangerous—but they weren’t welcomed either. Over time, this led to minimizing her own intuition and needs in order to maintain external calm.
This pattern works—until it doesn’t.
And when it stops working, the body knows first.
The Moment Things Stop Working
Many people can’t pinpoint the exact moment they realized something was wrong. Instead, there’s a slow dawning: I’m exhausted. I’m miserable. I’m doing everything right—so why does this feel so wrong?
For Janet, a trusted friend finally named what had become impossible to ignore: this was too heavy to carry alone.
That moment—painful as it was—became a doorway.
Healing often begins not with answers, but with being seen.
Why Support Is Not a Failure
One of the deepest myths we challenge at The Broken & Beautiful is the belief that needing help means you’ve failed.
In reality, support recalibrates us.
A compassionate witness—a therapist, coach, or wise friend—helps us make sense of what our nervous system learned long ago. They help us distinguish what once kept us safe from what is actually safe now.
Your instincts aren’t broken. Your intuition didn’t disappear.
It may simply need help updating.
Learning to Pause Instead of Disappear
Janet describes one of the most practical shifts in rebuilding self-trust: pausing.
Noticing your breath. Noticing your body. Noticing what’s happening inside before reacting outside.
Sometimes that pause is a few seconds. Sometimes it’s days or weeks. But that pause creates choice—and choice is where trust begins to grow.
Redefining Peace
Peace is no longer the absence of conflict. Peace is being at home in yourself.
It’s honoring your limits. It’s listening when something doesn’t feel right. It’s choosing rest without guilt. True peace integrates your inner world instead of silencing it.
An Invitation for Self-Trust in 2026
This year’s theme at The Broken & Beautiful is: Rise with us. Voices that lead. Stories that heal.
If you’re beginning this year feeling cautious, tired, or unsure of yourself—start here.
You are allowed to be present. You are allowed to need support. You are allowed to trust yourself again. Healing doesn’t require urgency. It begins with permission.
This essay is adapted from an episode of Echoes & Edges, the podcast of The Broken & Beautiful Collective.
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