The Path to Self-Trust: Learning to Walk My Own Way

I think many of us go through life wondering: Am I on the right path?

But over time, I’ve started to ask myself a different question: Is there even such a thing as the “right” path?

For me, it’s starting to feel like the path is right when it fits who I am, when it aligns with my values, my character, and what truly matters to me. But getting to that point wasn’t simple. It didn’t come from a perfect plan or a clear vision. It came from a lot of uncertainty. It started with discomfort.

When I walked the Camino de Santiago, I was in one of those uncertain seasons. I didn’t feel clear about who I was or what I wanted. In the first days of the journey, I found myself constantly comparing. Look at what that person is wearing. They must be a seasoned hiker. Look how fast they’re going. They’re doing it better than I am.

And then, at some point, not in a flash of insight, but slowly, I realised: this is my journey. I will walk at my pace. I will carry my thoughts. I will listen to my body. And I will trust that I will arrive in my own time, with my own experiences, and in my own way.

That shift changed everything. I stopped trying to measure myself against strangers and started listening to myself. I gave myself permission to go slower. To stop when I needed to. To notice. To breathe. I stopped trying to “get it right,” and started being real.

Looking back, I see that this was the beginning of learning to trust myself.

And the truth is, we don’t always start a journey with a clear sense of who we are. We often try to figure that out before we move, before we act or decide. But I think we actually become who we are through the journey. We find clarity in motion, not before.

And sometimes, we learn what matters to us not by knowing it clearly from the start, but by feeling the discomfort of being out of alignment. That uneasy feeling, this doesn’t feel like me, is a guide. And in contrast, those quiet moments of peace, of resonance, of something just clicking, that’s when the compass begins to form.

Self-trust, for me, isn’t about being certain. It’s not about having it all figured out. It’s about learning to pause, to check in with what I’m thinking and feeling, and to make choices from that place, even if I don’t have all the answers. It's about walking forward not because I'm sure, but because I'm present.

We’re wired to look for threats, for what could go wrong. That’s part of our survival system. But self-trust isn’t about ignoring that voice, it’s about listening to it, acknowledging it, and still choosing the step that feels most true.

And yes, sometimes we’ll make the “wrong” choice. But if the intention was honest, if the decision came from presence and integrity, maybe it wasn’t really wrong. Maybe it was just part of the path, one we needed to walk in order to learn something we couldn’t have learned otherwise.

I’m still learning to trust myself. Some days it’s easy. Other days, it takes more effort. But what I know now is that I don’t have to earn my way forward by knowing everything. I just have to keep showing up honestly, and keep listening.

The path isn’t something we find and follow. The path is something we create, one step at a time.

Mirka