One of the main concepts surrounding modern spirituality is the idea of letting go and trusting the universe. Many people preach it, many pictures quote it and many of us live by it.

This ideology can get a bit dangerous when it’s overused. There becomes an air of carefreeness in the typical ‘spiritual’ person that stems from the mentality of just trusting in the universe.

The idea of trusting in the universe is a double edged sword. One side says don’t try to control every single thing because you can’t, and the other side says don’t worry about it because you don’t need to – just trust the universe.

It is that other side of the sword that gives spirituality it’s taboo reputation and discredits people in the new age movement. You are the physical manifestation of the universe and you need to create the actions in your reality that generate the results you want. To just trust in something greater than yourself and not take the steps to seeing its fruition is void of accountability.

The core issue with simply trusting in the universe is that it is void of accountability, responsibility and reflection. It is a mechanism of spiritual bypassing that disallows us from reflecting on why things happen. It stops our thought process when we ask why something happened, and answers it with because the universe said so. 

Countless things exist outside the realm of our control in this reality, and in many regards we need to allow life to flow as it will. Trust in your friends, trust in yourself, trust that everything will work out because you’ve put the actions forth to ensure it will.

Everything in life WILL work out someway or another, but your influence on it’s direction is paramount in shifting the outcome to benefit you and everyone.

A good example of how this mentality is misused is one time when my friend was going to the store, he said he wasn’t sure how much money he had on his card. His other friend replied to him with oh, sometimes you just need to trust in the universe. And that way of thinking blew my mind. When you are able to influence or respond to a situation you are responsible – the ability to respond.

If you never take the actions to ensure you have money to buy something – you never will be able to. If everyone operated from the mentality of trusting without taking any actions to ensure there is something to trust in the first place, absolutely nothing would get done in this world.

Trust the universe that you will be taken care of after you’ve taken the actions to ensure your safety. Sometimes we are in dire, unpredictable or unfortunate situations where we are forced into a position of having to trust in the universe because we are unable to respond.

If you are in a situation you cannot control and you’ve taken all the actions possible, then it is time to trust because you have done all you can.

If you have an exam the next day and don’t study for it – you cannot trust the universe for YOU are the universe. Energy works as an ebb and flow, and if there is no energy put towards a goal, the universe has no energy to give back.

Give the universe a reason to trust you. Show it you are capable of directing energy and being a creator in your reality – that’s when the real magic happens.