What is your relationship with trust?
What is your relationship with trust?
A few centuries ago Aristotle came to affirm a great truth, establishing as a fundamental characteristic of man his dimension as a "social animal". The human being, in fact, has always known in all its reach the necessity of contact with the other, first for the simple sharing of material resources and to receive support in the struggle for survival on this planet, but later on, and with a growing weight over time, for the construction of his identity, in which shared feelings and emotions play a decisive role.
At birth every man experiences the lack of autonomy and the need of the other: of a reference figure who takes care of him, nourishes him, protects him from dangers and takes care of his growth ... and this is only the first manifestation of our mutual interdependence!
Yet all, sooner or later, we have only grudgingly granted our trust to someone, or we have suffered, seeing it denied by other people ... how is this possible, despite what has been said so far?
Bowlby - father of attachment theory - offers us a partial response, confirming the deep and rooted human tendency, to seek the closeness and contact of other individuals with whom to establish emotionally meaningful relationships and also teaching us how the quality of the bond we comes to create between the caregiver (mother, father ...) and the child is destined to leave a mark on the future relationships of the latter and his ability to put trust in others.
A further suggestion, useful for our reflection, comes from ethology and evolutionary thinking: observing the animal kingdom, in fact, we can see how dogs, for example, study each other's behaviors, to understand what they can expect from each other. 'other: a possible danger or a fruitful alliance?
If it is well placed, trust can essentially bring benefits and reduce stress: it helps us to manage relationships, allowing them to progressively develop, to finally allow us to lower our defenses and fully enjoy the person we have before us ...
