Trust the Universe (or Whatever That Means)
I’ve heard the phrase “trust the universe” more times than I can count. And every time, it made me pause. What does that actually mean? Trust something beyond myself? Isn’t that just what skeptics call blind faith?
I kept circling the question without ever landing anywhere. Then sometime last year in 2025 I finally thought, fuck it. Instead of trying to define the term, I decided to test it. I wanted to see how it could work in real life, in a way that actually made sense to me.
So I stopped obsessing over the meaning and focused on practice.
This is what “trusting the universe” came to mean for me:
Releasing my grip on things in general, but especially on things I don’t control.
Bringing softness into situations where I’m too hard on myself or others.
Having faith in the best possible outcome when a situation feels tight or uncomfortable.
Bringing grace into moments of difficulty.
Not fighting so hard for things.
That last one didn’t mean doing nothing. I still did the work, planted the seeds, watered them, showed up consistently. But I stopped trying to force outcomes. I stopped trying to unfurl the leaves before the plant was ready. I practiced patience.
I lived this way, consciously and imperfectly, for nine months of 2025.
And it worked.
Whether you call it the universe, cosmos, life, timing, or something larger than me, things began to align. Not always in the ways I expected or wanted. Sometimes I was skeptical. Sometimes the outcome felt disappointing at first. But with time and patience I started to see why that outcome was the right one.
Trusting the universe, for me, wasn’t about blind faith. It was about loosening control, doing my part, and allowing space for things to unfold. And in that space, things didn’t fall apart.
They came together.
And for this year I am going back to the same mantra I choose to trust. Not as a resolution but as something that I want to continue to be curious about as a practice.