Your chakras influence the expression of who you are on a physical, emotional, mental, and spiritual level. For this reason, it’s important to know what your chakras are and what they do especially if you’re facing some kind of issue or want to effect a change in yourself. Here, we look at the sixth chakra, the Ajna or third-eye chakra, and, in particular, how it relates to your self-trust.

This post assumes you’re familiar with the chakra system, the energy centers of the body, and the importance of your energy flow within and around you. For an introduction, see What Are the Chakras and search my Mind Body Spirit blog for more posts on chakras and individual energy centers.

Ajna, the Third Eye, and Self-Trust

Your Ajna, the Sanskrit word for sixth or third eye chakra, influences and reveals how much you trust yourself. An imbalanced chakra will typically correlate with an imbalance of trust.

A weak third eye can indicate a lack of self-trust whereas an overactive third eye could imply arrogance, over-self-confidence, or an inflated ego.

Ajna’s functioning is important because your self-trust is fundamental to how you see yourself and your abilities. In other words, your self-esteem (Manipura chakra) and sense of self.

It also affects how you present yourself and show up in the world. Finally, the Ajna relates to your aspirations, imagination, creativity, subconscious, intuition, and extrasensory capabilities.

One Reason People Don’t Trust Themselves

Today’s fast-paced world and constant stimulation and distraction crowd out critical alone time and opportunity to reflect and ruminate. There’s no time to pause, think, or just be. An abundance of interruptions fragments and limits the depth of day-to-day experiences.

If you’re like most people, it may seem as though others’ thoughts and opinions are more accessible than your own. The Internet, social media, and the thoughts and feelings of parents, spouses, children, friends, and neighbors can drown out your own.

While they’re good sources of information and perspectives, self-trust is only developed when you check within yourself and sense how true or false, right or wrong, appropriate or inappropriate those thoughts, opinions, and feelings are for you. And if you’re like most people these days, you don’t have the time or inclination to tap into your inside (your inner self).

What Happens When You Don’t Trust Yourself

Without sufficient trust in yourself and a clear and accurate sense of self, it’s difficult to have healthy self-esteem or be self-aware, decisive, confident, and committed. There’s too much indecision and entanglement.

If you can relate to this, you’re not alone. A whopping 85 percent of adults and adolescents worldwide have low self-esteem.

Thankfully, with a bit of effort, you can build trust in yourself and improve your self-esteem and sense of self.

The Importance of Balance and Resilience

It’s generally the case that balance yields good functioning. For example, an integrated balance within yourself overall will support a balanced Ajna and vice versa. This is why there’s so much discussion about the benefits of balancing chakras. However, as a dynamic living being, you’re always shifting in and out of balance so resilience is also key.

Signs of Ajna Imbalance and Trust Issues

Many of my energy healing and coaching clients are unaware that they lack self-trust. But, when I listen to their thoughts and how they feel, signs pop out at me. Here are some common signs of an unbalanced third eye chakra I encounter. Do they resonate with you?

1. Confused, entangled, or scattered emotions
2. Difficulty distinguishing your feelings from those of others
3. Unable to define your authentic wants, needs, and interests
4. Difficulty determining truth from fiction
5. Disjointed or fragmented thinking
6. Demissive of your intuitive senses or gut feelings
7. Lack of focus and prone to distraction
8. Excessive daydreaming or obsessing over dream storylines
9. Feeling fragmented or at odds with yourself
10. Indecisive or difficulty making decisions
11. Obsessive thinking
12. Difficulty staying committed to decisions or regularly reversing decisions

Signs of Third Eye Chakra Balance and  Self-Trust

1. Clear and balanced emotions
2. Focused and perceptive
3. Flexible and open-minded
4. Able to discern truth from fiction
5. Clarity of personal vision and purpose
6. Accurate and compassionate self-awareness
7. Self-confidence
8. Decisive and committed decision-making
9. Acceptance of your intuition, gut feelings, and heartfelt senses and able to integrate them with your mind’s logic
10. Strong inner vision unobstructed by limiting beliefs
11. Strong imagination and visualization
12. Grounded, centered, and able to maintain a presence

If you have one or more of these symptoms, you want to consider whether your third eye chakra is balanced or not. Then, address it if necessary.

Third Eye Opening

When most people hear the word third eye, they think of opening a portal to their intuition and other psychic and spiritual communication. The truth is, we’re all born with an open third eye. Unfortunately, with the help or corruption of modern Western views, we learn to downplay or completely ignore what the third eye picks up. Ultimately, it becomes difficult to tap into it when we want.

Hopefully, you’ve gleaned from the discussion above that self-trust and an open third eye are similar and interdependent. Each requires you to stay open and pay attention to subtleties within you and around you. Each supports the other. When you trust what you sense and perceive, it becomes more real and true. When you distrust it, it becomes less certain, less real, faint, and ultimately fades.

Self-trust comes from the inside and building self-trust requires getting beyond the mind as the sole source of knowledge, information, and truth. And, it means relying on you and your direct experience. This is all that you know for sure anyway. Everything else is second-hand, in-direct, or filtered.

For More Information on the Ajna, Third Eye Chakra, and Self Trust See:

• My Mind Body Spirit Blog posts, and, in particular:
  • Balance Your Sixth Chakra Naturally
  • Let Go Of Limiting Beliefs and Balance Your Crown Chakra
• Download my FREE introductory-level Getting In Touch With the Inside guided meditation
• Join an online or in-person self-development workshop