How to Trust the Universe When You Don't Know How
I want to tell you about a butterfly.It was my last day at my coporate job as a learning & development exceutive. Fourteen years ago. I had handed in my notice with no savings, no plan and no real idea what I was going to do next.
Just a deep, unshakeable knowing that I had to leave.
As I sat at my desk for the very last time, a butterfly flew in through the window. It circled the room slowly, gracefully, completely unhurried. And then it flew back out again.
I don't know how to explain what happened in that moment. But something in me just... settled. Like the universe had leaned in and whispered: you're going to be ok. I cried.
And I was ok. 💛
I have been thinking about trust a lot lately.
About how impossibly difficult it is when life feels uncertain. When you don't know where the money is coming from. When the path ahead isn't clear. When everything you thought you knew seems to be shifting beneath your feet.
Trust is easy when things are going well. When the signs are obvious and the path is lit. It is in the dark — in the not knowing, in the waiting, in the fear — that trust asks the most of us.
And yet. It is also in the dark that trust does its most profound and beautiful work.
WHAT A COURSE IN MIRACLES SAYS ABOUT TRUST
As a student of Course in Miracles — the spiritual text that has shaped so much of my own healing journey, ive learn a lot about trust, this might book has a lot to say about it. But the teaching that lands most deeply for me is this:
*"Those who are certain of the outcome can afford to wait, and wait without anxiety."*
Read that again. 💛
Certain of the outcome. Not certain of the HOW. Not certain of the timing. Not certain of the path. But certain — at the deepest level of knowing — that everything is working out for your highest good.
That everything always has been.
What I have come to understand — through years of walking this path — is that abundance and love are not things we need to create. They are already here.
They have always been here.
What blocks us from experiencing them is not their absence — but our own fear, doubt and unworthiness. The work is simply to remove those blocks. To clear the path so what is already there can flow freely to us.
The blocks are fear. Doubt. The belief that we are not worthy. The story that the universe has forgotten about us. That we are 'doing life' all on our won
We are never alone in this. 🌿
THE SIGNS THAT KEPT ME GOING
When I left my corporate job I entered one of the most uncertain and in many ways most frightening periods of my life. I was unwell. I was finding my feet. I was learning to trust a path I couldn't fully see. I was trying to grow a business.
And the universe kept sending me signs.
I remember walking my beloved dog Alfie on those early mornings when everything felt scary and uncertain. It was a sacred time for me — just me, Alfie and the quiet. And I began to notice something.
Every time Alfie stopped for a sniff — and he stopped a lot, because he was a dog and that is entirely the point of a walk 😄 — there was a white feather.
Not once. Not twice. Every single time.
White feathers everywhere. On the pavement, in the grass, caught in hedges. As if the universe was walking alongside me, leaving little breadcrumbs of reassurance every few steps.
*I see you. I've got you. Keep going.*
Signs have always been a thing for me. A butterfly on my last day at work. White feathers with Alfie. And just recently — driving to the gym, pondering what to do with my life and my business, wondering if I was on the right path — a large canal boat
went past on the back of a trailer.
The name of the boat?
**Phoenix Rising.** 🌟
I laughed out loud. Because of course that's how I've been feeling lately, like something is rising within me.
The universe has a sense of humour. And it is always, always paying attention. 💛
SO HOW DO YOU ACTUALLY TRUST?
This is the question I get asked most. Not whether to trust — most of us know on some level that trust is the answer. But HOW. How do you trust when you are scared? When the bills need paying? When the path isn't clear? When faith feels impossible?
Here is what has worked for me — not as a prescription, but as an offering from my own lived experience. Take what resonates and leave what doesn't. 🌿
1. Start with the evidence
Look back over your life. Really look. How many times did something work out — not in the way you planned, but in a way that was actually better?
How many closed doors led you to open ones? How many endings turned out to be beginnings?
Trust is not blind faith. It is faith built on evidence. And you have more evidence than you realise. 💛
2. Get quiet enough to hear
The universe speaks quietly. Your inner guidance speaks quietly. And in a life lived at full speed — always doing, always achieving, always moving — that quiet voice gets drowned out completely.
Slow down. Sit still. Breathe. Create space for the guidance to come. It is always there. We just need to be still enough to hear it.
This is why I practice yin yoga. Why I practice yoga nidra. Why I meditate. Not because I always feel like it — but because I know that in the stillness, the answers come. 🌿
3. Notice the signs
The universe communicates with us constantly — through synchronicities, through signs, through the quiet nudges of intuition. A book that falls off a shelf. A song that comes on at exactly the right moment. A canal boat called Phoenix Rising going past on a trailer 😄
Begin to notice. Begin to trust what you notice. Your signs will be unique to you — learn your own language with the universe. 💛
4. Remove the blocks
As ACIM teaches — the work is not to create trust but to remove what is blocking it. Fear. Doubt. Unworthiness. The belief that you have to figure everything out alone.
What is blocking your trust right now? Get honest with yourself. Name it. And then gently, lovingly, begin to let it go.
Flower essences can be profoundly helpful here — Cerato for trust in your own inner guidance, Mimulus for fear of known things, Aspen for that free-floating anxiety that has no specific cause.
5. Take the leap anyway
Sometimes trust is not a feeling. It is a decision.
I didn't feel certain when I left my job. I felt terrified. But I took the step anyway — because something deeper than fear knew it was right.
And a butterfly flew in through the window.
You don't have to feel certain to act. You just have to be willing. The universe meets willingness with the most extraordinary grace. 💛
WHAT HAPPENS WHEN YOU FINALLY TRUST
Here is what I know from fourteen years of walking this path:
The universe has never once let me down.
Not in the way I expected. Not always in the timeframe I wanted. Not always through the door I was watching. But always — always — in exactly the way I needed.
When I trusted and left my job with no plan — I found my calling.
When I trusted and followed the path of holistic healing — I found myself.
When I trusted and said yes to Findhorn before I knew how — I came back transformed.
Trust is not the absence of fear. It is choosing to move forward anyway — held by the deep knowing that you are supported, guided and loved by a universe that wants nothing more than for you to flourish. 🌟
The universe always provides. The question is never whether it will — only whether you are open to receiving."* 💛
A PRACTICE FOR TRUST
If you are in a place of uncertainty right now — if trust feels impossible and fear feels very loud — try this simple practice:
🌿 Find a quiet moment. Light a candle if you have one. Place your hands on your heart.
💛 Take three slow, deep breaths.
✨ Say out loud or in your heart: "I am willing to trust. I am open to receiving.
I release the need to know how and I surrender to the wisdom of the universe. I am supported. I am guided. I am loved."*
🌿 Then go for a walk. And notice the signs.
They are always there. 💛
READY TO GO DEEPER?
If this blog has resonated with you — if you are in a period of uncertainty and learning to trust your own path — I would love to support you.
The Soul Awakening Starter Kit is a beautiful first step — a 7 day journey of holistic healing tools and practices designed to help you slow down, get quiet and reconnect with your own inner wisdom and guidance. Just £27 — delivered to your
inbox over 7 days.
Or if you feel ready for deeper one to one support, my Reconnect 6 Week Coaching Container holds space for exactly this kind of work — the uncertainty, the transition, the learning to trust yourself and the universe again.
With love,
Lou x
✦ Louisa B. Apothecary — Healing Spaces & Soul Awakening
✦ @louisabapothecary
✦ louisabapothecary.co.uk