Trust: a topic I’m sure everyone has heard much about. However, how many of us truly understand its importance? Arguably, it is the most relevant part in any type of friendship. Every person is different in terms of how forgiving they are. This can often be a good indicator of whether you have broken their trust or not. From experience, more forgiving people will give you time to amend what was broken. Those who are less lenient will hold you accountable for your actions if they feel necessary. The approach of broken trust is unique to each person. On that note, it is a wise idea to analyze decisions that risk any type of friendship. Making private matters public, sharing only one side of a story, controlling other people’s behavior, and putting others down can all lead to breaking someone’s trust. In addition to that, accepting someone back after they have lost your trust is difficult. No matter how many times they apologize or try to justify their actions, fully forgiving them takes a very long time, especially when they do not try to change the behaviors that caused trust to be lost in the first place. Nonetheless, understanding a person’s boundaries and morals can help in maintaining trust. Another very important factor is communication. If you feel there is an issue, resolving it vocally may be the most effective. However, this does not include texting. When communicating online, the tone, mood of a person, and their expression is lost. This leads to lots of misunderstandings and frustration between people. To prevent this, try talking the situation over in person. That way, the people involved can see what the other person is feeling and hear how they speak. Furthermore, it is essential to understand that no response is a response. When someone has lost trust in another, it is not uncommon for them to end communication. Not all ends of communication are due to this. But when this does occur, if the person who has broken trust does not know already, they may not find out all the reasons why the interactions have stopped. From this, a person can learn to reflect on their actions and figure out what could have contributed to this loss of contact. Trust is a brittle trait and can be fragmented in many ways. Once broken, regaining it can be one of the hardest things to get back.
