I've been doing a lot of thinking around the nature of trust. I received the highly beneficial advice to think over who the most trustworthy people actually are, in my life. A diagram that looks like a bullseye was drawn, and I was invited to fill in actual names of people I know - where do they belong within the rings of the bullseye? The people in the middle are the most trustworthy, and the outermost rings are where the least trustworthy names go.
It was difficult to decide who's name belonged in which ring of the bullseye. So I assigned numbers to the rings of the bullseye. 1 was in the middle, 9 was right outside the bullseye. I then made a list of all the people I knew. I assigned them all numbers, then thought over the numbers, occasionally changing a number a little more or less.
When I was finished, I described the meaning of all the numbers, 1 through 9. This labeling made the most sense to me, to give more meaning to these numbers. Here they are:
1. Deep trust. Someone who totally accepts you as you are.
2. Someone who wouldn't betray you, has affinity with you, but you can't say they totally accept you as you are. They'd like to see you change.
3. A friend with a solid character, but affinity? Maybe.
4. A "fair-weather friend".
5. Any random stranger on the street. No positive or negative to speak of; still undefined and mysterious. No basis of judgement yet.
6. Negativity starts here, but it's very subtle and insidious; well hidden. Psychological predation and deception begins here. Plays mind games. Wants to come out looking better than you. Is certainly a "frenemy" or perhaps even worse, wants to turn you into a "flying monkey". A 6 has the mind of a perfect salesman or ambassador. Uses a lot of paltering; deceptive framing of everything. Plays on emotions a lot, seldom facts, unless they fit a narrative.
7. Corrupt. Has a mind of a racketeer.
8. Sketchy. Criminality begins here.
9. Predator. DANGEROUS
#friendship #psychology #spirituality #trust #SelfCare
