So, I have a situation. I have a good friend, who is spiritually minded and I am skeptically minded

He sends me videos and despite there being all kindness and goodwill messages, I listen and my guard is up.

I come from a religious background and I feel like I have seen my share of those who say one thing and appear as one thing and are infact mistaken, misleading or worse, wolves in sheep's clothing. I have been stung before.

My friend says he gets dsyregulated by my lack of trust and has to go away and centre himself. He accepts things with an open and trusting heart. I guess, I believe there should be middle ground. But it's difficult. I feel like I am raining of his parade, a thorn in his side sometimes.

He says I trust no one and I wonder, how do you know if you trust someone? I theoretically believe I trust people or trust some people to an extent, how can you know without testing it? What is too guarded and too trusting look like? I feel like I listen to everyone and their views with an open but critical mind.

I feel like my friend and I have conflicting gut feelings about things. I am critical and often am the voice of dissent but I hate being that and I don't like how it affects our friendship but at the same time I can't pretend to have different views .