#2 The Awareness Drop - Brother, what’s that?
What does a popular meme and discernment have in common?
Sometimes I wish I could run a survey to know what phrase or sentence most describes regret.
Is it,
Had I known
The signs were there
Or,
Oh God, I was a fool.
We might never know which one it is, but whatever speaks most to your own regret, we can all agree that the root of regret is the wish that we were able to discern better.
But here is what I have found out about discernment: At the core of lacking discernment is our overactive habit of projecting.
We project onto strangers, our friends and partners, our ideal.
This projection stops us from seeing how things appear and hinders us from having the opportunity to stop, watch, and sharpen our discernment.
A simple tool I have found (or rather, meditation is teaching me) is to wield curiosity before action.
And it is the simple, yet profound, act of pausing.
It is basically asking myself whenever I am in contact with an attraction, something new, or a trigger, brother, what’s that?
🎧 1. What is discernment?
I really love going back to this podcast episode because it discusses and differentiates intuition and discernment at a very basic level. And most times, returning to the basics strengthens our knowledge and practice of a thing.
📚 2 Judgment vs. Discernment
To the untrained mind, judgement = discernment.
To the naive mind, being non-judgemental = lack of discernment.
So, how do we build discernment without being judgemental? This article from Psychology Today does a decent job of explaining how to be both discerning and non-judgemental.
🎥 3. Discernment will save you from bad relationships.
A strand in the root of why we choose people or enter into any kind of relationship that doesn’t serve us is a lack of discernment (remember our projection discussion earlier?). Dr Ramani, an expert on narcissism, shares her perspective on how discernment will save you from narcissistic relationships, or even bad relationships in general.
📝 Quote I found that you should know
I nodded my understanding and he returned to his initial point. “When you know that everything matters—that every move counts as much as any other—you will begin living a life of permanent purpose.
— The Butterfly Effect, Andy Andrews
This is all I have to share this week.
Till next week.
Be and remain aware. 💛✨
If you find any of this interesting, then please consider spreading the word.