Category: Discernment

Discernment helps grow us and protect mental health that’s so needed in our world. I learned about discernment in a confusing time in my life when I didn’t feel aligned.

Early adult years, I was living out my old life daily with old ways I had learned. I was also blending in a newer life with a new group of mature adult friends I could bond and confide with.

…And you can probably relate with the different sets of circles you hang out in.

But unlike feeling well-rounded, I felt like I was living two separate lives at the same time during those seasons… because I had to leave the old ways that I shared with my former friends to move closer to the new ones.

Gossiping wasn’t a part of this new way that I had grown up around.

And the transition put me at odds for fitting in either groups. That’s how it can be when you’re not quite ready to leave an old identity and adopt a new personal growth one in front of you.

I had many brewing questions…

Discernment was an area of spiritual growth that kept coming up and I was curious about.

…So delving deeper, I soon discovered discernment and wisdom came from the same place that I was missing back then.

Wisdom was another area I was hoping to develop more of… wisdom is getting higher insight than what’s in daily headlines.

Leaning into the miracles and blessings of this world and Godly teachings grows us closer to our spirit.

And you can choose a different choice or path in life than the one you started in. That was my story as I started out with no religion in my life… but the journey of life showed me a spiritual path.

Wisdom vs. Smart Moves

Choosing another path led me to more wisdom. I started out doing the smart things I was influenced to do like get good grades, go to college, and start a career.

Looking back, I also remember when “work smarter, not harder” was a catchy phrase I grew up to in simpler times. But cutting corners isn’t wise. And years later, the cultural zeitgeist went back to hard work as good work, and good for realizing longterm dreams.

…That’s wisdom.

So from then, I separated the two: smart vs. wisdom. You need both for a great life you won’t regret and where you don’t wish you did most of it differently.

Misery is a choice and some sadly make.. But these days we have so many better choices available.

Using personal discernment and wisdom helps achieve those better desires, while smart is practical and gets the right things done.

With smarts, you use your daily thinking skills, while discernment uses your heart, gut, and spiritual mind.

If it’s easier to picture, you can think of being smart as using your frontal and left part of your brain and wisdom on the right side where your intuition is.

…Growing wisdom is one personal growth area that helps you with your better life outcomes you won’t regret. It’s an area that most of us aren’t developed in. But something you can develop (like a skill) and get better at when you use the deeper mind muscle.

The more strengthening discernment exercises you do in your daily life, the stronger the wisdom muscle becomes. This article is about how to exercise and practice better discernment in your daily life (that can be a good life skill tool you can have at your hip!).

Cultivating Discernment

Because remember with improved discernment, you get better at making wise decisions for yourself in your unique life.

Find quiet time and practice discernment.

And discernment is quiet like the wind. You look for it in your quiet moments, feelings, and thoughts. It’s not in your face.

When making a decision when you’re busy or distracted, listening to a noisier source like culture influences can be the deciding factor. Screaming headlines and popular trends are hard to miss while internal-gut feelings are easy to miss.

Practice discernment by thinking what’s a wise, longterm choice for forks in the road. And sleep on ideas or decisions you get to make. Find quiet time balance like you had when we were all in quarantine.

Let discernment be as natural for you as scrolling social media.

One effective way to grow discernment is to remove the blocks.

Discernment can be at odds with smart, popular cultural opinions and trends that often block out the whispering and opposing wise thoughts.

Popular culture doesn’t often reward wisdom that’s countercultural especially in younger cultures.

I know when I was younger and very easily influenced, I would listen to what everyone was doing first before listening to my own internal guide.

I thought: if everyone is doing it, how could it be wrong? But over years, I learned that was the wrong belief.

And yes, everyone (groupthink) can be wrong so it’s good to use your own judgment and developed discernment.

And that can be for any area in your unique life. If you live out your one-of-a-kind, good, and authentic ways without giving up, you will succeed in your life that you’re the star in. 🌟

Grow patience.

Another common block stems from wisdom-discernment being slow to show rewards. Being individually thoughtful is part of discernment which creates uncertainty because you’re not sure on your own.

It’s like making a long-term investment that you let sit on the sidelines versus making quick buys and sells for short wins. Then years later you see the abundance of fruit from your earlier decisions you were then-unsure about.

Those that take action and wait, win. They don’t miss out.

Waiting is part of the process for anything great. Slow cooking makes for a great stew over microwaving soups.

And yet in modern culture nobody wants to wait in areas where they’re eager to move forward in if they don’ have to. With more practice and confidence in your discernment skills, you can also get better with patience that helps your daily joyful temperament.

Invite in good thoughts.

Good discernment comes from wittling through your thoughts and only letting the good ones pass through. Reject the trashworthy thoughts after you figure out if they have any useful message for you. Sometimes that takes just a split-second decision.

Like a self-pity woes-me thought. You can just put those away.

Every day you have thoughts that enter that you have no control over. And you can decide what you do with them so they don’t decide for you.

You have complete control over rejecting thoughts. You can simply walk away in self-awareness. Or self-talk back saying, “I reject this thought.”

You can rewrite the thought narrative ending and your entire day! You can heal yourself in the moment if it was a hurtful memory.

And if unsure on a thought, you can sit on it to see how you feel later about it. You don’t have to do anything with them as they go nowhere unless you take action or have a reaction.

Write off thoughts (from your ego)

And for those ego thoughts that don’t serve you or others, you can write those off. You’re best to catch those often and not waste any more time than it takes to discern that those thoughts are not helping you.

They provide zero benefit to your life. And can add to the fear and irrational actions. And that further pushes your Fear buttons (aka false evidence appearing real).

If they’re truthfully there to serve as a warning, you will get more clues in your life. It won’t just be one thought that keeps pestering and doesn’t go away. You’ll see and hear it from various sources that build up the facts. Be like a jury trying to determine fact from fiction.

And sometimes warning thoughts are helpful. That’s where discernment comes in handy. You can decide for yourself if they are meant for you for a reason you can’t yet decipher.

…Sometimes out-of-the-blue you may get thoughts that are good reminders or new ideas that you can credit the Universe for in trying to help you.

What you let impact you, you also have degrees of control over. An example of this is what you let into your mind from what you watch on media.

You can flip the channel or walk away. You always have a choice in the matter. And there’s always headphones for noise barriers.

This can help you find your quiet time and mind peace as we enter a season of peace, Lenten peace, and Easter around the corner. 🐇

Enjoy this sour cherry bun recipe you can easily make into Hot Cross Buns.

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