Breathing At A Higher Elevation

Trekking from judgment to discernment

The journey from judgment to discernment requires the same things I imagine climbing a mountain does…

I cannot imagine ever actually climbing a mountain, but I can imagine climbing a mountain you need to be able to take very long and deep breaths, train your system in advance to harvest nourishment from seemingly lacking conditions, and a sustainable conscious inhabitation of your body, detaching from thoughts, riding on intuition and spaciousness.

Judgment is the ability to make considered decisions or come to sensible conclusions.

My definition of judgment is using your mind to pick whether your answer is yes or no towards something or someone (including, but not limited to, aspects of yourself).

Discernment is the ability to judge well.

The word well has many many definitions such as: in a good or satisfactory way; so as to have a fortunate outcome; with equanimity; in a condition of prosperity or comfort; in a thorough manner; very probably, in all likelihood; without difficulty; sensible, advisable; and in good health, free, or recovered from illness.

My definition of discernment is using your mind to observe the response of your body to any given stimulation and in conscious awareness follow that intuitive yes or no.

The satisfactory way to judge, the fortunate outcome, a state of prosperity and comfort, advisable, these are all subjective ideas but I would like to suggest that when we play them off the accompanying ideas — of equanimity, without difficulty, and in good health or freedom — following a sense of spaciousness in the mind and body makes a lot of sense both verbally and nonverbally.

To judge thoroughly, in my opinion, would be to examine both the yes and no (as representatives of both options in any equation) and realize there is only a momentary difference in value defined by your physical openness towards or another, and to remember that your bodies responses are shifting moment to moment.

And energy never lies, but words do.

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