Mastering Personal Discernment: A Path to Authenticity
Let’s talk about discernment, and more specifically, discernment in your personal life. How do you discern what is right for you? What is true for you? Where is the line between trust and naivety? Between navigating your life through a lens of hope instead of fear?
The definition of Personal Discernment, as it is being discussed in the context of this post:
Personal Discernment is by definition subjective, it is the comprehension of truth as it aligns with your uniquely personal perspective and authentic self. Discerning something ‘correctly’ is discerning the most right answer for your subjective and authentic path -discerning a truth removed from the layers of fear, uncertainty, and programming that distorts our perception and path.
I want to first validate these questions by expressing that the lines are often blurred, and that sometimes you won’t truly know which side of the line you are on until you are already past it and seeing it through the clarity of hindsight. Sometimes the challenge and the lesson is in the uncertainty. It’s the blind extension into the unknown, grasping for details and possibilities to create a picture that will dissolve the uncertainty into clarity. In that blind searching, that grasp of uncertainty, you are able to connect with these ‘haphazard’ details, mistakes, and potential truths, so that when all of these pieces come together and the truth of the outcome - the discernment - comes into fruition, you can see the bigger picture of it all. You can see because of some of the mistakes why it was the ‘better’ path, or you better understand the why because of the questions you asked from a place of uncertainty. In this way, I want to validate the mirage around discernment, and help you understand that if you are unsure about the clarity or the validity of what you have discerned, that you are still doing it exactly right.
But I also understand that depending on the topic at hand, or the state of your wellbeing, sometimes it’s more important to be sure of the quality of your discernment. I find this to be particularly true when the state of uncertainty around your discernment is so extreme that you are forced into stagnancy - unable to reach into the unknown to grasp for potential truths, mistakes, or validations - frozen by fear or insecurity.
So here is my perspective on the most important steps for fine tuning your personal discernment; and what I mean by that is honing your discernment in a way that you can trust more deeply and also guides you to your best possible outcome.
Note: For this approach, it’s imperative that it is centered around personal discernment as defined above. So it’s important to frame the point of discernment in a way that is focused on you. For example, instead of approaching this technique from the vantage point of ‘I discerned that ___ person is lying to me’ focus it as ‘I will be happier without connecting to ___ person.’ Perhaps you’ve discerned a couple of possibilities/timelines, but you can’t quite settle on which is 'true'. Don’t worry, as long as you center the options on your own experience/action, then the steps below will account for that.
Step 1: Authenticity.
Now I might be a little biased, because I believe that uncovering your authenticity is the most important thing you can do in life, in general. I believe that when you are connected to your authentic self, you will be naturally in tune with your unique frequency and naturally connect with experiences, outcomes, and feelings that are also in resonance with your authentic self - it becomes almost effortless and obvious to discern your ‘best’ answer, your ‘highest’ truth. But that also requires having a concept around what your authentic truth even is, and uncovering your authenticity under all of the layers of programming and masks and confusion can be a multi-lifelong process. So don’t fret, you don’t have to have a perfect picture of your authentic self to accomplish this first step. Instead, I want you to get in the habit of asking yourself this question “does XYZ resonate with joy, inspiration, and peace for me?” Why those three emotions you may say? Well in my work with The Akashic Records and my Spirit Team, I’ve been re-learning the inner mechanisms of the soul, and where the core ‘cells’ of your soul exist (your most original and authentic petals of existence), there are three significant energetic pathways that begin branching out from that core - and they can be simplified into the energies of joy, inspiration, and peace. So if when you ask yourself this question “Does XYZ resonate with joy, inspiration, and peace for me?” If it does, then it’s a pretty sure bet that that that thing you are discerning is at least connected to that foundation of authenticity, and if it is connecting you to your authenticity, then you can be fairly confident that it is at least relatively connected to your highest and greatest good, and also connected to your authentic truth.
Step 2: Depth of Feeling
Now that you’ve determined that XYZ you discerned resonates with joy, inspiration, and peace, it’s time to really feel it. This is also the time where you can start narrowing things down. Maybe you’ve discerned a couple of possibilities, and maybe they both resonate with joy, inspiration and peace; but you really want to figure out which one is the ‘best’ option for you, which one will direct you the most closely to your authentic truth. To do that, I recommend connecting mindfully with how much joy, inspiration, and peace you feel when thinking about your discerned possibilities. Connect to the depth of it. This may take a bit of time or meditation when first exploring this technique, but eventually you’ll find it easier to understand (and easier to connect to your authentic self). It’s important to ensure you are shifting your consciousness into your heart space, and allowing yourself to contemplate the original question and answer in that dimensional portal of feeling and connection. It will feel like a pulse, and you can gauge that pulse for its depth and range. Does it settle and thrum like a gentle pitter patter, does it radiate out through all that you are like a shockwave? Somewhere in between? Does it cause a subtle smile, or move you to tears? Exploring the depth of the resonance for you will not only help you narrow down your choices or clarify a truth, but it also builds on that foundation of trust and confidence in what you have discerned so that you can move forward with it and not be bound by the stagnation of fear.
Step 3: Time
Finally, if there are still some remnants of doubt or fear, I find that it is helpful to consider XYZ and the quality and depth of joy, inspiration, and peace, in the context of time. After all, while our soul may exist outside of the parameters of time, our physical bodies and minds are still connected to time. Depending on the topic of XYZ being discerned, the way in which you go about this last approach may vary. But the general idea is to connect with the idea of XYZ being true across time. Does the quality and depth of joy, inspiration, and peace maintain over time (as far as you can fathom in your current reality)? Does it still feel ‘good’ and ‘right’ a week from now? A month from now? Five years from now? Twenty years from now? Keep this conscious consideration in the heart space - or if you wanna get advanced, move it to the perineum energy portal where your original cells (and your core authenticity) are energetically encoded. You don’t want to overthink it too much with a hundred different possibilities, but simply present yourself the idea of XYZ being true in ___ amount of time, and feel it. Do you get inspired by the possibilities? Do you have a spark of joy from the gratitude of it still being true? Do you feel at peace with the truth across the span of time and potential changes? You should feel grounded and secure in the truth of it - not just to serve the satisfaction of this current moment, but across the changes inherent to time. Because if XYZ is true for your authentic self, then it will be true and right for you across all space and time.
Bonus Step: Fuck it, Sovereignly.
When all else fails, and you’ve gone through the above three steps with a thoughtful and genuine approach, but you are still unsure, ask yourself: “will pursuing the answer I have discerned actively and detrimentally cause harm to myself or someone else?” If the answer is no, then sometimes a healthy dose of ‘fuck it’ energy goes a long way in releasing stagnation and simply being open to the flow of possibilities. Sometimes the ‘best’ or ‘most right’ answer, is to simply explore.
In truth, sometimes trust can require a little naivety, and sometimes hope can be scary. It’s okay for those lines to be a little blurred, and to feel a little bit of all of them. The important thing is to connect with that feeling in a way that allows you to move in the direction of your choosing, and in a way that will serve to significantly promote your authenticity and wellbeing. Trust and Truth are complex and ever-changing things, and they will mean something different to everyone. But using these steps can help you connect with your inner trust and truth in a deeper way through the navigation of your personal discernment.