How To Take The Reins Of Our Discernment Faculties

We are going to be taking a look at the idea of turning within and living outward through looking at the faculties of discernment that we have. When I look at the faculties of discernment, I think of four of them. I think of the mind, which is the intellect. I think of the heart, which are the feelings. I think of the body, which is often the emotions. I think of the gut, that intuition, that intuitive sense. Those are four faculties that we engage in, that we work with, that we use to help us live our lives in meaningful ways. For many of us, especially those of us living in the United States, there’s been a strong emphasis on the use of the intellect or the mind. A lot of that has to do with a business where there’s a strong focus on using the intellect in business. There’s a real downplay on feelings.

Choosing to follow just the mind isn't always going to serve you in the best way. Click To Tweet

All of these factors, these faculties that we have serve a valuable purpose. Each one of them is not to disregard any of them. It is to invite them all in, work with them and understand that each faculty serves a certain function and purpose. The more we begin to understand what those are for us, the more then we can utilize them and supporting us in our living. It requires us to be able to become aware, to turn within so that we can be an observer of ourselves. The important thing in this whole process as we’re observing ourselves is to make sure that we’re doing it from a space of compassion. That we’re like a silent witness to our own being and watching, no comment but observing like we have no idea what’s going on, we’re observing.

The Mind

When we look at these faculties of engagement, of discerning, the important thing is to pay attention to how they’re serving us when we’re using them. How are we engaging as we use them? How are they supporting us when we use them? What are we experiencing? Are we experiencing what we want to experience when we use this? The mind is a wonderful thing but of all the faculties, the mind is the one that can be used to manipulate. Have you ever been in a situation with someone where you have watched them talk and they’re using words and trying to convince you with words?

As you’re watching them or you’re with them and paying attention, you’re noticing that on one level you’re hearing what they’re saying but, on another level, you’re picking it up something altogether differently. What you’re hearing and what you’re picking up are disconnected. They’re not matching. Within the US, the mind is strongly supported especially in business. We’re challenged to disregard feelings, body sensations or our intuition when any of those are not in alignment with what is being touted within the mind or what is being spoken.

I don’t know about you but I can see it where I can get a thought and ruminate. I can make some stuff up so fast it’s not even funny. I’m like, “How did I get that story out of that?” I can watch my mind go 90 miles an hour because it’s taking the information that has been gathered over the lifetime that I’ve lived. It’s trying to put it all together and trying to give me scenarios usually trying to provide for greater safety. There’s a sense of fear or trying to create safety from potential danger.

It’s making stuff up. I have to pause, sit back and say, “My mind is going 90 miles an hour making stuff up.” There’s a part of me that’s not feeling right about this. There’s something that’s slightly askew within myself about what I’m telling myself or as I’m listening to somebody else and noticing that what they’re telling me and what I’m picking up on another level, they’re not jiving. They’re not connected. Because of the stronger focus within our country on logic, the mental, the intellect, we tend to distrust when there’s that difference.

 

We tend to distrust the emotion, the feeling, the body sensations, the intuition and we go to the mind. Thinking that the mind has it all because the mind can put in nice, neat little boxes. The mind can decipher, the mind can prove like we go and science can prove. I love science and I appreciate the depth at which scientists go to help show the complexities of life and how it all works. There are times that because we don’t have the quality of equipment to assess certain things that scientists don’t have the means to know what often we pick up maybe at an intuitive level.

If we look at science all the time and discount intuition, we’re missing something. It’s not because science is wrong. There’s equipment that it needs that‘s not able to connect with the intuitive flow. It’s the same with the mind and maybe feelings or the body responses. For example, let’s say you’re a young person and you find that you like somebody. Somebody says, “So-and-so likes so and so.” You’re like, “No, I don’t.” Your mind is speaking one thing but your body is turning all shades of red because you’re embarrassed.

Maybe there’s a level of truth to the fact that maybe you do like that person. That’s one way where the intellect operates and we see the mind doing something completely different than what’s being voiced. That’s like, “Maybe I need to pause and see that there’s a disconnect.” She’s saying no or he’s saying no but yet the underlying was body response is red cheeks and turning away. When we’re working with the mind and we’re getting this discrepancy, choosing to follow the mind isn’t always that which is going to be in our best service.

That what’s going to serve us is not going to serve us as well because it’s limited. It is here to serve us, the mind, but oftentimes, it becomes the thing that tells us what we need to do. We rely on it so much that we forget that the mind is not what is in control. When we start to turn within, we develop that practice and we become aware, we begin to acknowledge, understand and experience that there’s something more than the intellect.

The Heart

When I speak of the mind, I should say that we’re talking about the intellect. Oftentimes, you’ll hear people talk about that broader thing as the Mind with a capital “M.” When we’re looking at the power of the intellect, it’s got its value. There are times that I have to sit and assess something. I value my intellect, but my intellect can only take me so far. Then I need to tap into something else. Most of the time for me, it’s my heart. My heart’s the first thing that gets engaged. I’m excited to find out in this process, there’s an organization calledHeartMath.org.

If you go to the HeartMath Institute, you can learn about the research that they’ve been doing over the several decades of the impact of the heart and how it serves who and what we are. They have made significant strides in their studies. One of the things that they have discovered is that more information travels from the heart to the brain than vice versa. More information travels from the heart to serve the mind than from the mind to direct the heart.

This heart, this feeling aura that we have has a value that’s important to pay attention to. It has a stronger electoral magnetic energy that it gives off. It‘s stronger than what the brain gives off. It’s this idea that we’re picking up information on levels that we’re not aware of with our mind, with our intellect or at least that we’re conscious of but that we are experiencing physiologically. We’re experiencing physiologically and emotionally feeling–wise.

You’ll find that the body in itself is working with all these different elements to assist us in understanding and having a broader perspective of what’s happening for us so we can gain and experience it more fully. As important as the intellect is, it has a purpose and it’s not the end all be all. We have feelings. We have body sensations that we talked about when I mentioned something, you watch somebody and you’ll hear them talk about if they like somebody and they don’t want to let people know. They’ll tell a story about that trying to convince you otherwise but then you’ll watch their body and their face gets red and they turn away because they’re getting shy. They don’t want you to know.

We get to own our own journey. It doesn't have to be the same as somebody else's to be truly of value. Click To Tweet

The Intuition

If you’re somebody who studies the body and there’s a gentleman that I’d like to bring on who could talk about that, there are cues that our body gives off that lets us know where we’re at. If the mind can tell a story, we can tell a story with our minds but we can’t necessarily tell that story with our body. It’s important to note that if we have a disconnect that oftentimes the truth lies, not so much in the intellect but in what’s being picked up with the rest of the body. The rest of the body is reading something different, that intuitively we don’t know why.

You could be sitting in a business meeting and intellectually, you’re looking at the paper and it’s like, “This looks good. The numbers look great, the timeline, everything’s a perfect fit.” You’re watching this person and you’re looking. It could be that this person’s a good master of their feelings or whatnot but still there might be something that doesn’t feel right. Intuitively, there’s a gut that you don’t know why but the gut says, “No matter how good this looks, step away.”

Because we have such a strong tug here, at least within the US with the intellect and business, it’s hard to pay attention to our intuitive nature, to our gut level, to that feeling tone that says, “I don’t know why but we need to walk away from this.” The intellects say, “If you walk away from this, you’re going to be losing millions of dollars, even billions of dollars on an opportunity. They’re going to take that to some other company, which is going to be your problem. You’re the one that paid attention to this. You didn’t follow your logic. Who’s going to want to hire another person to do this like you because you failed this time?”

It’s amazing where our mind can take us and where we can go with it. It’s not like we’re on a free trip with the mind. We can play with it ourselves. I want to bring this idea up that when we’re turning within, we’ve got these faculties to help us. Turning within allows us to become more aware of where each of those faculties of discernment might go awry for us. Because I turn within and I listen, I’ve become well aware of where I can tell stories and I can tell when I’m telling myself a story. It’s amazing.

There’s this little person on the back shoulder, on my shelf or way up high watching and it’s like, “Girl, you’re telling yourself a story,” and my mind is going on and trying to convince all kinds of stuff. There’s that part that’s observing and I’m aware. It’s the same thing when I’m aware that all of a sudden emotively, I pick something up. Nothing has been said but I pick it up. I can be aware and acknowledge that. Even what’s happening physiologically. What’s happening with my body? Is my body position closed or open? What’s happening with me? If my arms and legs are crossed and closed, something’s up.

 

What is that telling me about what I’m experiencing in this moment that I need to be aware of so that I can make that decision or take that action that is in best service to me? That doesn’t mean to heck with everybody else. I have to be true first and foremost to myself not at the expense of another human being but with respect to myself. It’s paying attention and then paying attention on an intuitive gut level. All of a sudden, you’re driving down and you need to go left here and you don’t know why but there’s a strong urge.

It’s not like anything. It’s like, “I’m going to check down this road.” You turn down that road and you’re exploring whatever only to hear as you get home, there was an issue on the road. There was a water main break or whatever and you would have been stuck there for 40 extra minutes. There are a lot of different gifts that we receive when we begin to turn within, pay attention, explore and understand our own nature and how it is that we work with our mind, intellect, feelings from the heart, body and intuition.

There is so much for us there. As we begin to give ourselves permission to play with them, we’re going to be experiencing guidance that is rich, full and aware of more. There is much out there that is waiting for us to discover it. In order to discover it, we have to be willing to open up to that idea. Now what’s marvelous about it is that we can open it up to the degree and at the speed that we are comfortable. As a child, I’m used to playing in the shallow end of a pool. It’s not asking me to jump into the deep end and then not be able to swim. That’s not what learning, exploring and discovering this is about.

Always be true first and foremost to yourself and not at the expense of another human being. Click To Tweet

This is about learning and being in the shallow end, dog paddling and figuring what it feels like to play, jump up and down in the water and get to know it a little more. We all get to learn this and experience it at the degree and the level that we feel comfortable doing. It’s unique for each one of us. That is the power and the gift that we get when we turn within. We get to own our own journey. It doesn’t have to be the same as somebody else’s. It could be a value or theirs could be a value.

As we turn within, we play with that and we get to know the discernment faculties we have and how we can work with them, life becomes richer so that we’re stepping out in the world and things feel awkward or there’s a lot of change and we’re not quite sure. We feel unsteady. That gift, that practice of turning within, exploring, working and getting to know ourselves more fully becomes a wonderful lifeline to help us as we step and engage in this ever-changing arena.

We get to experience more of the magnificence of who we are. For those of you who have a difficult time with that word magnificence, that’s okay, put another word in there. It doesn’t have to be as big as magnificent. It could be as nice as we are or as beautiful, whatever word works for you. It’s always okay for us to take it to the degree that we are able to take it. I want to thank you for being with me and letting me share with you this idea.

 

I would love to get your feedback. I would love to find out what you think about these ideas. Maybe you have similar ones. Maybe you want to add some thoughts. That’s wonderful because it brings a broader dynamic that allows us to see how cool humanity is, how awesome we are in our diversity. That’s the thing, in our diversity it is cool and how it’s possible for us to be diverse and to live well together. Until we connect again, my hat’s off to you, have a great day and here’s to you.

Important Links:

• HeartMath.org