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.

What’s the Difference?

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.

Long and Deep Breaths

Judgment feels, to me, like a squeezing in my brain, like I am trying to figure everything out and feel in control. Judgment mirrors an overall constriction in my system. The constriction may be very subtle or completely overt — a small clenched reflex or a total room altering gasp.

Either way, subtle or overt, what matters is that it moves. There is no room for the freeze in my system to last unless my unconscious has some intention to sabotage my intended or projected direction.

Long and deep breathing is an act of circulation. Circulation is required to keep my system open and available to whatever task is ahead — be it a colossal snow-covered mountain, or everyday triggering challenges.

I am habitually inclined to judge based on decades of conditioning in a world that has massively valued the intellect over bodily wisdom. I must continuously elevate my relationship with thought through the lightness of my breath as it stretches into the far reaches of my lungs and diaphragm — pumping away any possibility of a wall around my heart.

Long and deep breaths are the most accessible training method I have for operating in a reality of spaciousness where judgment has clear passage to elevate into discernment.

Train Your System

Train your system in advance to harvest nourishment from seemingly lacking conditions such as taking long and deep breaths so you get the maximum amount of oxygen when the air becomes thin and carries less of that essential element for life.

Similarly, we can strengthen our ability to keep our system (mind-body-soul as a dynamic vessel for navigating and directing the charge of emotions) open rather than shut down. This, to me, is very necessary is the adventure of judging so thoroughly we end up in the vastness and relief of discernment where we are not thinking our way through, but riding the waves of deep listening.

Yes! Life is going to bombard you with a rather continuous onslaught of triggers that invite you into judgment as your nervous system reacts and you tend to disassociate from the body that houses all previous stress that hasn’t been allowed release.

(It is customary in our culture to live a high-stress life and carry a lot of stress in your body, right?)

You can expect the regular barrage of triggers like you expect the air to get thin as you climb a mountain. Trying to control that leads you again and again into the brain squeeze of judgment — thinking your way through and forgetting to listen to the simple wisdom available in any truly present moment.

You will know a truly present moment when you’re in it because you will be alive in a sense of playfulness with life. Cultivating a relationship with that playfulness will expand your likelihood of successful elevation from judgment to discernment and will give you the tools and energy necessary to sustainably access discernment even when push comes to shove.

Embodiment

When energy gets stuck in the body because we accidentally (or on purpose) shut down in the face of stress and challenge, (probably because our system was already stuffed to the brim with stress and challenge), and we don’t consciously choose to ground, center, and discharge that stress, it disturbs or halts the fluid flow of energy through the system, which ends up looking like a major short circuit in our operating capacity.

I would like to suggest that judgment instead of discernment is a top creator of stuckness.

We escape the body into the head to judge.

We escape our ever-present inner security trying to manipulate outer security. We don’t usually end up feeling much enduring-access to any of those elevated states of wellness — a balanced relaxed mind, prosperity, freedom, comfort…

We have a tendency to fake ourselves out about what comfortable means through our history of habits that help to disassociate us from discomfort. We neglect that comfortable really means to be able to truly inhabit the body.

Sustainable conscious inhabitation of your body, detaching from thoughts, observing thoughts and feelings and following the spaciousness, respecting the body’s yeses and nos…

This is the relief of discernment rather than judgment.

It’s Your Choice

As much as you have definitely been programmed by your life thus far to have think and judge in certain ways, enacting certain patterns… you do have the freedom to navigate consciously in elevating your relationship with judgment to intimacy with discernment.

Take lots of long and deep breaths.

Prepare yourself in an everyday way for the inevitable challenges by playing with your awareness of judgment in your mind and in your body.

Listen to the body’s yes or no and stay present with the ever shifting variety of yeses and nos that can be observed in the body by the mind and used to consciously navigate the most spacious path.

Enjoy!