A Deeper Look at Discernment and Judgment

One of the primary takeaways I hope you got from my article “Levels of Energy” is that Level One energy has 100% catabolic energy, 100% fear, and total judgment, while Level Seven energy has 100% anabolic energy and no fear or judgment. Catabolic energy is energy that tears down, and Anabolic energy is energy that builds up.

In my article “Discernment and Judgment” I wrote the following eight paragraphs (which are so important they are worth repeating):

What Is Judgment?

Judgment is an opinion or criticism misusing the power of comparing. It is a form of projection and feeds the ego’s deception of being better (or worse) than someone or something else. The person judging makes the assumption that s/he has the power and the right to determine what is good or bad in general. That person has decided that his/her viewpoint is the only one that is correct and is thereby not open to other points of view. When we let go of these judgments it opens us up to greater opportunities and experiences.

A mindset grounded in judgment creates a lot of catabolic energy. Making judgments, consciously or unconsciously, prevents us from taking responsibility for our own life. By making judgments which justify our thoughts, feelings, beliefs, opinions and actions, we fool ourselves into thinking that we are good and right, and that other people are bad and wrong. Judgment is one way of kowtowing to what is socially accepted, hiding our insecurities about fitting in and feeling accepted by others. By living life this way, we are surrendering our power to the fluctuations of the majority opinion rather than being true to ourselves and living with a conscious intention for what we really want to express in our lives.

In reality, whenever I judge someone by thinking or saying, “she is such a bitch”, for example, it is a projection. It is a reflection of my own state of mind, something I don’t like about myself. By judging someone else, what I am really doing is judging myself!

Nothing in the Universe is inherently bad or evil independent of our evaluation. If good and bad were intrinsic qualities and therefore true regardless of human assessment, then those labels would always be present no matter what time or place we were in.

Judgments actually close us off from the very things that cause us pain. They are a protective mechanism that prevents the opportunity to re-examine the original hurt and heal from it. This is because judgments keep us from distinguishing between the reality of what actually occurred in the past and what is really happening right now. They perpetuate the original pain through denial rather than allowing healing by perceiving the current reality. Every time we judge we are looking outside of our self as to what we believe should or shouldn’t be happening as if we don’t have anything to do with the interpretation of what happened then or is happening now.

Our judgments are based upon what we believe should or should not have happened and should or should not be happening now. Usually we have countless justifications for each of our judgments. Our ideas and conclusions undoubtedly seem reasonable and logical, at least to us. Regardless, they are still our constructs. They are conclusions of our own mind. They are the story we tell our self about what we think reality should look like. When we judge someone, we hurt our self as much or more than the person we are judging. Every single time we think (or yell or whatever) a fiery judgment to the world it affects our reality, and usually in a negative way.

Judgments ignore the most obvious truth of all: WE are the creator of our own judgments! We are the ones who are interpreting our own experience. We are not recognizing that the difficulties we are having now are actually all about us and not about someone or something else. The judgments we make are essentially a precursor to the universe as to where our next lesson in this life needs to be.

Judging is damaging for other reasons as well. Other people will sense our negative judgment (maybe not consciously, but definitely subconsciously) and will often respond negatively back to us. Being judgmental often leads to taking actions that waste a lot of time and money. Plus, judgment will always close our hearts to the presence of love!

Boundaries

Loving and accepting those who violate others is not about condoning the behavior or even tolerating it in our own life. There are consequences to this kind of behavior. We can have compassion for those who engage in such behaviors and that does not mean we must keep them in our life. It is imperative for us to set proper boundaries in the face of these kinds of behaviors. We can set boundaries that protect us and our loved ones without making someone else wrong. The moment we judge others, we lower our own vibration and are out of the vibration of love. Judgment itself is the ultimate violation of all spiritual principles. Love, observation, and discernment can coexist, and love and judgment cannot.

In order to deepen our spiritual awareness we need to develop and practice non-judgment. That means to refrain from the impulse to label or judge something. Discernment and observation work from a place of deep neutrality and are not passive. They allow the highest action to come up when needed, and most things that happen don’t need nearly as much action as we often think they do. Most things that occur or are said to us are not really about us, and learning to practice non-judgment is the first step to moving into the place of discernment.

Allowing Judgments to Dissolve

The best way I have learned to dissolve judgments is, when I notice I have a judgment, to contemplate what the highest intention of the person I am judging is. Maybe they are not going about it the way I would, but they are just trying to get their needs met, just like we all are.

If this does not dissolve the judgment, you may need to forgive the other person and/or yourself. As part of my coaching program, I have developed an awesome process to assist my clients in forgiveness. This is a process where you look at many aspects of a given circumstance and come to see the event from a spiritual point of view resulting in immediate release of the judgment(s) and catabolic energies.

Value yourself enough to put your attention on the life you want to create.

If you are interested in what your Average Resonating Level of Energy (see “Levels of Energy”) is and how you can raise it so that you can be more successful in all areas of your life, contact me at 541-400-9940 or at mgm00056@earthlink.net