The Super Power of Sorting

How this understated power is amazingly helpful.

I remember my therapist pausing during one session; she leaned in and said in a calm, paced voice, “There is a difference between judgment and discernment.” I will skip the three years of therapy that followed and jump to the insight that did emerge. It is okay to judge things.

You can judge your microwave or that new pair of shoes you bought. These are objects, and no harm or hurt feels results if you judge them. However, what most people want to do is discern if there is a better option, and this is when judgment (the binary view) is clunky.

You see, determining if something is better than another thing is discernment. It isn’t binary. I know I know, I am mincing words, but…I’m not.

Think of discernment as the untangling of your thoughts. Therapy, well, my therapy, helped me untangle a lot of my thoughts. My mind was like a basement stuffed with lots of useless junk that had been saved out of fear, habit, and hope. Picture the opening montage of an episode of Hoarders — that was my brain.

The Superpower of Sorting

My overwhelmed state pulled me to shows like Tidying Up, where Marie Kondo would explain that it is okay to let go of the things that don’t spark joy. This was the permission I needed to start discerning what to keep and what to set free.

When we think about diabetes care and how healthcare professionals can help our clients, the superpower of discernment is needed because there are a lot of broken, ineffective, and disappointing approaches to diabetes care. As healthcare professionals, we must break the habit of holding on to the things that don’t help our clients ‘Spark Joy.” These things include judging them, their diabetes, and their thoughts.

When we judge people, it hurts. It is the type of hurt that keeps hurting.

Shifting to helping our clients discern what might work for them starts the sorting process, which evokes changes and creates partnership! Curious how you might do this? Here are some upcoming professional programs to get you started.

• Why Weight Loss Doesn’t Cure Diabetes: Understanding how weight inclusivity helps clients with or at risk of diabetes. Putting weight loss in its limited place with this deep dive into diabetes and what actually works. How can you use weight inclusivity to help your patient or client with DM II? What is weight inclusivity anyway? And how can I be a compassionate and inclusive practitioner? This provides 1.25 CPE for healthcare professionals. Cost $23.00

• How to Untangle Weight-centric Diabetes Care

  This recorded program provides 1 CPE for Healthcare professionals. Cost $24.99