You Have a Superpower and Don't Even Know It!

What is discernment? Why is it so important? How is it tied to inclusion? When would it help people with diabetes? This article will answer these questions so you can embrace having a superpower!

While I am not Wonder Woman, I do have a superpower. You likely have this same power, but because you don’t see it as ‘Super,’ you don’t know it is there. Many of us have unwittingly become Dorothy in The Wizard of Oz, and we have to be chased by flying monkeys and expose Oz as a fraud before someone tells us, “You’ve had this ability all along.” In the case of Dorothy, Glenda had her own agenda and intentionally saved that piece of information until the end. I am not Glenda, so that I will spill the beans.

The power is the ability to sort. Why is sorting a superpower? In our information-overloaded world, the ability to sort information effectively makes you special. That is right; if you can effectively sort information, you will rock your job, profession, and even your personal life! This is because sorting is a fundamental skill I wrote about in a previous post titled Sorting’s Secret. Sorting allows you to do something no computer or AI-powered bot can do — effectively discern.

What is Discernment, and Why is it important?

Discernment is the untangling of thoughts that often requires some ranking; good, better, or best. Many clients are surprised that adding in the third option creates a world of opportunities. All of a sudden, there are multiple choices where before there were only two.

I find it funny how my mind defaults to the binary because I don’t see myself as a black-or-white thinker. Yet, here it is, my knee-jerk reaction of engaging in a simple sort of keep or toss, good or bad, right or wrong. Sorting in this way is familiar, which creates its own binary force.

Before we get too far, let’s unpack the concept of familiarity a bit more. First, familiarity is a somatic experience that you feel in your body. When something feels familiar, a seductive mental narrative is created that might sound like, “Oh, this is familiar; I know what to do or expect.” For individuals who are trained at spotting problems, they might say, “Oh, this is a familiar problem.” Either way, your comfort with the situation becomes what is sorted, not the issue itself.

Why is Discernment Important?

So much of our world is presented in the binary of black and white, and it simply isn’t accurate, but it is familiar. Discernment requires us to leave our binary, right and wrong, view of the world and enter into a more nuanced understanding of a situation. This sets up the conflict, having something that is easy, familiar, and wrong or having something that is unfamiliar, slightly more difficult, but helps you find a solution that works for you.

There are many familiar habits that work against using sorting to discern what is the best choice for you. The first is making a choice is a mentally taxing thing to do. Second, when clients assume that there is a right and wrong choice creates both expectations of “I have to get this right” and the fear of “What if I make the wrong choice?”.

Framing our sessions to focus on making good, better, or best choices instead of being perfect helps clients move out of the status quo. Holding in our minds that people with diabetes are making 180-300 daily choices, the mental energy that this requires helps.

Let’s apply this concept to diabetes care. Your client comes to a session feeling like they should stop eating carbs, fat, sodium, and sugar. When asked, “How’s it going?” The typical response is, “It’s exhausting!”

Weight-centric training assumes that a client is ‘doing it wrong’ or that ‘there is a better way.’ The initial step towards a more inclusive approach is learning to pause and ask questions during any training. Why am I assuming the client is wrong? Why am I not coming alongside my clients?

Inclusive care training believes that the client needs to feel four experiences for them to engage in sustainable, wholesome self-care. The felt sense of belonging, ease, feeling seen and heard and finally, nonjudgment. When we can foster these experiences, our clients can access their knowledge and wisdom to discern the best option for them. Learn more about the IDC membership program, where inclusive professionals like you can get personalized training, professional coaching, and support.