Discernment vs. Disconnection: Learning to Trust Yourself Again

Many of us were taught to confuse discernment with judgment, and disconnection with safety.

We were not shown how to tell the difference between intuition and fear, between a true inner “no” and the reflex to withdraw. So when life hurt us, when trust was broken, when love disappointed, when institutions failed, we did not grow wiser. We learned how to leave ourselves quietly.

Disconnection is not numbness.
It is self abandonment practiced as protection.

And it is not the same thing as discernment.

For many people, pulling away felt like the only way to stay intact. Closing down became a form of self preservation. Not because it was ideal, but because it was what was available.

Discernment as a Forgotten Skill

Discernment is not an instinct we automatically know how to use. It is a skill that develops through presence, patience, and relationship with the body.

Yet many of us were shaped by systems that did not encourage inner authority. Obedience was praised more than clarity. Endurance was valued more than truth. Intuition was treated as something unreliable or dangerous.

When honesty cost safety or belonging, disconnection became a strategy. It worked. Until it did not.

Hathor and the Wisdom of Feeling Truth

Hathor reminds us that the body is not a problem to be solved. It is a source of information.

Hathor teaches that pleasure and discomfort are both teachers. Neither is wrong. Both carry truth.

Discernment is not only something we think. It is something we feel. The body contracts or softens long before the mind forms a story. Warmth, heaviness, ease, resistance. These sensations speak honestly when we are willing to listen.

Isis and the Wisdom of Seeing Clearly

Isis does not rush toward answers. She gathers what has been scattered. She notices what others overlook.

Discernment, through her lens, is the ability to see what is present without forcing meaning onto it. It is the patience to observe patterns before naming them. It is knowing that truth reveals itself when we stop demanding certainty.

Isis teaches that clarity does not arrive through suspicion. It arrives through attention.

Mary Magdalene and the Wisdom of Choosing

Mary Magdalene shows us discernment as devotion to truth, even when it costs comfort or approval.

Seeing clearly is not always the hardest part. Choosing in alignment with what we see often is. Discernment does not guarantee ease. It offers integrity.

Magdalene teaches that wisdom is not proven by staying safe. It is proven by staying faithful to what is real.

When Fear Speaks Instead

Fear also has a voice, and it can sound convincing. Especially when we have been hurt.

Fear rushes. Fear pressures. Fear demands resolution.

Discernment is quieter. It does not argue or insist. It waits until the body settles enough to hear it.

Fear contracts the self.
Discernment leaves the self intact.

If an inner voice shames you, rushes you, or makes you feel smaller, it is not wisdom speaking. It is an old strategy asking to be reused.

Returning to Trust

Discernment is not about becoming guarded or closed. It is about becoming honest and staying with yourself.

You are allowed to see clearly.
You are allowed to choose differently.
You are allowed to remain soft and still say no.

Discernment does not separate you from life. It restores your relationship with your own knowing.

And from that place, trust grows. Not because the world becomes safer, but because you are no longer abandoning yourself when it matters most.