Alignment Is Our Natural State
What does it mean to live in alignment? And how does living in alignment affect our life experiences and state of being?
Honestly, one of the biggest realizations I’ve had in my adult life so far has been the all-encompassing role alignment plays in our lives.
If it’s our desire to feel the highest feelings imaginable, grow in our understanding, intellect, and consciousness, and experience the things we wish to experience, we must admit none of these things can be fully attained without us being in alignment.
Simply put, being in alignment affects every aspect of our lives, from our overall well-being, to our manifesting and attracting power, to experiencing the best life has to offer.
Since this is such an important topic, and one that most of us wrestle with on a daily basis (usually unconsciously), I thought it’d be helpful for me to do an overview of what I mean when I speak of alignment.
Since there’s plenty to cover, I’ll be breaking this topic up into 3 parts.
This first part will cover what’s meant by the term ‘alignment’ as well as how we can determine whether we are in alignment or not.
To me, alignment is synonymous with connection; connection with ourselves, the world around us, and with our higher Source.
When we feel connected and in alignment, our lives feel like an enjoyable journey that we experience with a sense of ease, trust, and flow.
When we are in alignment, we watch as our heart's desires manifest in the physical, allowing us to experience the utmost freedom, joy, peace, abundance, and love in each moment.
At its most basic level, being in alignment is a state of being. One that, with enough self-awareness and intention, we can achieve at any time.
Not only that, but our natural state is to be in alignment. No matter what others may have taught us, life is not meant to be a struggle, competition, or battle.
Just as nature has a way of working in balance and harmony, our natural tendency is toward cultivating balance and harmony within ourselves and our lives.
When we do so, we align our energy with that of nature and the universe at large.
One of my favorite Law of Attraction teachers, Abraham Hicks, uses the analogy of life being like a stream or river. I'll share it here in order to help us grasp this concept of alignment further.
Imagine life as a stream... when we’re in alignment we’re working with life by going with it’s natural flow downstream. We move with ease, patience, faith, and trust, allowing the journey to unfold. We see ourselves as willing participants and co-creators.
When we’re out of alignment, we aren’t trusting the process or journey, so we fight for some sense of control. In this analogy, it feels like we’re going against the current, against life. We’re struggling to swim upstream which, in itself, is tiring, requires a ton of effort, and also creates unnecessary resistance.
Getting back into alignment, then, would essentially require us to turn around or switch our focus from upstream to downstream, by use of our thoughts and attention.
Just to make sure we understand how to recognize when we’re moving upstream or downstream, let’s make some more quick comparisons.
I would say alignment is the difference between:
thinking empowering vs. limiting thoughts
holding beneficial vs. detrimental beliefs
having positive vs. negative feelings
having faith vs. doubt in ourselves and in life
seeing ourselves as creators vs. victims of our circumstances
living with clarity, intention, and purpose vs. living in uncertainty and purposelessness
feeling connected vs. disconnected with our true selves, others, and a higher power
finding ourselves flowing vs. resisting life experiences
trusting vs. distrusting life or ourselves
acting out of love vs. fear
allowing the process to unfold vs. trying to make shit happen (ease vs. effort or inspiration vs. motivation)
being in balance in mind and body (aligning our head with our heart) vs. treating the mind and body as separate entities or caring for one and not the other
perceiving life through truth vs. illusion
having high, cohesive energy vs. low, split energy
feeling expansive and unlimited vs. trapped and limited in life
focusing on abundance vs. lack
Now I know that’s quite a list but I’m hoping you can sense what the overall notion of being in alignment is all about.
If I were to sum it all up into one sentence, being in alignment is the difference between feeling good vs. feeling bad.
In this way, our emotions are a huge gift in that they quickly show us where we’re at, where our focus is and what kind of energy we’re holding and emanating.
And while we’re meant to have an array of emotions as humans (including those we deem negative) it makes sense that we can’t feel absolutely fantastic all the time.
Still, the real question is, can we feel good the majority of the time? I think so.
You see, as we work to create more alignment in just one aspect of our lives - usually the one that distresses us the most - the other areas benefit and transform as well.
The critical piece here is to see alignment as a spectrum - one that the majority of us tend to wobble back and forth on, moment by moment.
I can clearly see this back and forth when I consider how often I’ve jumped from feeling a sense of ease and joy to stress and worry, even within a couple minutes of each other!
The fact is most of us wobble between having positive thoughts and feelings and negative ones, or different levels of feeling connected or disconnected, throughout the day.
Being in alignment means steadying this wobble in the direction of feeling good and connected more consistently.
Since sticking to one side of the alignment spectrum can be challenging, we have to first learn to be aware of ourselves and recognize where we sit on the spectrum.
This is where self-awareness plays such a crucial role, since we must first be practiced in noticing our limiting thoughts, feelings, beliefs, and behaviors before we can go about changing them.
While meditation and mindfulness are my favorite methods for cultivating greater self-awareness, other activities such as journaling or reflecting on your day before bed are also very effective.
Doing quick check-ins with myself throughout the day also helps me determine what side of the spectrum I’m on in any given moment, and to adjust accordingly.
But even if I don’t manage to change how I’m feeling or perceiving things in the moment, by paying more attention to my thoughts and feelings on a deeper level I give myself a better chance for improvement the next time the opportunity arises.
Which brings me to my last point - being in alignment is a practice and an art! We can only continue to learn and get better at it.
You’ll be quick to notice, though, how being in alignment is the only way for us to feel truly empowered, as it’s what allows us to feel more in tune with ourselves and the universe.
When our behaviors match our intentions, when our actions are equal to our thoughts, when our minds and bodies are working together, when our words and our deeds are aligned... there is an immense power behind any individual.
Dr. Joe Dispenza
I hope this has been a helpful reminder of what being in alignment is all about!
To read up on the common pitfalls that pull us out of alignment as well as various methods and tools that can help us recover our innate balance and flow, be sure to check out the other two parts I’ve written on this topic!
