Our capacity to live a life aligned significantly impacts our levels of satisfaction and fulfillment.
Definition and meaning-making are foundational to our consideration of this. What does living aligned mean and look like to you?
At ActivXchange, alignment means lining up thoughts, actions, and words.
Alignment is agreement realized through active engagement, confirmed by felt sensations of spirit, body, and mind.
Living a life aligned is rooted in the enactment of choices that, from the Oxford Language Dictionary definition above, are in alliance or agreement with our authentic values and beliefs.
Consciously choosing to live in alignment requires a cultivation practice that inevitably evolves. The choices we make do not always lead us where we would expect. And the path that unfolds before us invites steps commonly accompanied by resistance or surprise.
At times, stepping into alignment with a higher calling may cost turning away from long-held familial, religious, cultural, or societal actions, values, and beliefs. For some, it requires a shedding of many truths that we grew up with, invitations to walk away from much of what was taught.
As a result, engaging in life in ways that speak to whole-person alignment, involving our inner and outer selves, can be the catalyst for significant change. Though the changes don't always lead to upheaval, often, the steps we are invited to take, our known or conscious self, at first, would not prefer — an aspect of human evolution, not for the faint of heart.
As I write this, I recall the first time I was invited to discontinue alcohol for a significant chunk of time. I was sitting on my balcony in Miami, tuning in to bring new energy into my morning routine. As I listened to the voice of my heart, opening to guidance unseen, with great clarity, this invitation rose. And you want to know what happened next?
Next, I cried.
I cried into the feelings of resistance to change, which I suddenly knew taking this step would have the potential to catalyze in my life. I cried for the known and the unknown.
I cried for the sense in my gut that indicated, without a doubt, that this was the next step along my path, for the simultaneous beauty and frustration of having called it in.
Let's admit, I was going for a different answer. I thought I'd be leaving this moment of reflection with a new time of waking, a specific journal inquiry, and meditation practice to begin. Instead, I knew that moment offered a choice to step deeper into alignment with the truth of my whole self or to continue engaging in the behaviors and social tools I had grown up within.
Since we're here, I'll shed a little more light. At this time in my life, I wasn't drinking much alcohol and had been in a years-long relationship with witnessing and adapting the role of this substance in my life. I was proud of where I was; I'd already grown through a lot of change, and still - the invitation to bring in a stricter discipline and a more thorough discontinuation of alcohol use shook me to the core. Isn't that interesting...
I feared how this engagement could erode the sense of belonging that it felt like alcohol had established and held in place. I feared the outcomes of now knowing yet consciously choosing not to step in.
The question I had been drawn to ask that morning had been answered with clarity, and despite the strength of fear and resistance - I knew that the choice was mine. I had direction for the next step, should I wish to continue cultivating a life aligned.
Somewhere deep down, I also knew that the motivation of my choice could continue to be driven by fear, or with care and intention, it could be motivated by love.
As we cultivate aligned living, we will likely come face to face with paradox. Two truths, each offering an option, neither choice wrong, perhaps one vibrationally more aligned.
Aligned living is the following of a series of invitations to say yes to the slight difference of a felt sense, an inner call to step into a new attitude, behavior, or way of spending time without a clear view of the outcome, no certainty for how things will unfold.
Attuning to our intentions through such discernment is a vital step in this transformative process. One that supports us in standing firmly in our truth amidst environments and communities familiar and new.
Pursuing alignment is a powerful and life-enriching journey worth embarking on. Research links aligned living with levels of motivation, satisfaction, fulfillment and happiness in life.
So even though the steps sometime rise with challenge - the outcomes are worth the effort.
There are techniques and practices available to us as invaluable tools for supporting our engagement, maintenance and expansion of aligned living.
With Kindness,
Becca
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