What does it Mean to be Living in Alignment?
Living in alignment requires a series of actions, beliefs and feelings that all correspond with your own personal way of living. To live in alignment means that you feel aligned to your path in life and who you are as a person or who you want to become. Putting it more simply it means that you feel like you are living in a way that feels right to you.
To feel aligned means you feel bright and reassured. As if you are being pulled in a direction that you want to go even if you don’t know where exactly you are headed.
Are You in Alignment?
In order to live in alignment you have to listen to yourself. Listen to your body and how your thoughts and emotions feel.
If you are aligned you will feel as if you are living with purpose. You trust the journey and that you will end up where you want to be in the future even if you don’t have all of the steps. You trust in yourself and in your growth as time passes.
Are You Misaligned?
If you are misaligned your body and thoughts will feel numb or heavy. You will feel as if you are living a life that you don’t truly belong to or want. You may have emotions you have shoved to the bottom of your heart or thoughts that you pushed to the back of your mind.
Do you have anything that you have always wanted to try but are filled with hesitation and self doubt? Are you worried about how you may be perceived if you tried to go for the life you have always wanted to live instead? Do you feel stuck?
If most or all of the above applies, you may be living in misalignment.
How to Live in Alignment
In order to live in alignment first identify your values. What makes up your core sense of self?
Here are examples of values you may prioritize in your life:
– privacy
– freedom
– integrity
– respect
– honesty
– creativity
– adventure
– being true to yourself
– community
– family
– loyalty
– security
– health
– fun
– social justice
– environmentalism
What do you value? What is important to you? What are the things that make you who you are? What do you want to keep in your life no matter what? Once you have identified these core values, you can move on to the next step in learning how to live in alignment.
Examine Your Life
Now, examine your life. Examine your personal, school, and work life.
Do your core values align with how you are living? If not, what are the steps you can take to align your core values with your life?
For example, if you value privacy but you are always oversharing you may want to reevaluate why.
Why do you overshare? Do you really value privacy? Do you feel good after oversharing? Or are you sacrificing your value in order for another value such as connection or community?
If you want to feel connection with others you will have to find a way to do so without oversharing so that you can keep your value of privacy instead of constantly breaking it.
Some ways to connect with others is often simple. Listen to understand others and ask engaging questions to get to know them better out of your true interest. When the other person asks you a question in return, think beforehand how you want to answer. Do you want to keep it simple? Do you want to get personal but not overshare?
If you don’t know how to answer you can simply say so as well. There is no harm in admitting you don’t know what to say but be sure to continue the conversation by changing the topic such as trying to respond to something related to the question or just ask another question to the person.
What really matters is that you are staying true to your values and acting in accordance to your sense of self.
How Do You Stay in Alignment?
The next step after aligning yourself to your values is how to stay in alignment.
If you one day feel misaligned to your values then it is time to reevaluate which values you no longer feel a connection to. This is normal. As we grow and change through our lives so will your beliefs and values.
However if you your values have not changed, it is time to identify what may be keeping you from living in alignment with your core values.
To do this, let’s take a look at your habits and lifestyle. Do they help you live in accordance to your values or disrupt them?
If you have bad habits and a lifestyle that does not allow you to live in alignment with your values, you must work on turning those bad habits into good ones that will help you stay on track. You must also change your lifestyle into one that can support your values instead of blocking or distracting you from them.
Some reasons you may have bad habits and lifestyle are:
– you have never learned from your guardians on how to have healthy habits and live with responsibility and accountability
– you may be preoccupied with a life crisis or situation that you have to prioritize and it leaves no time for you to change
– you may have time and the right guidance to change but you have negative self beliefs about yourself that keeps you from changing your life.
Depending on which reason(s) you have, you will have to figure out a plan on how you will realign yourself.
Can you take small steps in your day to realign yourself and make good changes in your life? Can you spare 5 or 10 minutes to implement to practice good habits in your daily routines? Can you reach our for help or support so that you can have more time to yourself to make these changes in your life? Do you have any friends or mentors you can ask for guidance and motivate you to keep to accountable in making these changes?
Most importantly, do you believe in yourself and can hold yourself responsible in meeting these goals?