It’s about time we talk about alignment! And no, not in the chiropractic kind of way. Let’s look at alignment from a life and business perspective because as we’re entering the new energy decade of 2020, alignment may just be more important than ever before if you want to thrive in the years to come.

I love the quote from Ralph Waldo Emerson that said:

To be yourself in a world that is constantly trying to make you something else is the greatest accomplishment.

It’s not always easy to live in alignment and be who you are meant to be. 

I spent large parts of the last decade getting back into alignment as I had completely gotten off track myself. I have lived in alignment and I have lived in misalignment, and boy is there a huge difference. It’s almost like living two completely different worlds! 

While being out of alignment can be a struggle where you never seem to get your head above water no matter how hard you try, being in alignment is like being carried down the river on a bed of rose petals while the angels are singing. (Well…you get the point 🙂 )

Let’s take a look at what alignment actually is, why it’s important and how to know whether or not you’re living your life and running your business from a place of alignment. 

The easy way to tell? If things are working with ease, you’re likely in alignment.

If things are not working for you, despite your hard efforts, you’re probably NOT in alignment. 

There are many ways you could be out of alignment. It could be the work you do, it could be who you are being on a day to day basis, it could be how you are doing what you do, it could be your thoughts, beliefs or your programming, you not being true to yourself and who you really are…there is a long list of ways you can be out of alignment, but the bottom line is, when you are out of alignment, things are not flowing. They are not easy. Life is an effort. Or even a struggle.

But did you know you’re actually not designed to struggle? You were created exactly as you are for a reason. You have a specific purpose you are here to fulfill and you have everything inside of you that you need to fulfill this purpose. In fact, you are hardwired with everything you need to live your purpose.

If you resist living that purpose, you are out of alignment because you’re not doing what you’re here to do. You may listen to what other people say you should do instead of listening to your inner guidance, or you may live in a role where you’re trying to please others, but you’re not being your true authentic self.

If you want to learn more about living from a role rather than your authentic self, click here to read my blog post: Embracing the Real You: The Key to Making Life Work.

If you’re out of alignment with your purpose in life, life will eventually get hard.

And harder, the longer you resist. You may hate your job but you don’t see how you can leave so you keep staying even though something inside of you says this is not right for you. You’re being called to do something else, but your ego and personality says, no way, that’s too risky. So the Universe might swoop in to assist you and you suddenly find out that they are laying you off. Or you get so sick you have to quit.

The good thing about being out of alignment is that at any moment you can decide to realign and get back into alignment, and when you do, you can turn your life from struggle and effort to ease and flow pretty quickly, like almost overnight. It’s happened to me many times.

I have been in both places and I can now easily tell if I’m out of alignment so that I can get back on track. It’s quite amazing to see how things shift quickly once you get into alignment. 

But it can be easy to get sucked into being who other people want you to be (out of alignment), or follow strategies in your business that aren’t aligned for you if you’re not clear on what alignment means for you and who you need to be to be in true alignment.

If you feel you’re out of alignment in your business, you might want to read this blog post: Why You Need to Ditch the Cookie-cutter and Leverage Your Intuition for Success.

Once you get into alignment, places where you were previously stuck or struggled, will start to flow. The clients that didn’t show up, start to come from out of nowhere. The money you tried so hard to make just starts flowing in with little to no effort on your part.

If you’ve never experienced true alignment, you may even doubt that it can be that way. Like I said, being in alignment versus out of alignment can feel like two different worlds altogether.

Imagine for a moment that you were a flower. Let’s say you’re a tulip. You grow up to be a tulip, right? There’s no doubt about that. Your DNA has programmed you to be a tulip, not a rose.

But if you live your entire life struggling to grow thorns because you want to be like the rose, you’re clearly not being very productive because tulips don’t have thorns and you’re a tulip. Wouldn’t it be much easier and productive to just accept that both tulips and roses are beautiful and valuable in different ways, and to embrace being the tulip you actually are?

And did you know that we as humans as well have been designed differently? You have been designed very carefully in order for you to have the right skills, experiences and gifts to fulfill your purpose. While humans as a race may seem like we’re all just a bunch of tulips in different colors, we’re actually more like roses, tulips, sunflowers and water lilies….(well as an analogy of course.)

We thrive in different environments (some in cities or crowds, some in the mountains or in remote places), we are wired differently for the type of work we are designed to do (some people love to do the 9-5 while others feel they would die than do that and are not designed for a 9-5 job.)

We have different gifts, temperaments, energy levels, interests and of course personalities. Some things come easy to us while other things are more difficult. We are gifted at some things, but in other areas we’re completely useless or illiterate. 

Just like you wouldn’t want a gardener to design bridges, you don’t want the teacher to operate your heart either. Doesn’t mean the gardeners and the teachers aren’t important, they are super important. But surgery and bridge construction isn’t their thing. 

In fact, the Universe is so carefully and beautifully designed that when everyone is being who they are born to be and follow their inner calling and purpose, every part of society’s needs are being taken care of in the best possible way and by the right people. Everyone has their perfect role – and so do you.

Some are leaders and innovators, some are workers who thrive on doing the work the leaders assign them, some are teachers and guides, while, some are here to give us feedback on how we’re actually doing. 

And if we all just follow our soul blueprint and embrace who we truly are, then life wouldn’t just be better for you as a person, but society as a whole will benefit. 

Every person is an important piece of the whole and so are you. 

And, don’t worry, there’s not going to be too many coaches or healers out there, we need you all. It’s because this world is in so much misalignment that we have so many healers and coaches in the world right now, because we’re actually part of helping to realign the people of the world with our work!

As you may have noticed, one size does not fit all! So when you try to squeeze yourself into the one-size, while you may actually manage to squeeze in, you also get yourself out of alignment in the process.

You’re not supposed to squeeze into something you’re not, you’re supposed to embrace who you really are. 

And by the way, it’s only humans who struggle and go against our true nature. Our minds get in the way. You don’t see an oak tree trying to be a pine. Seriously, this is a human problem, not a problem of nature. Everything in nature works – unless of course, if humans interfere.

And besides, there is no struggle in nature. 

Like Lao Tzu said:

Nature does not hurry, yet everything is accomplished.

But in the “human world” most people are programmed to all operate a certain way, regardless of whether they are roses or tulips. 

When you’re out of alignment, you’re being that tulip trying to grow thorns. And because of this, you’re living a constant uphill battle, against nature’s way. No wonder you feel like things are hard!

I see so many business owners getting sidetracked by being sucked into the latest marketing fad. It’s the thinking that “you have to do it this way in order for it to work because so and so did it that way and they made 7 figures…blah, blah, blah.”

Don’t forget that that person making 7 figures from that strategy was successful with that strategy because it was in alignment for them. That doesn’t mean it’s in alignment for you. This is why I don’t believe in cookie-cutter business models or pre-made done-for-you-email templates. If you’re spiritually aware, it’s likely not going to work for you.

You are not a template. You are a completely unique energy being! In fact, there is nobody quite like you. 

Maybe you figured out the hard way hard way that following in other people’s paths isn’t getting you where you need to go and is actually getting you out of alignment and flow. Know that you can make a decision to change things right now.

When you’re out of alignment life is hard. You try harder to get things to work, but then you just get more frustrated because things are not working, and while this is all going on you’re getting tired, burnt out and start to lose faith, thinking:  “Why is this so hard?”

I’m not going to tell you that once you’re in alignment your life will be one of being carried on rose petals all day every day for the rest of your life. There will be challenges, you will be faced with experiences to help you to grow, but those will be the “right” challenges for you, the ones you’re meant to experience for your own soul growth, not just the “life is hard” kind of struggles that you could easily avoid by getting into alignment. 

The challenge with alignment is there are always going to be people who want you to be something you’re not and who will criticize or shame you for being you, trying to roll you back to your “old version”. 

Consider them your spiritual teachers. They are here to help you step into your own power and truth, to help you stand up for yourself and embrace who you are rather than caving into society’s norms for what you’re “supposed to be” or what your parents would be proud of.

You are not here to please your parents. Or society. You are here to live in alignment with why you are here and fulfill your purpose, the reason you are here; to live the life that is meant for you, that you were born to live. When you do that, life works. When you don’t, let’s just say life can get a little tricky or a lot, depending on how far off alignment you are.

Like I said previously, I’ve lived in alignment and out of alignment. In fact I’ve been so out of alignment that my body started breaking down to the point I had to quit my job. I had completely lost touch with who I was, and I’ve spent years realigning back to my truth. 

Getting into alignment isn’t always easy, but when you’re in alignment, things will line up for you. If you have lived out of alignment for what’s right for you, you will likely need to make some tough choices in order to get into alignment. You may need to change careers (I did that), change partners (I had to do that too), and you will upset people around you because they may feel threatened by your growth. That’s okay. Don’t take that personally.

I’m not saying that life is ALWAYS just a dance on rose petals. It takes work to get into alignment and flow if you’re strongly conditioned to be something other than your authentic self. You cannot bypass. There is no shortcut in the school of life. Sure, you can make good choices and learn your lessons sooner rather than later, and that will cut down on your learning time and speed things up, but there’s no way for you to bypass the work you need to do or the lessons you need to learn. 

The longer you resist, the harder it gets. 

If you’re in complete misalignment like I was 10 plus years ago, then it may take you a bit to get everything back into perfect alignment. That’s okay, just take it one step at a time. 

I didn’t switch careers, heal myself from chronic illness, get divorced and build my business all in the same week, and that’s alright. Staying in alignment is an everyday job.

Just stay in your lane, trust your inner wisdom and don’t be afraid of ruffle some feathers as you align into the most beautiful versions of yourself. The world needs you to be who you really are, not who society says you should be! 

Are you ready to step into deeper alignment, create a life of more peace, abundance and flow and live the life you were designed to live?

Then I invite you to join the journey into alignment with me and start by getting a copy of my Success-soul® Living Starter Kit.

You will get exercises to help you get aligned and get in touch with your true authentic self, as well as healing to clear blockages that prevent you from doing what you know is right for you, as well as a meditation to help you manifest your most amazing life and business.

It’s time to be who you were born to be.