Everything was created to be in alignment.
Look at your body. When you sprain a muscle, the other muscles have to work harder to support your body in the absence of that muscle function. Have you ever been in a car with wheels that’re out of alignment? You’ll soon notice it takes more effort to keep the steering on course because the wheels are going off on another tangent.
Where there’s no alignment the stress levels go up because you’re forcing something to function in a manner it wasn’t naturally designed to function. That’s largely what happens to us when our choices don’t reflect our goals … our lives are out of alignment.
Too often our day to day choices are out of alignment with who we say we are and what we say we want. Considering the fact that where we are now is almost 100% a result of choices we have made – I say almost because in some cases we may have had others make choices for us, especially when growing up – we shouldn’t take the choices we make lightly.
These choices may be seemingly inconsequential (choosing to watch TV, check IG photos instead of reading) or life changing (choosing who to marry, where to work, where to live), but understand that every single choice we make leads us down a particular path.
How our choices help or hinder us depends on how much of our decision making process aligns with who we say we are and where we say we’re going. Too often we say we want one thing for our lives and do something that’s at a polar opposite to what we say we want. Example, someone says “I want to live a long and healthy life” – but yet the same person chooses to continuously fill up on processed foods and empty calories.
Another example, someone says, “I want to live a peaceful life”, yet always allows the dramazons to steal her time and suck her into their never ending soap opera lives.
“I know I’m supposed to help people and change lives”, but the same person doesn’t actually put in the work to go beyond the knowing stage.
When we’re out of alignment, two things usually happen. The first thing is a feeling of discomfort. Something just isn’t sitting right. Regardless of how well things may be going for us, we know we should be somewhere else or doing something else.
Secondly, when we see a person doing what we know deep down we should be doing, there’s often a ‘gut check’ we get. An instinctive understanding that you should be involved in that space somehow.
The good news is that re-alignment is possible.
Just like when a person is using an electronic navigation tool, it’s possible to re-direct yourself and start being intentional about the choices you’re making. Because this is possible doesn’t automatically mean it will be easy. You’ll need to remind yourself daily about who you really are and where you want to go. You also need to be willing to make the required changes in your life. Truth is change can be pretty uncomfortable, but stick with it knowing that the discomfort is only temporary.
We’ll talk more next week about handling the re-alignment process.
