Alignment Goals

This year, one of my goals is to be and to be seen as aligned inside myself – body, mind and Spirit – as a reflection of my alignment

1. to the needs and gifts of others;
2. to my work; and
3. to my surroundings.

Clearly, this doesn’t happen overnight. It’s not something you graduate from. Rather, alignment is something you graduate to. Water flows and carves new paths when it is free. The same is true for us. It’s hard to have ‘flow’ when the pipes are twisted, don’t you agree? Join me on this journey of ‘converging streams’ of thought, wisdom, joy and laughter as we move through 2020. 

Straightening out

In the past few weeks, the phrase ‘straightening out’ has come up more than a few times. Of course, straightening out is a critical component to ‘alignment.’ It’s likely not a day goes by that we don’t think about something that needs straightening out. What is that for you? Perhaps it is a simple thing, like your physical space. Or it may be a misunderstanding or it may be a way of doing things. For you, what is crooked or kinked? What would you have to do or what would have to be done to make it less so? And what would the results or outcome feel like?

Use the tools you know so well. Think about your current state and then create your from/to statements. Here is a simple example – straightening out my desk. 

For many years I kept a very messy desk. So messy in fact that during one time, when I had a very neat boss, I kept a cardboard box under my desk, so that when he was coming to see me, I could sweep everything into the box!  

For me, the chaos felt normal. I actually think it made me more creative. I straightened out my desk about once a month, but I never did the work to understand “the why” or “the how” to keep it that way. Over the years, I moved on to adopt cleaner surfaces and more open space, but I still need visual cues in my work space, so that has become part of my organization solution.

Straightening out relationships, reputations, emotions, and bank accounts are more difficult than straightening out a desk. However, it essentially works the same way.

The self-exploration questions are the same or similar: 

• What feels misaligned?
• What do you want instead?
• If it is simply a problem to be solved, then what do you need to solve it?
• Can you achieve it?
• If you can’t, what can you achieve instead? 

You are already successful.

You solve problems every day. So give yourself some space to experiment to figure out what straightening-out tactics work best for you. Use this virtual coffee break to detach for a moment, think about your own mis-alignments, think about how to straighten those out, and begin. Good luck! I am learning that “straight pathways” create peace and energy and better flow. When I achieve that, then the peace and energy that I’ve created can then be better shared!

Practical exercise: Aligning your body

We sit too much, and when we lean into the computer, we mis-align our head. When we hunch over our phone, we mis-align our neck.

Today is a day to start straightening out our physical selves! 

Think about creating a pattern that trains you to:

• Tuck in your chin when you type. 
• Raise your arms higher to read your phone so your neck is erect and your eyes straight ahead.
• Take chair breaks.
• Straighten your spine.
• Lean forward and exhale.
• Lean back to inhale.
• Take deep cleansing energizing breaths.
• Easy does it!