The Power of Living in Alignment
Misalignment And What It Means To Live In Alignment
Most of the women I support are far more intelligent, creative, resourceful and brave than they know.
They have often built successful careers or entrepreneurial journeys, they might have raised families, and they have all navigated challenges and thresholds with incredible resilience.
Many find me at a point in their life where they feel a sense of weariness that goes beyond physical tiredness. An 'experiential' weariness.
They might be navigating the tender terrain of midlife and feeling a desire to recalibrate as they enter this next season of their life.
They might be physically, mentally and emotionally exhausted from trying to fit into blueprints of success and external expectations that has left them feeling stressed, burnt out, and out of alignment with what truly matters.
They are tired of overriding the ever growing discomfort of living a life that might look good on paper, but no longer feels vibrant or fulfilling on the inside.
The have a sense that something important is missing.
They are experiencing a growing dissonance between their inner and outer worlds, and something within them is pulling them towards more coherence (although they may not articulate it in this way).
A feeling I spent years cohabiting with, as I climbed up corporate ladders and felt an increasing sense of emptiness and ‘purpose deficit’.
What we are seeking - often without knowing - is a place where our values, body, nervous system, beliefs, and behaviours are in harmonious relationship with one another instead of each pulling in a different direction. Where the life we live feels aligned.
Inner Alignment as Coherence
Inner alignment can be described as coherence.
It’s the inner feeling of congruence we experience when there is a sense of harmony between:
The vision we have for our life
Our sense of meaning, purpose, contribution
What we value most
Our inner landscape: our beliefs, thoughts, behaviours, emotions, and nervous system states
Who we are being in the world
When these elements are in aligned relationship, we experience more flow, clarity, momentum, openness, and a deep sense of being resourced from within.
Perhaps you have experienced this?
A moment where you were doing something you loved, where you were fully present, deeply engaged and felt a clear sense of purpose.
It’s a grounded, living connection between our inner state, how we feel, what we desire, and how we choose to act and live.
From this place, our work or life feels more like an extension of our deeper values.
And our vitality returns, because our energy, time, attention, and voice are used in ways that reflect what we care about.
In their book ‘Burnout: The Secret to Unlocking the Stress Cycle’, Emily and Amelia Nagoski share:
“Meaning is often misunderstood as “the thing we’ll find at the end of the tunnel,” but it’s not. It’s why we go through the tunnel, regardless of what we find on the other end.”
Alignment helps us move through life connected to our ‘why’.
It doesn't mean being perfect and in flow all the time. It’s a dedication to being consistent in our orientation towards what matters, and committing to it, even when it's challenging or inconvenient - trusting that it will nourish us in return.
Choosing to take a pause and return to more coherence when we lose our way.
How to Return to Inner Alignment and Reconnect With Our Inner Compass?
Returning to alignment isn’t a quick fix, it’s a practice that involves:
Reconnecting with our body and its innate intelligence - the gateway to our deepest longings, desires and dreams
Learning to distinguish between what we think we should do and what we truly desire
Trusting our body's internal compass and using its cues to take small doable steps towards greater alignment
Working with our nervous system to cultivate inner stability as we reorient, meet our edges and step onto a path that is less familiar and perhaps feels unknown and uncertain
Choosing, through the 10,000 micro choices we make each day, to orient towards a truer path that prioritises inner alignment over external pressures or expectations.
Alignment is have the courage to carve our own path.
In the words of one of my teachers, Karen Brody, it leads to shifting from living someone else's dream to living our own, one small step at a time.
Signs We are Moving Back Into Inner Alignment and Coherence
As we move more and more into inner integrity, coherence and inner alignment, here are a few things we might begin to notice:
A sense of flow, spaciousness or lightness
A feeling of being more connected to what we truly want in our life
A stronger connection with a sense of purpose - our deeper why - which resources us and helps us take aligned actions (even when it’s uncomfortable)
More ease and fluency in our actions and decisions, because we have clarity on what we are orienting towards (our North Star), and we are being pulled from the heart by our values and purpose (rather than ‘pushed from the back’, as we are when are path is driven by ‘shoulds’)
More creativity and inspiration - overflowing with ideas and a desire to share them outwardly
Feeling internally rooted, sovereign over our life and choices, and no longer looking outside for permission
Alignment doesn’t mean certainty.
In fact, it often demands the opposite: trustinh in the uncertainty.
Holding the vision lightly, taking aligned action, and trusting the next step even if we can't see the entire path.
It's an orientation rather than a certainty.
A devotion rather than a path of perfection.
A rooting in what we care about and desire, rather than what the world tells us we should do.
Why This Matters Now
We are at a moment in time where so many old ways and paradigms are being questioned, including the way we live, lead, relate to one another and to the natural world we are part of.
For some of us, there is a realisation that the old blueprints are outdated, and a longing for more regenerative, embodied, and soul-honouring ways of experiencing life, and showing up in the world.
I want to acknowledge here, that alignment is a luxury, a huge privilege that is available when we are in a position of choice. When our basic needs are met, when we have sufficient resources both internally and externally. When we have the capacity to reflect on our life and recalibrate its course, if we choose to.
It's my belief that when women orient towards more alignment from a place of deep care, the world becomes a better place ... we impact our communities, families, workplaces, and society differently.
In this way, aligning to our true path, potential and impact is also a responsibility - answering the call of this desire for more coherence will likely mean we will touch everyone we meet differently, and who knows how this outward ripple could change the world.
Living From Alignment Within the Life You Already Have
Moving towards a greater sense of alignment doesn’t require that we burn everything down or start over. We don’t need to walk away from our life, or make a radical pivot.
More often, it looks like holding the vision for the life we long for with tenderness and trust, while slowly integrating more coherence, resonance, and truth within the life we already have.
It’s about:
Tending to the embers of our heart and what we care about
Taking small steps in the direction of what feels true
Sensing the moments when we feel aligned, and letting them nourish us
Noticing the moments when we are not aligned, pausing and recalibrating
It’s you, coming home to what you care about, and making space for that to shape how you live.
Coherence as Devotion to What Matters
You don’t need to overhaul your entire life to begin to align with what feels like a truer path.
You just need to pause and listen to the wisdom and subtle cues your body holds (it already knows).
And be willing to make one decision that feels true, however small it might seem.
That is how alignment unfolds in our life. Through small, daily, lived commitments to soul integrity.
If you are navigating the tender terrain of midlife, standing at a crossroad, or feeling that the way it’s always been is no longer sustainable, and you would like support to orient towards a life that feels aligned, somatic coaching offers a beautiful approach to finding your way. You can find out more about receiving personal support from me here or schedule an exploration call with me here. Together we’ll explore where you are and how working together could support you.
And if you would like to guide others towards greater alignment through somatic approaches, The Wisdom Within™ Somatic Practitioner Training might be for you. You can find out more here.
