“When the basis for your actions is inner alignment with the present moment, your actions become empowered by the intelligence of life itself.” ~Eckart Tolle
“Someone who takes the time to understand their relationship with source, who actively seeks alignment with their broader perspective, who deliberately seeks and finds alignment with who-they-really-are, is more charismatic, more attractive, more effective, and more powerful than a group of millions who have not achieved this alignment.” ~ Esther Hicks
The alignment formula is a simple, step-by-step process that requires we release our attachment to the known.
I spent two weeks in December wrestling with the alienating and frightening sensation of being completely off…out of alignment.
I moved from my cottage in town to the top of Whiteside Mountain—to a family home that is situated on a lot at the very end of the ridge. At 4,600′ in elevation, perched above the clouds, I can see three states from every window on one side of the house. Peregrine falcons catch thermals below where I sit on the deck and soar steadily in ever-widening circles.
The day I moved in, I wasn’t sure I was going to be able to stay. The energy of this sacred, 460 million-year-old mountain relentlessly pulsated and blasted through every cell in my body. At first, I took it in stride, considering it was like the shock of jumping into icy water. Surely I’d quickly acclimate.
Storms with howling wind took turns adding their jolts into the mix. Pushing against the home, pushing against me. Some days, the house was immersed inside clouds, with nothing but whiteness outside each window. Each landmark, mountain peak, tree, rhododendron thicket, and the horizon disappearing from sight.
Nothing left except the feeling of being walled off from the world, and the ongoing electricity coursing through my soul as it emanated from the ancient granite.
One morning, I chose to make peace with the mountain. I laced up my hiking boots and took my golden retriever, Sophie, up the trail to the summit. As we stepped over ice chunks, boulders, and yawning ditches created by rushing, rain runoff, I spoke aloud my request—my prayer—to the mountain.
Reaching for Harmony
I asked for permission to reside on the mountain in harmony, alongside all the Cherokee ancestors, spirits, and souls who clearly continued to stake their presence. I humbly asked for their blessing to co-exist with gratitude for the gift in being able to do so. I promised I’d be a proper steward of the land and honor its energy by yielding to it and letting it power my creativity for the greatest good.
By the time we reached the summit, the clenching energy had noticeably loosened its grip. No longer feeling as if I were drowning in its torrent, I was now riding on top of it, surfing, enjoying the power under me.
The raw edges of the mountain’s energy had become as soft and nurturing as its undulating ridge lines, worn by millions of years of weather and time…beginnings and endings. I had to learn to listen to the mountain without relying upon my senses. What I needed to know had to make the high jump over my conscious mind and land straight into my soul.
I had to discard reliance upon certain markers of the known and align with the unknown.
I have selected the word Align as my word for 2021. It is my reminder that each of us has opportunities to do an inventory of our lives and check for where we feel the pain of being out of rhythm within our own bodies, within our work, and within what it is we desire to create.
There’s no better time than the dawn of a New Year to do such an inventory and root out where we are not in sync. I offer the steps below to help jumpstart your efforts.
Alignment Formula Steps
1). Discover where you are out of alignment. Tune into your body. You can listen to your mind, too, but exercise caution here as our minds will lie to us all day long. Our bodies, though, always tell us the truth.
2). Write down everything that is wonky…out of whack…in your personal life and in your business.
3). Make a note of what is working. Describe in detail the gratitude you have for each, tiny detail.
4). Of the above in #3, what do you want more of? Write it all down.
5). Identify the stories you are repeating to others and to yourself that have you out of alignment. Hint: capture this by writing down what you complain about. Read each aloud with supreme self compassion.
6). Spot all the lies.
7). Turn the lies (#6) into alignment by re-writing them as Future #3 realities that work and put you into a state of supreme flow, joy, and ease. (Example: “I’m so happy now that….”)
8). Determine what you now have to think, do, and say, step by step, in order to achieve each as a future reality…a future #3.
9). Take one item from #6 and take one, tiny step by making it a daily “Seinfeld Hour.” (Jerry Seinfeld advocates that as creators we must keep our daily work sessions short…no more than one hour…and then reward ourselves when we’ve put in our time.)
Easy Does It
Put your one-hour work session in, and that is it for the day. One of the biggest mistakes we make when trying to create/make lasting change, is that we try to cram in waaaay too much all at once. Remember to keep your tasks, things that draw upon your focus/bandwidth, and your energetic exertion to levels that easily fit on a 7″ plate.
As you ascend whatever is your own personal mountain on your quest for alignment, know that you are connected with all of us on your journey. We are a community of creators, who, not unlike Whiteside Mountain, are weathered from storms, ancient and current and are powerful beyond measure.
