SOUL ALIGNMENT: How to find balance in your deeper self

This article was published in The Mindful Word journal of engaged living (http://www.themindfulword.org)

In the midst of life challenges we may feel frustrated, depressed and even fearful. To live a more balanced life one key to remember is that all of our experiences lead us to the next step on our spiritual journey. And we already have all that we truly need to take our next steps into alignment.

Alignment means that we’re balanced throughout our mind, body and spirit. It’s important because when we aren’t in balance we’re stressed, and long-term stress ultimately leads to disease.

How to shift our lives into balance

One way to balance ourselves is by living intuitively and trusting our guidance. In working with clients and supporting the development of intuition, I often remind them that there will be times when guidance takes us into situations in which we may not feel comfortable at first. However, this is all part of learning to trust.

Three years ago, I was guided to leave my well-settled, very comfortable and familiar life in Vermont and move to Alaska. Many, including my family, thought I had gone off the deep end in a traditional mid-life crisis! After 30 years in Vermont, did I really want to leave my life and holistic practice to go—where?! As I packed up my life and sold my house, I discovered that I had many fears to release. I wondered why I was called to Alaska, and how I would come to find balance in such a different lifestyle so far away. As time went on, however, I realized that I needed to go beyond my comfort zone, to stretch myself in both faith and alignment.

Our inner soul searching will always take us where we need to go. It doesn’t support us to skip over our lessons, or go around them. For each lesson reveals the next rung on the ladder of our spiritual path. In working with clients, I sometimes feel their urge to hurry through a particular lesson, especially when it’s challenging. I remind them that a soul lesson is here until we learn it. Only then will it be released. If it isn’t released, it will come around again in a new form.

Letting go

Each time I’ve taken a deep plunge into the unknown I realized later that it was the dive that was the scary part—not the unknown. Of course, the first step into the unknown is never easy; it can be terrifying. But this is how we make the next shifts in our consciousness: by letting go of our fears and taking the plunge into the new.

Shifts into deeper soul alignment often have a quality of inner release. The rational mind doesn’t have a major role in this. Instead, alignment may come in meditation or by sitting quietly, in letting messages come through to our conscious mind, and in relying and acting on the messages that speak to our intuition.

Noticing alignment

As you take steps to align on deeper levels, the results may be felt in your body. You’ll become more peaceful, experience less stress and have a desire to take better care of yourself with diet, exercise and meditation. You may notice how you’re more relaxed and full of positive energy. Unhealthy situations or people will either change or be released from your life. You may find yourself changing careers, friends, spouses, hobbies. As you see the shifts in yourself—and as others begin to notice—you’ll begin to trust more in the process. Always remember that you’re never given more than you can handle, or anything that you can’t do.

The alignment of consciousness isn’t so much about what we do, but about how we feel. It isn’t what job we do; it’s how we feel when we do it. It’s not whom we connect with; it’s how we feel when we connect with that person. When we’re living with joy and passion, we’re in alignment; we feel alive and energized; our lives are running smoothly and effortlessly; and we teach others simply by being who we are how to live joyfully. Joy is our choice!

For more on this topic read SURRENDER TO THE SHADOW: Let go of old beliefs to truly live

image: mfatic (Creative Commons BY-SA)

The post SOUL ALIGNMENT: How to find balance in your deeper self appeared first on The Mindful Word.

Sign up for a free subscription to The Mindful Word\’s quarterly digital magazine at http://www.themindfulword.org/subscribe