Alignment=Resiliency

Greetings to all of you in Linkedin Land. It has been a while since we have spoken or more correctly, since I have spewed forth some letters on a screen in hopes of helping or inspiring someone out there with my musings.

I had an interview on a podcast this last week that made me reflect on this topic of ALIGNMENT which has me wanting to talk about it a bit more.

This last week, I had the amazing pleasure of speaking with Adam Markel (https://www.dhirubhai.net/in/adammarkel/) Who forgave me at the end of the interview for calling him by his wife's name Randi instead of his own (thank heavens he just laughed it off because of my super embarrassed self knowing I messed up after I realized I had a brain malfunction)

We chatted about a lot of topics and I just first want to say if you have not listened to his show, you need to. He is real and has this amazing ability to bring out the authentic genuine side of people and really get to the meat, not many can do that and I loved that he could hold the space for vulnerable conversations. (https://adammarkel.com/)

So seriously, take a listen... now back to alignment and how this all came about and what the heck this has to do with resiliency....

Back to alignment...

So he asked me the question, what does resiliency mean to me and how do I stay resilient when life takes turns that you are not expecting.

My answer was that I used to think that being resilient meant just being positive in the face of overwhelming odds or hard situations. However, I am more of the thought that Resiliency has more to do with being in alignment with one self and honoring who you are, what you believe in, and what brings more life into your soul and into your life.

What do I mean by that? Let me explain in a way that I am most familiar... cars.

I grew up in a tire and mechanic shop that my Dad owns in Idaho Falls because he was determined to make sure that I had a balance of manliness to match the home life of enjoying 4 wonderful amazing sisters.

One of things we did was vehicle alignments. I could explain all the details of the picture above, but basically what you are seeing is a car with specs that are out of alignment which will lead to premature tire wear, wandering to one side of the road or not, and without proper car, permanent damage to existing parts and in some cases... death. Just kidding, but really you should make sure your car is in alignment.

Anyways, the better your vehicle alignment is, the better your car drives, performs, and sustains the life of all it's internal parts that make the vehicle work.

I have come to realize that being in alignment with myself is how I stay resilient. This last few years, I have wrote before about the concept of bringing more LIFE into my soul and recognizing when something is draining me of that precious source of energy.

When I ignore my internal alignment system and I spend time with people who drain me, or I spend time with activities, movies, music, or books that drain me, or I spend my money on things that just drain my account with nothing coming in return, that takes me out of alignment.

However on the other side, when I spend my time with activities, people, hobbies, work, business, or books, movies, music, and more that BRING me more life and energy, I become more in alignment with myself.

This requires me being willing to be in tune with myself to recognize, honor, and support when I feel if something drains me, or brings life to me. Sounds easier than it looks, sometimes that is easy, other times it means saying no to relationships, opportunities, or time-sucking activities that are not in your best interest.

The more in alignment I am and the more I make it a DAILY practice to stay in alignment, the more I am able to handle life when it goes wrong. Just like the car example, the more off alignment a vehicle is, it can get to a point that because of the horrible condition of the vehicles alignment, it becomes VERY hard to stay driving straight or even on course which obviously is dangerous and stressful.

On the other side, when my car is perfectly aligned and parts are pristine, the vehicle is better equipped to handle emergency driving if needed and usually is not that off course to my destination.

So how do we grow resiliency?

Ask yourself these questions TODAY at this VERY moment after reviewing your day:

• What activities have I done today that brought more life into my life and my soul?
• What activities have I done today that drained me of my life energy?
• What people/relationships have brought energy and more life into me and my world?
• What people/relationships have drained my energy and my life of precious life force?
• What can I do RIGHT NOW to bring more life into my life?

It can be as simple as calling someone you care about, RIGHT NOW before you get done reading this and just simply telling them, "Just wanted to tell you I am grateful for you in my life because of __________(specific reason here). Thank you, Have a good day!"

Trust me, those phone calls are fun to make and bring life into your life. For me, sometimes it is going to get an ice cream cone. (Not too often so I can maintain my lovely figure...) Or it is taking a 10 minute walk, listening to an inspiring podcast, taking a bath, punching a bag for a few minutes, or going out in your car and screaming your guts out because you are angry and need to get some energy out, trust me it works and helps you feel better after a bad day, or maybe it doesn't for you? The point is to find those things, people, time things that bring life to YOU, not someone else or what they think, YOU. More on that topic on a later post.

I hope you can take the time DAILY to think about how in alignment is your job/business with your soul? How in alignment is your relationships? Are you off? Are they? Are your activities? Are you avoiding having hard conversations?

Time is now, the longer you wait, the more likely it will eventually wear into your internal systems just like it does with a car, slowly, but surely, you will notice that you are overwhelmed, stressed, and burned out driving to a course in life that is unrecognizable. However if you honor what you feel, you will find yourself driving up to amazing places filled with glory and ice cream, or broccoli, or gluten free, sugar free, everything bad free pork rinds. (You do you, no judgement here ok? ;)

This time is yours, start NOW. Go, shoo (shew? shoe? shou?) You know what I mean, go away and get yourself in alignment.

More to come as it develops. Have a wonderful February in 2020 until next time.