How do you come back into alignment?

The idea of being in alignment is not something new. It seems a quest for the ages.  It was posed to me again recently. How do I come back into alignment? As I reflected on my own answer and experience, it reminded me again of the power that the Genuine Contact way of working has in my personal life too. I saw again that after all of these years of developing mastery in this way of working, it’s also been about developing mastery in this way of working on myself. Being in alignment, for me, is synonymous with being in genuine contact with self.

Come back into alignment with what?

When folks ask me for advice or to share my experiences with them, I do my best to always ask questions first. Questions that give me clarity about what they are really asking for. Questions that usually give them clarity in what they are really seeking too 🙂

With the question posed of “how do you come back into alignment?” my question back was “come back into alignment with what?”

Alignment, according to the dictionary, is about:

being in correct or appropriate relative positions

a position of agreement or alliance

It’s a question I find myself asking regularly.  Spiritually inclined folks often talk about ‘being in alignment’. In my experience, they don’t often consider what it is they are seeking to align with. What is it they want to position themselves appropriately to? What is it they want to have a feeling of agreement or alliance with?

Being in alignment is about being in genuine contact with self

When one stops to think about it, usually the idea of “being in alignment” is about being at peace and connected with yourself and your world. The sense of “being out of alignment” is about being disconnected with self. It can also be about the different parts of yourself being disconnected from each other. In our Genuine Contact way of working, we refer to this as being in health and balance. Being out of alignment is being out of health and balance. The concept works for both organizations and individuals. So, rather than thinking about whether or not I am in alignment, I focus on whether or not I feel I am in my best state of health and balance. And being in my health and balance is a key ingredient to being in genuine contact with myself.

Focusing on genuine contact with self

Often people focus on some kind of to-do list of activities they need to do to feel in alignment again. Prayer or meditation, sleep, healthy eating, and exercise are often on the list. Sometimes, perhaps often, that to-do list doesn’t even include slowing down to reflect on what brought a person out of their health and balance to begin with.

When I notice myself feeling discontent or out of sorts, I choose to focus on genuine contact with myself as a starting place. I experience this as the layer underneath that to-do list. It helps me to develop awareness of why I’m feeling out of my health and balance so I can focus my energy on the root challenge instead of a surface-level quick fix.

When I can be aware of what’s feeling out of balance, I can then best see what it is that is needed to bring me back into my health and balance. This helps me see how I can come back into alignment with my genuine self.

Exploring Genuine Contact More Broadly

In the Genuine Contact way of working, we think about how we can best be in genuine contact with self, another, community, and creation. When I consider the idea of “how I come back into alignment” the next step is to look at how I am in genuine contact with my world. From my own best sense of health and balance, how do I experience being in genuine contact with another? How do I experience genuine contact with my community? Or with creation?

Doing this quick check-in helps me to notice how I experience being aligned with my world…or being out of alignment.  When I notice my experience of being in genuine contact regularly, I can make small course corrections to keep me in alignment with how I desire to experience my relationships with others, community, and creation in the best ways I know how.

Photo Credit: avi_acl (pixabay.com)