WEBVTT
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Over the past year, we've explored awareness.
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We've turned on the light, we've talked about the witness, survival patterns, field and form, alignment, and most recently, the architecture of trust.
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And this week, something special happened.
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Pre-orders officially opened for Align Your Life.
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The book itself launches on October 7th.
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And I've been thinking about something that might sound a little strange, coming from an author who would very much like you to pre-order her book.
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A book will not change your life.
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Neither will this podcast.
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Neither will the next workshop.
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Neither will the next breakthrough.
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And awareness alone won't change your life either.
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Practice does.
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Embodiment does.
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Choice does.
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A book can turn on the light.
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It can help you see the furniture.
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It can give you language for something you've felt for years but haven't been able to really name.
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It can show you a door you didn't realize was there.
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But eventually, you have to walk through it.
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And maybe there's something beautifully appropriate about being in this space between pre-order and launch.
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The work exists.
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The intention has been set, but we haven't arrived yet.
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We're in the middle.
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And isn't that where transformation actually happens?
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Between awareness and embodiment.
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Between intention and expression.
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Between who we've been and who we're practicing becoming.
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So today isn't really about a book.
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It's about what happens after we've seen something we can no longer unsee.
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Because now, the real work begins.
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Hello, hello, and welcome to the Aligned Human Project.
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I'm your host, Don Elgin.
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If you've ever looked around at your life that appears successful on the outside but feels disconnected on the inside, you are in the right place.
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If you've ever wondered why you keep repeating the same patterns, carrying the same emotional weight, or chasing goals that never quite bring you the peace you hope they would, you are in the right place.
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This podcast is about remembering who you were before the world told you who you needed to be.
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Together we'll explore the intersection of neuroscience, psychology, ancient wisdom, quantum science, and practical spiritualism to understand how awareness shapes our field and how our field shapes our lives, and why lasting change begins from the inside out.
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We'll talk about leadership, relationships, health, purpose, emotional well-being, and conscious creation, not as separate parts of life, but as reflections of one thing: our level of alignment.
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Because most people don't need another strategy, they need a new relationship with themselves.
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So whether you're leading a business, a family, a team, or simply trying to lead yourself with greater intention, welcome.
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Take a breath, become the witness, and let's begin.
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Hello, hello, my friends, and welcome back to the Aligned Human Project.
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This week's episode feels deeply personal.
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On Wednesday, pre-orders officially opened for Align Your Life.
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And after years of writing and rewriting, studying, questioning, living these ideas, changing my mind about some of them and deepening others, we are now just less than two weeks away from the official launch on October 7th.
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It is surreal.
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But this moment has also made me think about why I wrote the book in the first place.
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Because when I was writing Align Your Life, I kept coming back to one question.
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Not what do I want people to know when they finish this book?
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But instead, what do I hope becomes different in the way people live?
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See, those are very different questions.
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And I'm not particularly interested in collecting spiritual ideas.
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And I say that as someone who spent years doing exactly that: consciousness, energy, beliefs, the nervous system, trauma, prayer, forgiveness, gratitude, presence.
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Wonderful.
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But can I live any of it when someone pisses me off?
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That's a different question.
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Can I remember it when I'm scared?
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When somebody rejects me, when a plan falls apart, when I feel misunderstood, when my nervous system goes into survival.
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Because knowing that presence matters isn't presence.
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Knowing that forgiveness matters isn't forgiveness.
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Knowing I have a choice isn't choosing.
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That's where spirituality becomes practical.
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And that's where awareness becomes alignment.
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I don't want someone to finish align your life and think, wow, interesting book.
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I mean, I'll take it, don't get me wrong.
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But that is not why I wrote it.
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I want you to catch yourself halfway into an old realization and suddenly realize, wait, I have another choice.
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I want you to hear yourself telling the same old story you've told for 20 years and ask, wait, is that actually true?
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I want you to walk into a difficult conversation and notice the version of you who normally enters the room and intentionally choose who enters instead.
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That's where life changes.
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Not because we suddenly know more, because what we know begins changing how we live.
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This is the distinction we've been building all quarter.
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Awareness reveals, alignment participates, and creation is what begins expressing through those repeated choices.
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Awareness without embodiment can very easily become another form of entertainment.
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We consume it.
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We agree with it.
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We highlight half the damn book.
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And yes, I actually do that.
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We send the quote to our friend.
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This is so me.
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And then Tuesday morning comes and we live exactly the same way we lived Monday.
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Alignment asks something different.
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Alignment asks, now that you've seen it, what will you choose?
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Not forever, not for the rest of your life.
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Just right here.
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This choice, this conversation, this moment.
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Because this is what I have come to believe free will actually is, not some abstract philosophical concept.
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Free will is our capacity to intentionally choose our relationship with what is happening.
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And sovereignty is the practice of exercising that free will from the witness rather than automatically reacting from survival mind.
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That's alignment.
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Not knowing better, but choosing differently because awareness made another choice possible.
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See, there was a period in my life when I genuinely believed the next answer was going to be the answer.
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Another book, another teacher or healer, another course, certification, another modality, another breakthrough.
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And see, I wasn't casually dabbling.
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I was deeply, deeply curious and sincerely doing the work.
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I had learned a tremendous amount.
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And yet there were still places in my life, certain relationships, where I just kept repeating the same patterns.
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See, there's a difference between being able to explain yourself and actually being free.
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I could easily understand why I reacted a certain way and still react.
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I could understand a pattern and I would still participate in it.
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I would know that I needed a certain boundary and I'd still abandon myself.
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I could intellectually understand forgiveness and still carry the violin cabinet and talk about presence and still leave myself seconds after becoming activated.
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See, there's nothing wrong with information.
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Information itself has done the job.
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It turned on the light, it gave me awareness.
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You see, the missing piece though was that I was waiting for awareness to do the work that only choice could do.
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There is an old quote or parable, and I don't know where it comes from.
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And it goes, knowledge is rumor until it is embodied.
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And I'm going to say that to you again because I want you to just take a moment and absorb that.
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Awareness is rumor until it is embodied.
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Think about this.
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I can know lots of things and I'm up here in my mind.
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But until I can bring it down into a felt and lived experience, we're always going to have a disconnection.
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See, I was constantly being told, you know it up here, but bring it down here.
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But I don't understand that.
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But awareness, its job is to reveal a pattern.
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But awareness doesn't automatically change the pattern.
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You have to meet the pattern differently.
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And then again, and then again, and then again, and sometimes badly, sometimes after you've already reacted.
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Sometimes you only realize it three hours later.
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But at least now you saw it.
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Maybe the next time it's only 20 minutes and five minutes.
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That's what happened for me.
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And then eventually I caught it while it was happening.
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And then eventually I caught it while it was coming.
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But see, that's the practice.
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That's the difference of creating a lived experience.
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A great example of this was my relationship with my mother.
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He used to just react.
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She would say something, do something, and I would just snap.
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And then eventually I began to prepare myself for the conversations so that I would create an out for myself before I became activated.
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This is what we would call medium-hanging fruit.
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Low-hanging fruit would be like driving, but now we're going into something that's pretty activating.
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And I would learn how to actually prep for these things, to prepare myself to be able to get out.
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I learned how to pause, to take a breath and settle into my body and get present and just notice what was hooking me.
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And then I would get off the call before I freaked out.
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I stopped waiting for the trigger to become the place where I learned alignment and I started to practice beforehand.
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See, I didn't need another answer.
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I needed to practice living the answers that I already had.
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Sometimes this becomes what is often referred to as horizontal learning.
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We keep learning new tools, but we're really embodying it.
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And this is where the science becomes incredibly hopeful.
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Because one of the remarkable things about the human brain is that it remains capable of change throughout our lives.
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Repeated experiences strengthen neuropathways.
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The thoughts we rehearse, the emotional responses we repeatedly enter, and the behaviors we consistently practice can become increasingly efficient and familiar, which helps explain why our survival responses can feel so automatic.
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You don't wake up in the morning and consciously decide, today I think all people please.
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Can you imagine?
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You don't consciously decide to be a defensive person, or to withdraw, or over-explain, or even to control.
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Those responses happen often because they've been rehearsed thousands of times.
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They're familiar.
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They are efficient and they are available.
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But here's the beautiful part.
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The same principle that helped create an old pattern can help us practice a new one.
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Every time we interrupt the automatic response and consciously practice another one, we're giving the system a different experience.
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At first, it may feel clumsy, forced, maybe even unnatural.
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And sometimes people will interpret that feeling as this isn't really me.
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But of course it feels unfamiliar.
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You've practiced the other response for 30 years.
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Familiar isn't the same as authentic.
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Sometimes familiar is simply practiced.
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And that's why repetition matters so much.
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An insight may open a new possibility, but repetition helps stabilize it.
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Eventually, what once required enormous conscious effort becomes increasingly available.
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Presence becomes more familiar.
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Curiosity becomes more familiar.
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Compassion becomes more familiar.
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Even a boundary can become more familiar.
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Telling the truth to yourself can become more familiar.
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Returning to yourself.
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That's embodiment.
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Not because survival never appears again, I wish.
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But because alignment became another well-practiced path back home.
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Imagine sitting down at a piano for the very first time.
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You know where the keys are.
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Someone has explained how music works.
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Maybe you've even read an entire book about playing the piano.
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You understand scales, chords, rhythm.
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Wonderful.
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Now play.
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Your fingers don't know what your mind knows.
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At first, every movement requires attention.
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What does this finger do?
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Which note comes next?
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The music is slow.
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It is awkward, sometimes very frustrating.
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Nobody sits down after one lesson and says, apparently, the piano isn't aligned for me.
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We understand that music requires practice.
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Yet somehow, when it comes to our inner lives, we expect one breakthrough to permanently transform us.
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One therapy session, one meditation, one book, one profound spiritual experience.
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And when the old reaction comes back, we think, I thought I healed this.
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Maybe you did.
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And maybe now you're learning to play it differently.
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Presence has to be practiced.
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Compassion has to be practiced, especially when it's with yourself.
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Trust has to be practiced.
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Boundaries definitely need to be practiced.
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Alignment has to be practiced.
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One ordinary moment at a time.
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And eventually something remarkable happens.
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The musician stops thinking about every note.
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The music becomes something that moves through them.
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That's embodiment.
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Not because they understood the music, because they practiced it until the whole system knew how to play.
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Awareness opens the door, and practice walks through it.
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Repetition creates familiarity, and familiarity becomes embodiment.
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Embodiment changes what we create.
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This is why I don't think life is constantly testing us.
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You see, hear that language all the time.
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The universe is testing you.
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I don't believe that at all anymore.
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I think life is giving us somewhere to practice.
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The person who irritates you isn't necessarily a test.
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They're showing you something.
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The difficult conversation isn't proof that you're failing at alignment.
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It's somewhere to practice alignment.
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The boundary that makes your stomach turn isn't evidence that you're not ready.
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Maybe it's exactly where courage gets practiced.
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The uncertainty isn't something you have to eliminate before you trust.
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It's where trust gets lived.
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This changes everything because now I don't have to wait until I'm healed enough to live.
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Living is where embodiment happens.
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Every trigger becomes your classroom.
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Every difficult conversation becomes the rehearsal.
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Every unexpected disappointment becomes another opportunity to return.
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And compassion matters enormously here.
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Because if every time you catch an old pattern, you shame yourself, you've simply created another survival pattern around healing.
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This is not helpful.
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Curiosity gives us somewhere else to go.
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Oh, there it is.
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Isn't that interesting or fascinating?
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What meaning am I giving this?
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What belief is active?
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What is happening in my field?
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Thoughts am I having?
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Emotions am I having?
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What does my survival mind want to do?
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And who do I want to be?
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Now free will enters.
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Now alignment becomes possible.
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And this is where the five elements continue to give us such a compassionate way of understanding ourselves.
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Because returning to alignment doesn't look identical for everyone.
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See, wood may need to practice patience when life isn't moving fast enough.
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Not suppressing the frustration, witnessing it and feeling it, and practicing a different relationship with pace.
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Fire may need to practice remaining connected when the energy in the room changes.
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Immediately performing, entertaining, or trying to bring everybody back up.
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Earth may need to practice allowing other people to have their own experience.
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Caring without immediately caretaking.
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Metal may need to practice allowing imperfection, letting something unfold differently without deciding it's wrong.
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Where water may need to practice staying in connection when the instinct is to retreat, not forcing engagement, simply noticing when solitude has quietly become disappearance.
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None of these elements are a problem to fix.
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They're simply different places where life invites us to practice.
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The point isn't stop being wood or fire or earth or metal or water.
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They're all beautiful in they're all unique.
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The question is, how does this element express when I'm living from survival?
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And what becomes possible when I consciously practice its virtue instead?
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That's embodiment, not becoming someone else, becoming increasingly conscious in how we express who we already are.
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And this is just as true in leadership.
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Extraordinary cultures aren't created through one inspiring keynote.
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I say that as someone who.
00:22:00.079 --> 00:22:01.599
Who gives keynotes?
00:22:01.839 --> 00:22:11.680
They are not created by the annual retreat or the beautifully designed virtues or values on the wall.
00:22:12.000 --> 00:22:14.640
They're created Tuesday morning.
00:22:14.960 --> 00:22:19.759
An employee walks into your office and says, I made a mistake.
00:22:20.400 --> 00:22:21.759
There's the practice.
00:22:22.000 --> 00:22:23.119
Do you react?
00:22:23.440 --> 00:22:24.559
Do you shame?
00:22:24.880 --> 00:22:28.880
Do you immediately try to determine who's responsible?
00:22:29.119 --> 00:22:32.240
Or maybe even try to jump in and fix it?
00:22:32.559 --> 00:22:36.960
Can you stay curious enough long enough to understand what happened?
00:22:37.279 --> 00:22:40.000
Another person disagrees with you in a meeting.
00:22:40.240 --> 00:22:41.680
There's the practice.
00:22:42.000 --> 00:22:45.759
Someone gives you feedback you don't particularly enjoy hearing.
00:22:46.000 --> 00:22:47.519
There's the practice.
00:22:47.680 --> 00:22:48.880
That would be me.
00:22:49.200 --> 00:22:59.680
Culture is created through thousands of ordinary moments where leaders repeatedly teach people this is what happens in this room when reality arrives.
00:22:59.920 --> 00:23:04.240
That's why leadership isn't a performance, it's a practice.
00:23:04.480 --> 00:23:14.720
And every day gives us another opportunity to practice becoming the kind of person whose presence makes greater truth, trust, and alignment possible.
00:23:15.119 --> 00:23:18.799
So I'd like to leave you with something incredibly simple this week.
00:23:18.960 --> 00:23:24.400
Not another challenge, not another habit tracker, although I do love my trackers.
00:23:24.640 --> 00:23:25.759
Just a question.
00:23:26.079 --> 00:23:35.039
Tomorrow morning, before you get swept into everything you need to accomplish, ask, who do I want to practice being today?
00:23:35.759 --> 00:23:38.559
Not, what do I need to get done?
00:23:38.960 --> 00:23:42.000
Not what do I need to achieve?
00:23:42.240 --> 00:23:44.559
Those questions have their place.
00:23:45.440 --> 00:23:49.839
But before productivity, we want presence.
00:23:50.799 --> 00:23:54.559
Who do I want to practice being?
00:23:55.119 --> 00:23:57.839
Maybe today you practice curiosity.
00:23:58.079 --> 00:24:06.400
Maybe you practice courage or compassion, honesty, even if it's with yourself, practicing patience.
00:24:06.640 --> 00:24:12.960
Maybe today you practice not explaining your boundary seventeen different ways.
00:24:13.359 --> 00:24:19.599
Maybe you practice remaining present when someone is disappointed in you.
00:24:20.240 --> 00:24:26.240
Maybe you practice returning to yourself every time you've noticed you've drifted.
00:24:26.480 --> 00:24:27.759
Just choose one.
00:24:28.400 --> 00:24:30.640
Then live your day.
00:24:30.880 --> 00:24:34.559
And tonight don't ask, did I do it perfectly?
00:24:35.119 --> 00:24:37.440
Ask, did I remember?
00:24:37.680 --> 00:24:39.599
Did I remember to pause?
00:24:39.920 --> 00:24:43.039
Did I remember I had a choice?
00:24:43.440 --> 00:24:46.559
Did I remember that I'm the witness?
00:24:46.880 --> 00:24:51.599
Did I remember that awareness made another response possible?
00:24:51.839 --> 00:24:58.160
And if you forgot all day and remembered at 9.47 tonight, beautiful.
00:24:58.559 --> 00:25:04.079
You remembered tomorrow we practice again.
00:25:04.559 --> 00:25:06.319
That's how this works.
00:25:06.559 --> 00:25:18.559
Not through force, but through repetition, through compassion, through devotion, through beginning again and again.
00:25:19.200 --> 00:25:23.519
I'll give you personally my three questions that I ask in each moment.
00:25:24.559 --> 00:25:28.400
One, who do you want to be in this situation?
00:25:28.880 --> 00:25:36.880
Two, does this thought, emotion, behavior align with who you're choosing to be?
00:25:37.759 --> 00:25:45.440
And then three, what's the next best possible thought or behavior you can have?
00:25:45.759 --> 00:25:47.839
And I want you to shame yourself.
00:25:48.400 --> 00:25:51.440
You're gonna do the last two over and over again.
00:25:51.680 --> 00:25:55.839
So the key to the first question is that person is your future self.
00:25:56.079 --> 00:25:57.039
Who do you want to be?
00:25:57.200 --> 00:25:59.279
How do you want to handle these situations?
00:25:59.680 --> 00:26:01.839
Who do you want to be in this situation?
00:26:02.640 --> 00:26:06.720
Then we can ask the next two questions over and over until we get to a yes.
00:26:06.880 --> 00:26:08.640
Does this thought align with who you choose to be?
00:26:08.880 --> 00:26:09.440
Answer is no.
00:26:09.599 --> 00:26:11.119
What's the next best possible one?
00:26:11.279 --> 00:26:16.559
We do it again and again and again until we get to a, oh, yeah, that does align.
00:26:16.720 --> 00:26:17.119
Great.
00:26:17.279 --> 00:26:18.960
Move and go forward from there.
00:26:19.359 --> 00:26:27.279
Those three questions, write them on sticky notes, put them on your computer, put them on, you know, maybe your fridge, the mirror in the bathroom.
00:26:27.519 --> 00:26:29.119
Put them in your car.
00:26:29.920 --> 00:26:33.440
Those three questions, those will change your life.
00:26:33.680 --> 00:26:39.359
As I think about this journey we've been on together, I keep coming back to ordinary moments.
00:26:39.680 --> 00:26:43.119
Most of our lives aren't lived in the milestones.
00:26:43.279 --> 00:26:45.440
They're lived on Tuesday afternoons.
00:26:45.599 --> 00:26:49.839
They're lived in kitchens, in cars, in meetings.
00:26:50.480 --> 00:26:56.160
They're lived in text messages, grocery stores, uh, bedrooms.
00:26:56.960 --> 00:27:05.119
The five seconds after someone says something you don't like, most of those moments will never be photographed.
00:27:05.440 --> 00:27:07.039
Nobody will applaud.
00:27:07.279 --> 00:27:12.880
There won't be a certificate saying, congratulations, you chose alignment.
00:27:13.200 --> 00:27:15.680
Well, there might be if you're in my office.
00:27:16.240 --> 00:27:19.519
They'll simply come and then they'll go.
00:27:20.000 --> 00:27:25.599
But what if those are the moments where our lives are actually created?
00:27:26.000 --> 00:27:31.119
Not in the promotion, but the way you treat yourself after making a mistake.
00:27:31.359 --> 00:27:37.119
Not the wedding, the conversation in the kitchen 15 years later.
00:27:37.599 --> 00:27:43.759
Not the retreat, the way you respond when someone challenges you on a Tuesday morning.
00:27:44.000 --> 00:27:47.680
Not the breakthrough, but the next choice.
00:27:48.079 --> 00:28:01.519
Those are the moments where character is formed, where trust is cultivated, where relationships change, where the field changes, where alignment becomes embodied.
00:28:01.920 --> 00:28:04.720
Because that's where embodiment really is.
00:28:05.039 --> 00:28:11.279
It's when the person you've been practicing becoming begins showing up before you have to remind them.
00:28:11.759 --> 00:28:24.240
Not perfectly, not permanently, but increasingly natural because you've practiced returning often enough that alignment begins to feel like home.
00:28:24.559 --> 00:28:29.599
And before we finish today, I want to invite you into something incredibly meaningful for me.
00:28:30.160 --> 00:28:37.039
We are now less than two weeks away from the official launch on October 7th.
00:28:37.359 --> 00:28:43.440
But after everything we've just talked about, I want to be very clear about what I'm inviting you to purchase.
00:28:43.759 --> 00:28:52.079
Not an answer, not another thing to consume, not 12 laws to highlight and put on the shelf.
00:28:52.720 --> 00:28:56.480
I'm inviting you into a practice.
00:28:56.799 --> 00:28:59.440
Because the book can turn on the light.
00:28:59.680 --> 00:29:03.599
What you do once you see the room is entirely yours.
00:29:04.240 --> 00:29:21.119
The witness, the room, field and form, the 12 laws of co-creation, uh, the questions, the practices, the opportunities to see your life differently, and then decide what you want to do with what you see.
00:29:21.680 --> 00:29:38.240
And that's also why I've created the companion library, because I want to give you a way to take these ideas off the page and into your actual life, into your relationships, your work, your body, your leadership, and your room.
00:29:38.640 --> 00:29:43.440
If you'd like to pre-order your copy, you'll find the link in the show notes below.
00:29:43.759 --> 00:29:56.240
And then on October 7th, the book officially enters into the world, which feels both enormous and somehow like another beginning.
00:29:56.480 --> 00:30:03.599
Over the years, people have asked me, what does an aligned life actually look like?
00:30:03.920 --> 00:30:06.720
I don't think it looks like perfection.
00:30:07.200 --> 00:30:10.480
I don't think it looks like having all the answers.
00:30:10.720 --> 00:30:13.920
And I don't think it looks like never being triggered.
00:30:14.079 --> 00:30:32.480
I think an aligned life looks like someone who remembers, someone who remembers to pause, someone who remembers they have a choice, someone who remembers they are not all that furniture, someone who remembers they are the witness.
00:30:32.960 --> 00:30:40.559
Someone who remembers that the survival mind can speak without automatically getting to drive.
00:30:40.960 --> 00:30:46.480
And someone who learns to return to themselves with compassion instead of criticism.
00:30:47.119 --> 00:30:50.880
Again and again and again.
00:30:51.519 --> 00:30:53.519
That is alignment.
00:30:53.920 --> 00:30:56.000
Not never leaving the path.
00:30:56.240 --> 00:31:00.960
Instead, it's learning to love the practice of returning to it.
00:31:01.200 --> 00:31:06.960
And maybe that's where this strange little space between pre-order and launch is reminding me of, too.
00:31:07.279 --> 00:31:14.400
We spend so much time waiting for arrival, the launch, the achievement, the answer.
00:31:15.279 --> 00:31:18.799
The moment when everything finally became real.
00:31:19.519 --> 00:31:34.400
But life keeps happening in between, between the intention and the outcome, between awareness and embodiment, between who we've been and who we're practicing becoming.
00:31:34.799 --> 00:31:37.440
That's where free will lives.
00:31:37.599 --> 00:31:39.519
That's where sovereignty lives.
00:31:39.759 --> 00:31:42.720
That's where alignment lives.
00:31:43.279 --> 00:32:02.960
So wherever you find yourself today, whether your room feels beautifully organized, somewhat minimalist, or there's still a few pieces of furniture you're walking around, the light is still on, the witness is still there, and your next choice is still available.
00:32:03.200 --> 00:32:07.200
You don't have to become the person you want to be by tomorrow morning.
00:32:07.519 --> 00:32:11.680
Just practice being them in the next moment that asks.
00:32:12.240 --> 00:32:14.880
Then the next and the next.
00:32:15.279 --> 00:32:21.200
Until one day you realize you're no longer trying to remember the music.
00:32:21.519 --> 00:32:23.119
You're playing it.
00:32:23.759 --> 00:32:27.039
Thank you for walking this journey with me.
00:32:27.440 --> 00:32:31.599
Until next time, please keep turning on the light.
00:32:31.839 --> 00:32:33.839
Keep practicing alignment.
00:32:34.079 --> 00:32:37.359
Keep choosing who you want to be.
00:32:37.839 --> 00:32:39.279
You're the witness.
00:32:39.599 --> 00:32:44.079
You shape the field, and the field shapes your life.
00:32:44.400 --> 00:32:47.359
Thank you so much for spending this time with me today.
00:32:47.599 --> 00:32:54.720
My hope is that you leave each episode not with more information, but with greater awareness.
00:32:54.880 --> 00:32:58.720
Because awareness is where every meaningful change begins.
00:32:59.119 --> 00:33:11.680
If today's conversation resonated with you, I'd love for you to subscribe, leave a review, and share this episode with someone who's ready to stop surviving and start living from alignment.
00:33:11.920 --> 00:33:16.559
If you'd like to continue this work, you can join us inside the Aligned Human Project community.
00:33:16.720 --> 00:33:26.559
Explore the free five-element alignment assessment, or learn more about Align Your Life, Aligned Living, and Alignment Operating System at Practical Spiritualism Co.
00:33:27.039 --> 00:33:27.359
com.
00:33:27.839 --> 00:33:30.480
Remember, awareness reveals.
00:33:30.880 --> 00:33:35.440
Alignment chooses, and creation follows.
00:33:35.920 --> 00:33:37.920
You are the witness.
00:33:38.079 --> 00:33:42.400
You shape the field, and the field shapes your life.
00:33:42.640 --> 00:33:48.799
Until next time, keep pausing, keep noticing, and keep choosing.
00:33:48.960 --> 00:33:51.279
I'll see you in the next episode.
00:00:00.239 --> 00:00:03.359
Over the past year, we've explored awareness.
00:00:03.600 --> 00:00:13.919
We've turned on the light, we've talked about the witness, survival patterns, field and form, alignment, and most recently, the architecture of trust.
00:00:14.080 --> 00:00:16.640
And this week, something special happened.
00:00:16.960 --> 00:00:20.399
Pre-orders officially opened for Align Your Life.
00:00:20.559 --> 00:00:23.679
The book itself launches on October 7th.
00:00:23.839 --> 00:00:32.159
And I've been thinking about something that might sound a little strange, coming from an author who would very much like you to pre-order her book.
00:00:33.039 --> 00:00:36.719
A book will not change your life.
00:00:36.960 --> 00:00:38.960
Neither will this podcast.
00:00:39.280 --> 00:00:41.759
Neither will the next workshop.
00:00:42.000 --> 00:00:44.479
Neither will the next breakthrough.
00:00:44.880 --> 00:00:48.640
And awareness alone won't change your life either.
00:00:48.960 --> 00:00:50.399
Practice does.
00:00:50.880 --> 00:00:52.479
Embodiment does.
00:00:52.799 --> 00:00:54.560
Choice does.
00:00:55.039 --> 00:00:57.119
A book can turn on the light.
00:00:57.280 --> 00:00:59.679
It can help you see the furniture.
00:00:59.920 --> 00:01:06.879
It can give you language for something you've felt for years but haven't been able to really name.
00:01:07.439 --> 00:01:11.359
It can show you a door you didn't realize was there.
00:01:11.680 --> 00:01:14.959
But eventually, you have to walk through it.
00:01:15.200 --> 00:01:22.560
And maybe there's something beautifully appropriate about being in this space between pre-order and launch.
00:01:22.879 --> 00:01:24.319
The work exists.
00:01:24.799 --> 00:01:28.719
The intention has been set, but we haven't arrived yet.
00:01:28.959 --> 00:01:30.159
We're in the middle.
00:01:30.400 --> 00:01:34.719
And isn't that where transformation actually happens?
00:01:35.120 --> 00:01:38.239
Between awareness and embodiment.
00:01:38.799 --> 00:01:41.840
Between intention and expression.
00:01:42.400 --> 00:01:48.000
Between who we've been and who we're practicing becoming.
00:01:48.239 --> 00:01:50.959
So today isn't really about a book.
00:01:51.200 --> 00:01:56.959
It's about what happens after we've seen something we can no longer unsee.
00:01:57.280 --> 00:02:00.879
Because now, the real work begins.
00:02:01.519 --> 00:02:04.879
Hello, hello, and welcome to the Aligned Human Project.
00:02:05.040 --> 00:02:06.560
I'm your host, Don Elgin.
00:02:07.120 --> 00:02:17.680
If you've ever looked around at your life that appears successful on the outside but feels disconnected on the inside, you are in the right place.
00:02:17.919 --> 00:02:33.120
If you've ever wondered why you keep repeating the same patterns, carrying the same emotional weight, or chasing goals that never quite bring you the peace you hope they would, you are in the right place.
00:02:33.439 --> 00:02:40.560
This podcast is about remembering who you were before the world told you who you needed to be.
00:02:40.719 --> 00:03:01.280
Together we'll explore the intersection of neuroscience, psychology, ancient wisdom, quantum science, and practical spiritualism to understand how awareness shapes our field and how our field shapes our lives, and why lasting change begins from the inside out.
00:03:01.759 --> 00:03:18.080
We'll talk about leadership, relationships, health, purpose, emotional well-being, and conscious creation, not as separate parts of life, but as reflections of one thing: our level of alignment.
00:03:18.319 --> 00:03:24.960
Because most people don't need another strategy, they need a new relationship with themselves.
00:03:25.120 --> 00:03:34.319
So whether you're leading a business, a family, a team, or simply trying to lead yourself with greater intention, welcome.
00:03:34.560 --> 00:03:38.960
Take a breath, become the witness, and let's begin.
00:03:39.280 --> 00:03:43.520
Hello, hello, my friends, and welcome back to the Aligned Human Project.
00:03:43.680 --> 00:03:46.879
This week's episode feels deeply personal.
00:03:47.199 --> 00:03:51.360
On Wednesday, pre-orders officially opened for Align Your Life.
00:03:51.599 --> 00:04:07.360
And after years of writing and rewriting, studying, questioning, living these ideas, changing my mind about some of them and deepening others, we are now just less than two weeks away from the official launch on October 7th.
00:04:07.840 --> 00:04:09.280
It is surreal.
00:04:09.520 --> 00:04:14.080
But this moment has also made me think about why I wrote the book in the first place.
00:04:14.400 --> 00:04:19.600
Because when I was writing Align Your Life, I kept coming back to one question.
00:04:20.160 --> 00:04:25.519
Not what do I want people to know when they finish this book?
00:04:25.839 --> 00:04:32.639
But instead, what do I hope becomes different in the way people live?
00:04:33.120 --> 00:04:35.519
See, those are very different questions.
00:04:36.000 --> 00:04:41.120
And I'm not particularly interested in collecting spiritual ideas.
00:04:41.600 --> 00:04:59.360
And I say that as someone who spent years doing exactly that: consciousness, energy, beliefs, the nervous system, trauma, prayer, forgiveness, gratitude, presence.
00:05:00.160 --> 00:05:01.120
Wonderful.
00:05:01.920 --> 00:05:07.439
But can I live any of it when someone pisses me off?
00:05:08.160 --> 00:05:10.319
That's a different question.
00:05:10.639 --> 00:05:14.160
Can I remember it when I'm scared?
00:05:14.800 --> 00:05:26.240
When somebody rejects me, when a plan falls apart, when I feel misunderstood, when my nervous system goes into survival.
00:05:26.560 --> 00:05:30.959
Because knowing that presence matters isn't presence.
00:05:31.600 --> 00:05:36.639
Knowing that forgiveness matters isn't forgiveness.
00:05:37.279 --> 00:05:41.279
Knowing I have a choice isn't choosing.
00:05:42.000 --> 00:05:45.360
That's where spirituality becomes practical.
00:05:45.600 --> 00:05:49.439
And that's where awareness becomes alignment.
00:05:49.759 --> 00:05:55.040
I don't want someone to finish align your life and think, wow, interesting book.
00:05:55.360 --> 00:05:58.399
I mean, I'll take it, don't get me wrong.
00:05:58.720 --> 00:06:01.839
But that is not why I wrote it.
00:06:02.160 --> 00:06:09.920
I want you to catch yourself halfway into an old realization and suddenly realize, wait, I have another choice.
00:06:10.160 --> 00:06:18.240
I want you to hear yourself telling the same old story you've told for 20 years and ask, wait, is that actually true?
00:06:18.480 --> 00:06:28.720
I want you to walk into a difficult conversation and notice the version of you who normally enters the room and intentionally choose who enters instead.
00:06:28.959 --> 00:06:30.720
That's where life changes.
00:06:30.959 --> 00:06:38.160
Not because we suddenly know more, because what we know begins changing how we live.
00:06:38.399 --> 00:06:42.079
This is the distinction we've been building all quarter.
00:06:42.319 --> 00:06:50.879
Awareness reveals, alignment participates, and creation is what begins expressing through those repeated choices.
00:06:51.199 --> 00:06:56.240
Awareness without embodiment can very easily become another form of entertainment.
00:06:56.639 --> 00:06:58.160
We consume it.
00:06:58.639 --> 00:07:00.240
We agree with it.
00:07:00.639 --> 00:07:04.240
We highlight half the damn book.
00:07:04.480 --> 00:07:06.560
And yes, I actually do that.
00:07:06.800 --> 00:07:09.040
We send the quote to our friend.
00:07:09.600 --> 00:07:11.360
This is so me.
00:07:11.680 --> 00:07:18.319
And then Tuesday morning comes and we live exactly the same way we lived Monday.
00:07:18.959 --> 00:07:21.040
Alignment asks something different.
00:07:22.000 --> 00:07:26.879
Alignment asks, now that you've seen it, what will you choose?
00:07:27.759 --> 00:07:30.720
Not forever, not for the rest of your life.
00:07:31.439 --> 00:07:32.720
Just right here.
00:07:33.519 --> 00:07:39.120
This choice, this conversation, this moment.
00:07:40.079 --> 00:07:48.959
Because this is what I have come to believe free will actually is, not some abstract philosophical concept.
00:07:49.279 --> 00:07:55.680
Free will is our capacity to intentionally choose our relationship with what is happening.
00:07:56.079 --> 00:08:05.040
And sovereignty is the practice of exercising that free will from the witness rather than automatically reacting from survival mind.
00:08:05.600 --> 00:08:07.040
That's alignment.
00:08:07.600 --> 00:08:15.199
Not knowing better, but choosing differently because awareness made another choice possible.
00:08:15.759 --> 00:08:23.279
See, there was a period in my life when I genuinely believed the next answer was going to be the answer.
00:08:23.600 --> 00:08:32.960
Another book, another teacher or healer, another course, certification, another modality, another breakthrough.
00:08:33.279 --> 00:08:35.840
And see, I wasn't casually dabbling.
00:08:36.000 --> 00:08:41.039
I was deeply, deeply curious and sincerely doing the work.
00:08:41.519 --> 00:08:45.039
I had learned a tremendous amount.
00:08:45.360 --> 00:08:52.799
And yet there were still places in my life, certain relationships, where I just kept repeating the same patterns.
00:08:53.360 --> 00:09:01.200
See, there's a difference between being able to explain yourself and actually being free.
00:09:01.840 --> 00:09:07.759
I could easily understand why I reacted a certain way and still react.
00:09:08.399 --> 00:09:13.039
I could understand a pattern and I would still participate in it.
00:09:13.519 --> 00:09:19.600
I would know that I needed a certain boundary and I'd still abandon myself.
00:09:19.919 --> 00:09:35.279
I could intellectually understand forgiveness and still carry the violin cabinet and talk about presence and still leave myself seconds after becoming activated.
00:09:35.679 --> 00:09:38.000
See, there's nothing wrong with information.
00:09:38.480 --> 00:09:41.279
Information itself has done the job.
00:09:41.600 --> 00:09:44.240
It turned on the light, it gave me awareness.
00:09:44.559 --> 00:09:52.720
You see, the missing piece though was that I was waiting for awareness to do the work that only choice could do.
00:09:53.600 --> 00:09:58.559
There is an old quote or parable, and I don't know where it comes from.
00:09:58.799 --> 00:10:05.360
And it goes, knowledge is rumor until it is embodied.
00:10:06.080 --> 00:10:10.559
And I'm going to say that to you again because I want you to just take a moment and absorb that.
00:10:11.039 --> 00:10:16.320
Awareness is rumor until it is embodied.
00:10:17.120 --> 00:10:18.399
Think about this.
00:10:19.039 --> 00:10:22.799
I can know lots of things and I'm up here in my mind.
00:10:23.360 --> 00:10:32.240
But until I can bring it down into a felt and lived experience, we're always going to have a disconnection.
00:10:32.559 --> 00:10:36.720
See, I was constantly being told, you know it up here, but bring it down here.
00:10:36.799 --> 00:10:38.480
But I don't understand that.
00:10:39.279 --> 00:10:42.960
But awareness, its job is to reveal a pattern.
00:10:43.200 --> 00:10:46.720
But awareness doesn't automatically change the pattern.
00:10:47.120 --> 00:10:50.320
You have to meet the pattern differently.
00:10:50.559 --> 00:11:01.120
And then again, and then again, and then again, and sometimes badly, sometimes after you've already reacted.
00:11:01.519 --> 00:11:05.759
Sometimes you only realize it three hours later.
00:11:06.080 --> 00:11:08.240
But at least now you saw it.
00:11:08.960 --> 00:11:13.039
Maybe the next time it's only 20 minutes and five minutes.
00:11:13.200 --> 00:11:14.720
That's what happened for me.
00:11:14.879 --> 00:11:17.440
And then eventually I caught it while it was happening.
00:11:17.600 --> 00:11:20.799
And then eventually I caught it while it was coming.
00:11:21.039 --> 00:11:22.960
But see, that's the practice.
00:11:23.120 --> 00:11:26.639
That's the difference of creating a lived experience.
00:11:27.600 --> 00:11:31.919
A great example of this was my relationship with my mother.
00:11:32.399 --> 00:11:33.840
He used to just react.
00:11:34.000 --> 00:11:37.120
She would say something, do something, and I would just snap.
00:11:37.519 --> 00:11:48.480
And then eventually I began to prepare myself for the conversations so that I would create an out for myself before I became activated.
00:11:48.720 --> 00:11:51.840
This is what we would call medium-hanging fruit.
00:11:51.919 --> 00:11:56.879
Low-hanging fruit would be like driving, but now we're going into something that's pretty activating.
00:11:57.120 --> 00:12:04.480
And I would learn how to actually prep for these things, to prepare myself to be able to get out.
00:12:04.720 --> 00:12:14.720
I learned how to pause, to take a breath and settle into my body and get present and just notice what was hooking me.
00:12:14.960 --> 00:12:20.320
And then I would get off the call before I freaked out.
00:12:20.480 --> 00:12:28.080
I stopped waiting for the trigger to become the place where I learned alignment and I started to practice beforehand.
00:12:29.039 --> 00:12:31.440
See, I didn't need another answer.
00:12:31.919 --> 00:12:37.039
I needed to practice living the answers that I already had.
00:12:37.519 --> 00:12:42.639
Sometimes this becomes what is often referred to as horizontal learning.
00:12:42.879 --> 00:12:47.120
We keep learning new tools, but we're really embodying it.
00:12:47.440 --> 00:12:51.840
And this is where the science becomes incredibly hopeful.
00:12:52.080 --> 00:13:00.080
Because one of the remarkable things about the human brain is that it remains capable of change throughout our lives.
00:13:00.320 --> 00:13:03.840
Repeated experiences strengthen neuropathways.
00:13:04.000 --> 00:13:23.120
The thoughts we rehearse, the emotional responses we repeatedly enter, and the behaviors we consistently practice can become increasingly efficient and familiar, which helps explain why our survival responses can feel so automatic.
00:13:23.360 --> 00:13:29.039
You don't wake up in the morning and consciously decide, today I think all people please.
00:13:30.000 --> 00:13:31.200
Can you imagine?
00:13:31.440 --> 00:13:42.399
You don't consciously decide to be a defensive person, or to withdraw, or over-explain, or even to control.
00:13:43.440 --> 00:13:48.720
Those responses happen often because they've been rehearsed thousands of times.
00:13:48.799 --> 00:13:50.000
They're familiar.
00:13:50.320 --> 00:13:53.679
They are efficient and they are available.
00:13:53.919 --> 00:13:55.840
But here's the beautiful part.
00:13:56.240 --> 00:14:02.639
The same principle that helped create an old pattern can help us practice a new one.
00:14:02.960 --> 00:14:11.759
Every time we interrupt the automatic response and consciously practice another one, we're giving the system a different experience.
00:14:12.000 --> 00:14:18.000
At first, it may feel clumsy, forced, maybe even unnatural.
00:14:18.320 --> 00:14:23.360
And sometimes people will interpret that feeling as this isn't really me.
00:14:23.919 --> 00:14:26.879
But of course it feels unfamiliar.
00:14:27.200 --> 00:14:31.360
You've practiced the other response for 30 years.
00:14:31.679 --> 00:14:35.840
Familiar isn't the same as authentic.
00:14:36.320 --> 00:14:41.519
Sometimes familiar is simply practiced.
00:14:42.000 --> 00:14:45.440
And that's why repetition matters so much.
00:14:46.159 --> 00:14:53.440
An insight may open a new possibility, but repetition helps stabilize it.
00:14:53.679 --> 00:14:59.279
Eventually, what once required enormous conscious effort becomes increasingly available.
00:14:59.600 --> 00:15:02.240
Presence becomes more familiar.
00:15:02.559 --> 00:15:05.440
Curiosity becomes more familiar.
00:15:05.759 --> 00:15:09.039
Compassion becomes more familiar.
00:15:09.440 --> 00:15:13.120
Even a boundary can become more familiar.
00:15:13.600 --> 00:15:17.120
Telling the truth to yourself can become more familiar.
00:15:17.440 --> 00:15:19.200
Returning to yourself.
00:15:19.919 --> 00:15:21.519
That's embodiment.
00:15:21.840 --> 00:15:26.080
Not because survival never appears again, I wish.
00:15:26.399 --> 00:15:32.240
But because alignment became another well-practiced path back home.
00:15:32.879 --> 00:15:36.320
Imagine sitting down at a piano for the very first time.
00:15:36.639 --> 00:15:38.480
You know where the keys are.
00:15:38.799 --> 00:15:42.960
Someone has explained how music works.
00:15:43.519 --> 00:15:47.840
Maybe you've even read an entire book about playing the piano.
00:15:48.080 --> 00:15:52.480
You understand scales, chords, rhythm.
00:15:53.039 --> 00:15:54.000
Wonderful.
00:15:55.200 --> 00:15:56.960
Now play.
00:15:59.039 --> 00:16:03.679
Your fingers don't know what your mind knows.
00:16:04.320 --> 00:16:07.840
At first, every movement requires attention.
00:16:08.159 --> 00:16:09.840
What does this finger do?
00:16:10.080 --> 00:16:11.919
Which note comes next?
00:16:12.159 --> 00:16:13.840
The music is slow.
00:16:14.080 --> 00:16:18.000
It is awkward, sometimes very frustrating.
00:16:18.240 --> 00:16:25.600
Nobody sits down after one lesson and says, apparently, the piano isn't aligned for me.
00:16:26.480 --> 00:16:30.720
We understand that music requires practice.
00:16:31.120 --> 00:16:38.559
Yet somehow, when it comes to our inner lives, we expect one breakthrough to permanently transform us.
00:16:38.960 --> 00:16:46.720
One therapy session, one meditation, one book, one profound spiritual experience.
00:16:47.200 --> 00:16:52.879
And when the old reaction comes back, we think, I thought I healed this.
00:16:53.440 --> 00:16:54.559
Maybe you did.
00:16:54.799 --> 00:16:58.320
And maybe now you're learning to play it differently.
00:16:59.200 --> 00:17:01.519
Presence has to be practiced.
00:17:01.919 --> 00:17:06.400
Compassion has to be practiced, especially when it's with yourself.
00:17:06.720 --> 00:17:08.799
Trust has to be practiced.
00:17:09.279 --> 00:17:12.240
Boundaries definitely need to be practiced.
00:17:12.640 --> 00:17:14.480
Alignment has to be practiced.
00:17:14.720 --> 00:17:18.079
One ordinary moment at a time.
00:17:18.640 --> 00:17:22.000
And eventually something remarkable happens.
00:17:22.319 --> 00:17:24.960
The musician stops thinking about every note.
00:17:25.359 --> 00:17:28.960
The music becomes something that moves through them.
00:17:29.279 --> 00:17:30.960
That's embodiment.
00:17:31.279 --> 00:17:38.720
Not because they understood the music, because they practiced it until the whole system knew how to play.
00:17:38.960 --> 00:17:43.359
Awareness opens the door, and practice walks through it.
00:17:43.759 --> 00:17:50.160
Repetition creates familiarity, and familiarity becomes embodiment.
00:17:50.799 --> 00:17:53.359
Embodiment changes what we create.
00:17:53.680 --> 00:17:57.119
This is why I don't think life is constantly testing us.
00:17:57.440 --> 00:17:59.759
You see, hear that language all the time.
00:18:00.000 --> 00:18:02.160
The universe is testing you.
00:18:02.480 --> 00:18:05.920
I don't believe that at all anymore.
00:18:06.160 --> 00:18:10.079
I think life is giving us somewhere to practice.
00:18:10.319 --> 00:18:13.920
The person who irritates you isn't necessarily a test.
00:18:14.319 --> 00:18:16.000
They're showing you something.
00:18:16.240 --> 00:18:20.880
The difficult conversation isn't proof that you're failing at alignment.
00:18:21.039 --> 00:18:24.559
It's somewhere to practice alignment.
00:18:24.960 --> 00:18:30.799
The boundary that makes your stomach turn isn't evidence that you're not ready.
00:18:31.119 --> 00:18:35.440
Maybe it's exactly where courage gets practiced.
00:18:35.680 --> 00:18:40.000
The uncertainty isn't something you have to eliminate before you trust.
00:18:40.160 --> 00:18:42.079
It's where trust gets lived.
00:18:42.480 --> 00:18:49.440
This changes everything because now I don't have to wait until I'm healed enough to live.
00:18:49.759 --> 00:18:52.960
Living is where embodiment happens.
00:18:53.200 --> 00:18:56.319
Every trigger becomes your classroom.
00:18:56.480 --> 00:18:59.759
Every difficult conversation becomes the rehearsal.
00:19:00.000 --> 00:19:05.279
Every unexpected disappointment becomes another opportunity to return.
00:19:05.599 --> 00:19:08.960
And compassion matters enormously here.
00:19:09.200 --> 00:19:17.839
Because if every time you catch an old pattern, you shame yourself, you've simply created another survival pattern around healing.
00:19:18.160 --> 00:19:19.680
This is not helpful.
00:19:20.240 --> 00:19:24.000
Curiosity gives us somewhere else to go.
00:19:24.319 --> 00:19:26.559
Oh, there it is.
00:19:26.880 --> 00:19:29.440
Isn't that interesting or fascinating?
00:19:29.839 --> 00:19:32.400
What meaning am I giving this?
00:19:32.960 --> 00:19:35.440
What belief is active?
00:19:35.920 --> 00:19:38.400
What is happening in my field?
00:19:38.640 --> 00:19:39.440
Thoughts am I having?
00:19:39.599 --> 00:19:40.799
Emotions am I having?
00:19:40.960 --> 00:19:43.440
What does my survival mind want to do?
00:19:44.079 --> 00:19:47.039
And who do I want to be?
00:19:47.839 --> 00:19:49.920
Now free will enters.
00:19:50.160 --> 00:19:52.880
Now alignment becomes possible.
00:19:53.440 --> 00:20:00.720
And this is where the five elements continue to give us such a compassionate way of understanding ourselves.
00:20:01.039 --> 00:20:06.240
Because returning to alignment doesn't look identical for everyone.
00:20:06.559 --> 00:20:11.599
See, wood may need to practice patience when life isn't moving fast enough.
00:20:12.000 --> 00:20:20.319
Not suppressing the frustration, witnessing it and feeling it, and practicing a different relationship with pace.
00:20:20.799 --> 00:20:25.599
Fire may need to practice remaining connected when the energy in the room changes.
00:20:26.559 --> 00:20:30.960
Immediately performing, entertaining, or trying to bring everybody back up.
00:20:31.759 --> 00:20:37.359
Earth may need to practice allowing other people to have their own experience.
00:20:37.920 --> 00:20:40.559
Caring without immediately caretaking.
00:20:40.880 --> 00:20:48.559
Metal may need to practice allowing imperfection, letting something unfold differently without deciding it's wrong.
00:20:48.799 --> 00:21:01.680
Where water may need to practice staying in connection when the instinct is to retreat, not forcing engagement, simply noticing when solitude has quietly become disappearance.
00:21:02.079 --> 00:21:04.799
None of these elements are a problem to fix.
00:21:05.039 --> 00:21:09.599
They're simply different places where life invites us to practice.
00:21:09.920 --> 00:21:17.359
The point isn't stop being wood or fire or earth or metal or water.
00:21:17.519 --> 00:21:20.960
They're all beautiful in they're all unique.
00:21:21.839 --> 00:21:29.039
The question is, how does this element express when I'm living from survival?
00:21:29.599 --> 00:21:36.079
And what becomes possible when I consciously practice its virtue instead?
00:21:36.559 --> 00:21:48.160
That's embodiment, not becoming someone else, becoming increasingly conscious in how we express who we already are.
00:21:49.119 --> 00:21:54.000
And this is just as true in leadership.
00:21:54.319 --> 00:21:58.400
Extraordinary cultures aren't created through one inspiring keynote.
00:21:58.799 --> 00:21:59.759
I say that as someone who.
00:22:00.079 --> 00:22:01.599
Who gives keynotes?
00:22:01.839 --> 00:22:11.680
They are not created by the annual retreat or the beautifully designed virtues or values on the wall.
00:22:12.000 --> 00:22:14.640
They're created Tuesday morning.
00:22:14.960 --> 00:22:19.759
An employee walks into your office and says, I made a mistake.
00:22:20.400 --> 00:22:21.759
There's the practice.
00:22:22.000 --> 00:22:23.119
Do you react?
00:22:23.440 --> 00:22:24.559
Do you shame?
00:22:24.880 --> 00:22:28.880
Do you immediately try to determine who's responsible?
00:22:29.119 --> 00:22:32.240
Or maybe even try to jump in and fix it?
00:22:32.559 --> 00:22:36.960
Can you stay curious enough long enough to understand what happened?
00:22:37.279 --> 00:22:40.000
Another person disagrees with you in a meeting.
00:22:40.240 --> 00:22:41.680
There's the practice.
00:22:42.000 --> 00:22:45.759
Someone gives you feedback you don't particularly enjoy hearing.
00:22:46.000 --> 00:22:47.519
There's the practice.
00:22:47.680 --> 00:22:48.880
That would be me.
00:22:49.200 --> 00:22:59.680
Culture is created through thousands of ordinary moments where leaders repeatedly teach people this is what happens in this room when reality arrives.
00:22:59.920 --> 00:23:04.240
That's why leadership isn't a performance, it's a practice.
00:23:04.480 --> 00:23:14.720
And every day gives us another opportunity to practice becoming the kind of person whose presence makes greater truth, trust, and alignment possible.
00:23:15.119 --> 00:23:18.799
So I'd like to leave you with something incredibly simple this week.
00:23:18.960 --> 00:23:24.400
Not another challenge, not another habit tracker, although I do love my trackers.
00:23:24.640 --> 00:23:25.759
Just a question.
00:23:26.079 --> 00:23:35.039
Tomorrow morning, before you get swept into everything you need to accomplish, ask, who do I want to practice being today?
00:23:35.759 --> 00:23:38.559
Not, what do I need to get done?
00:23:38.960 --> 00:23:42.000
Not what do I need to achieve?
00:23:42.240 --> 00:23:44.559
Those questions have their place.
00:23:45.440 --> 00:23:49.839
But before productivity, we want presence.
00:23:50.799 --> 00:23:54.559
Who do I want to practice being?
00:23:55.119 --> 00:23:57.839
Maybe today you practice curiosity.
00:23:58.079 --> 00:24:06.400
Maybe you practice courage or compassion, honesty, even if it's with yourself, practicing patience.
00:24:06.640 --> 00:24:12.960
Maybe today you practice not explaining your boundary seventeen different ways.
00:24:13.359 --> 00:24:19.599
Maybe you practice remaining present when someone is disappointed in you.
00:24:20.240 --> 00:24:26.240
Maybe you practice returning to yourself every time you've noticed you've drifted.
00:24:26.480 --> 00:24:27.759
Just choose one.
00:24:28.400 --> 00:24:30.640
Then live your day.
00:24:30.880 --> 00:24:34.559
And tonight don't ask, did I do it perfectly?
00:24:35.119 --> 00:24:37.440
Ask, did I remember?
00:24:37.680 --> 00:24:39.599
Did I remember to pause?
00:24:39.920 --> 00:24:43.039
Did I remember I had a choice?
00:24:43.440 --> 00:24:46.559
Did I remember that I'm the witness?
00:24:46.880 --> 00:24:51.599
Did I remember that awareness made another response possible?
00:24:51.839 --> 00:24:58.160
And if you forgot all day and remembered at 9.47 tonight, beautiful.
00:24:58.559 --> 00:25:04.079
You remembered tomorrow we practice again.
00:25:04.559 --> 00:25:06.319
That's how this works.
00:25:06.559 --> 00:25:18.559
Not through force, but through repetition, through compassion, through devotion, through beginning again and again.
00:25:19.200 --> 00:25:23.519
I'll give you personally my three questions that I ask in each moment.
00:25:24.559 --> 00:25:28.400
One, who do you want to be in this situation?
00:25:28.880 --> 00:25:36.880
Two, does this thought, emotion, behavior align with who you're choosing to be?
00:25:37.759 --> 00:25:45.440
And then three, what's the next best possible thought or behavior you can have?
00:25:45.759 --> 00:25:47.839
And I want you to shame yourself.
00:25:48.400 --> 00:25:51.440
You're gonna do the last two over and over again.
00:25:51.680 --> 00:25:55.839
So the key to the first question is that person is your future self.
00:25:56.079 --> 00:25:57.039
Who do you want to be?
00:25:57.200 --> 00:25:59.279
How do you want to handle these situations?
00:25:59.680 --> 00:26:01.839
Who do you want to be in this situation?
00:26:02.640 --> 00:26:06.720
Then we can ask the next two questions over and over until we get to a yes.
00:26:06.880 --> 00:26:08.640
Does this thought align with who you choose to be?
00:26:08.880 --> 00:26:09.440
Answer is no.
00:26:09.599 --> 00:26:11.119
What's the next best possible one?
00:26:11.279 --> 00:26:16.559
We do it again and again and again until we get to a, oh, yeah, that does align.
00:26:16.720 --> 00:26:17.119
Great.
00:26:17.279 --> 00:26:18.960
Move and go forward from there.
00:26:19.359 --> 00:26:27.279
Those three questions, write them on sticky notes, put them on your computer, put them on, you know, maybe your fridge, the mirror in the bathroom.
00:26:27.519 --> 00:26:29.119
Put them in your car.
00:26:29.920 --> 00:26:33.440
Those three questions, those will change your life.
00:26:33.680 --> 00:26:39.359
As I think about this journey we've been on together, I keep coming back to ordinary moments.
00:26:39.680 --> 00:26:43.119
Most of our lives aren't lived in the milestones.
00:26:43.279 --> 00:26:45.440
They're lived on Tuesday afternoons.
00:26:45.599 --> 00:26:49.839
They're lived in kitchens, in cars, in meetings.
00:26:50.480 --> 00:26:56.160
They're lived in text messages, grocery stores, uh, bedrooms.
00:26:56.960 --> 00:27:05.119
The five seconds after someone says something you don't like, most of those moments will never be photographed.
00:27:05.440 --> 00:27:07.039
Nobody will applaud.
00:27:07.279 --> 00:27:12.880
There won't be a certificate saying, congratulations, you chose alignment.
00:27:13.200 --> 00:27:15.680
Well, there might be if you're in my office.
00:27:16.240 --> 00:27:19.519
They'll simply come and then they'll go.
00:27:20.000 --> 00:27:25.599
But what if those are the moments where our lives are actually created?
00:27:26.000 --> 00:27:31.119
Not in the promotion, but the way you treat yourself after making a mistake.
00:27:31.359 --> 00:27:37.119
Not the wedding, the conversation in the kitchen 15 years later.
00:27:37.599 --> 00:27:43.759
Not the retreat, the way you respond when someone challenges you on a Tuesday morning.
00:27:44.000 --> 00:27:47.680
Not the breakthrough, but the next choice.
00:27:48.079 --> 00:28:01.519
Those are the moments where character is formed, where trust is cultivated, where relationships change, where the field changes, where alignment becomes embodied.
00:28:01.920 --> 00:28:04.720
Because that's where embodiment really is.
00:28:05.039 --> 00:28:11.279
It's when the person you've been practicing becoming begins showing up before you have to remind them.
00:28:11.759 --> 00:28:24.240
Not perfectly, not permanently, but increasingly natural because you've practiced returning often enough that alignment begins to feel like home.
00:28:24.559 --> 00:28:29.599
And before we finish today, I want to invite you into something incredibly meaningful for me.
00:28:30.160 --> 00:28:37.039
We are now less than two weeks away from the official launch on October 7th.
00:28:37.359 --> 00:28:43.440
But after everything we've just talked about, I want to be very clear about what I'm inviting you to purchase.
00:28:43.759 --> 00:28:52.079
Not an answer, not another thing to consume, not 12 laws to highlight and put on the shelf.
00:28:52.720 --> 00:28:56.480
I'm inviting you into a practice.
00:28:56.799 --> 00:28:59.440
Because the book can turn on the light.
00:28:59.680 --> 00:29:03.599
What you do once you see the room is entirely yours.
00:29:04.240 --> 00:29:21.119
The witness, the room, field and form, the 12 laws of co-creation, uh, the questions, the practices, the opportunities to see your life differently, and then decide what you want to do with what you see.
00:29:21.680 --> 00:29:38.240
And that's also why I've created the companion library, because I want to give you a way to take these ideas off the page and into your actual life, into your relationships, your work, your body, your leadership, and your room.
00:29:38.640 --> 00:29:43.440
If you'd like to pre-order your copy, you'll find the link in the show notes below.
00:29:43.759 --> 00:29:56.240
And then on October 7th, the book officially enters into the world, which feels both enormous and somehow like another beginning.
00:29:56.480 --> 00:30:03.599
Over the years, people have asked me, what does an aligned life actually look like?
00:30:03.920 --> 00:30:06.720
I don't think it looks like perfection.
00:30:07.200 --> 00:30:10.480
I don't think it looks like having all the answers.
00:30:10.720 --> 00:30:13.920
And I don't think it looks like never being triggered.
00:30:14.079 --> 00:30:32.480
I think an aligned life looks like someone who remembers, someone who remembers to pause, someone who remembers they have a choice, someone who remembers they are not all that furniture, someone who remembers they are the witness.
00:30:32.960 --> 00:30:40.559
Someone who remembers that the survival mind can speak without automatically getting to drive.
00:30:40.960 --> 00:30:46.480
And someone who learns to return to themselves with compassion instead of criticism.
00:30:47.119 --> 00:30:50.880
Again and again and again.
00:30:51.519 --> 00:30:53.519
That is alignment.
00:30:53.920 --> 00:30:56.000
Not never leaving the path.
00:30:56.240 --> 00:31:00.960
Instead, it's learning to love the practice of returning to it.
00:31:01.200 --> 00:31:06.960
And maybe that's where this strange little space between pre-order and launch is reminding me of, too.
00:31:07.279 --> 00:31:14.400
We spend so much time waiting for arrival, the launch, the achievement, the answer.
00:31:15.279 --> 00:31:18.799
The moment when everything finally became real.
00:31:19.519 --> 00:31:34.400
But life keeps happening in between, between the intention and the outcome, between awareness and embodiment, between who we've been and who we're practicing becoming.
00:31:34.799 --> 00:31:37.440
That's where free will lives.
00:31:37.599 --> 00:31:39.519
That's where sovereignty lives.
00:31:39.759 --> 00:31:42.720
That's where alignment lives.
00:31:43.279 --> 00:32:02.960
So wherever you find yourself today, whether your room feels beautifully organized, somewhat minimalist, or there's still a few pieces of furniture you're walking around, the light is still on, the witness is still there, and your next choice is still available.
00:32:03.200 --> 00:32:07.200
You don't have to become the person you want to be by tomorrow morning.
00:32:07.519 --> 00:32:11.680
Just practice being them in the next moment that asks.
00:32:12.240 --> 00:32:14.880
Then the next and the next.
00:32:15.279 --> 00:32:21.200
Until one day you realize you're no longer trying to remember the music.
00:32:21.519 --> 00:32:23.119
You're playing it.
00:32:23.759 --> 00:32:27.039
Thank you for walking this journey with me.
00:32:27.440 --> 00:32:31.599
Until next time, please keep turning on the light.
00:32:31.839 --> 00:32:33.839
Keep practicing alignment.
00:32:34.079 --> 00:32:37.359
Keep choosing who you want to be.
00:32:37.839 --> 00:32:39.279
You're the witness.
00:32:39.599 --> 00:32:44.079
You shape the field, and the field shapes your life.
00:32:44.400 --> 00:32:47.359
Thank you so much for spending this time with me today.
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My hope is that you leave each episode not with more information, but with greater awareness.
00:32:54.880 --> 00:32:58.720
Because awareness is where every meaningful change begins.
00:32:59.119 --> 00:33:11.680
If today's conversation resonated with you, I'd love for you to subscribe, leave a review, and share this episode with someone who's ready to stop surviving and start living from alignment.
00:33:11.920 --> 00:33:16.559
If you'd like to continue this work, you can join us inside the Aligned Human Project community.
00:33:16.720 --> 00:33:26.559
Explore the free five-element alignment assessment, or learn more about Align Your Life, Aligned Living, and Alignment Operating System at Practical Spiritualism Co.
00:33:27.039 --> 00:33:27.359
com.
00:33:27.839 --> 00:33:30.480
Remember, awareness reveals.
00:33:30.880 --> 00:33:35.440
Alignment chooses, and creation follows.
00:33:35.920 --> 00:33:37.920
You are the witness.
00:33:38.079 --> 00:33:42.400
You shape the field, and the field shapes your life.
00:33:42.640 --> 00:33:48.799
Until next time, keep pausing, keep noticing, and keep choosing.
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I'll see you in the next episode.
