Living in Alignment

 To live in alignment is to live in deep relationship with your soul. It’s not about striving to become someone new, it’s about remembering who you already are beneath the roles, the wounds, the programming. I didn’t always know this. For a long time, I was trying to be what I thought I should be: a good daughter, a good mother, a good partner, a good citizen. I could play those parts well. But I would go to bed at night feeling a quiet hollowness, like I was dancing to a song that didn’t quite match the rhythm of my own heart.

That misalignment showed up in my body first. A subtle unease that became chronic fatigue. A gut that felt inflamed no matter what I ate. A constant state of nervous alertness that robbed me of peace. I know now that when we’re out of alignment, the body always tells the truth before the mind is willing to admit it. So I started there. I began to ask: What if my body is not betraying me, but trying to save me? What if this pain is a compass?

The answers came slowly. They came in dreams, in synchronicities, in breakdowns that forced me to stop and re-evaluate everything. They came when I was willing to sit still, to feel the discomfort I’d been avoiding. Living in alignment required me to stop outsourcing my worth, to stop waiting for someone else to validate my choices or give me permission to change. It meant I had to take radical responsibility for my life, not from a place of blame, but from a place of love.

I learned to identify when I was out of sync. When I was saying “yes” to keep others happy but betraying my own needs. When I was overgiving and undernourishing myself. When I was performing rather than participating. I began noticing how my energy felt in different places, around different people. I learned to track the sensations in my body like messages from Spirit. Tight chest? Not aligned. Heavy gut? Something is off. Lightness, expansion, a feeling of ease? That’s a yes.

Living in alignment now means I make fewer plans, but I listen more. I don’t cram my schedule full of things that look good on paper. I leave space for the unexpected, for Spirit to move. I fast once a month to give my digestion and my mind a rest. I breathe consciously when I feel overwhelmed, and I move my body to shake loose whatever emotions are stuck. I give myself time to grieve. I celebrate small wins. I laugh with my family. I say no to things that drain me. I walk away when something feels like a “should” instead of a “want to.”

I return to the earth often. I put my bare feet on the ground and offer tobacco to the soil. I speak to my ancestors out loud. I sing to the water. I tend my altar not as a decoration, but as a living relationship, a place where my spirit can breathe. I know I am in alignment when time feels spacious, when I’m not rushing to catch up, when I trust that everything is unfolding as it should, even if I don’t yet understand the how.

Alignment isn’t about always feeling good. Sometimes it means walking through grief, rage, or fear. But even those hard feelings have a sacred rhythm. When I’m aligned, I don’t resist them, I let them move through. I cry. I write. I pray. I sweat it out. I put pen to paper. I remember that every emotion is part of the human experience and none of it is a failure. The only failure is abandonment, when we leave ourselves in moments we most need our own love.

I also know that alignment is seasonal. What felt right last year may not feel right now. The practices that once held me might need to evolve. That’s okay. That’s the dance. Living in alignment means honoring the season I’m in. Some seasons are for planting. Some are for growing. Some are for resting. Some are for burning everything down. All of it is sacred.

The deepest truth I’ve learned is this: alignment is not something we find once and keep. It’s something we return to, again and again, like coming home. It’s the gentle but fierce devotion to staying connected to yourself, no matter what the world demands of you. It’s choosing to live from the inside out, even when it’s inconvenient. Even when it’s lonely. Even when it costs you approval, applause, or income.

But the reward is this: you will feel free. You will feel whole. You will feel like your life is finally your own. And no amount of money or praise or productivity can give you that feeling. Only truth can. Only love can. And that, to me, is the real power of living in alignment. It makes you sovereign. It makes you luminous. It returns you to your original medicine. The one the world has been waiting for you to remember.

~Shanti Freedom Das