I’ve long talked about alignment as a practice, not a permanent state of being. Although I’m generally conscious to use the phraseology “coming into more alignment” or “feeling aligned more often,” sometimes (often due to the overall yucky-ness of feelings of misalignment!), we seek a Fix for our misalignment. To be aligned. Period. End of discussion.
But sorry.
It doesn’t totally work that way.
It helps to see this impermanent practice of alignment more as permission. Permission to fuck up alignment every so often, to get totally out of whack on occasion. To have to put a little elbow grease into your own authenticity and integrity.
After all, if it weren’t for our times of misalignment, how would we know what alignment looks and feels like? How would we know how good it feels if not for our ability to compare the wrenching overall yucky-ness of misalignment?
The holidays are a time when a lot of us shift out of alignment. They are a time of great intensity, both positive and negative, and they cause us to do misalign-y type things like
eating too much
feuding with family
drinking too much
spending money on *stuff* no one needs or wants
did I say eating too much?
not sleeping enough
(the list goes on)
To be sure, we all recover from it, sometime in January when we’re back to the regular routine.
And to be sure, there is a certain normalization in our culture of these feelings of misalignment during the holidays: there is great permission given from the world around us to let loose and indulge this time of year.
But I also see the holidays as a time that is ripe for a bit of experimentation in alignment. Because here’s the thing: most of the women I know experience wildly intense seasons of their lives on a regular basis. You know, September when school goes back in, (June when school gets out), summer vacations, New Years resolutions (this list goes on, too). And often, during those wildly intense seasons, all attempts at finding alignment go out the window and it’s
survival mode
until that intensity has lifted a little.