What does living an aligned life even mean? It means living a life that feels true to who you are, not living by someone else’s definition of what your life should look like, and learning to do what’s right for you. Living an aligned life isn’t always easy. It means setting good boundaries and letting go of the idea of scarcity but there is freedom and lightness to living this way that makes the hard things worth it. Here are some ways you can make that happen.

1. Following what lights you up means saying no to the things that don’t, including things that you ‘should’ do but don’t really want to or feel ambivalent about. I once heard advice that you should number opportunities from 1-10, leaving out 7. Everything 6 and under say no to and 8 and over yes to. Spending your entire life only doing what you should do feels weighty and buries who you truly are.

2. Energy is everything. Think about it like a bank account from which you’re drawing. You don’t have unlimited funds and you have to make deposits. When your funds are really low, you can’t really show up in the world as your true self (which I believe is also your best self). Your energy is valuable and being intentional about who or what you give it to is essential to living an aligned life. This also means letting go of scarcity and trusting that what and who you say no to will open you up to opportunities that are more aligned.

3. Your gut holds all your wisdom and is your inner guidance system. Being connected to it and checking in with how your gut feels is the key to living an aligned life. Following your gut is scary and comes with a lot of uncertainty but also opens you up to life and experiences in a way you never would have thought of had you tried to have all the answers. Living an authentic life requires being in alignment with your gut.

4. Feelings, comfortable or challenging, exist for a reason. They are not good or bad but can be a tool for exploring who you are. Approach them with curiosity and recognize that they have value. We spend so much of our lives avoiding feelings and numbing them away but doing that keeps you away from your true self. Learning to be comfortable being uncomfortable is an important step in learning to navigate life from an authentic place.

Photo by Karsten Würth on Unsplash.

aligned life aligned path alignment lifestyle authentic life