Spiritual Q&A: Unveiling Alignment: What It Actually Feels Like

What does being in alignment actually feel like? As this concept has replaced manifestation as the spiritual community's latest buzzword, we realized it deserves deeper exploration beyond the surface-level understanding most of us have.

Alignment isn't about everything magically becoming easy or perfect. It's about developing a profound relationship with your authentic self and recognizing how your body signals when you're moving in harmony with your true nature versus forcing yourself down paths that don't serve you.

The physical sensations of alignment are unmistakable once you learn to recognize them: a sense of lightness, inspiration, and reduced resistance. Your body becomes your most reliable guide, speaking through subtle cues that, when honored, lead to more intuitive decision-making and deeper self-trust. Meanwhile, misalignment manifests as feeling drained, stuck, overthinking decisions, or procrastinating—all signs that something needs to shift.

Perhaps most fascinating is how being in alignment seems to accelerate synchronicities and opportunities. We share personal examples, including how Nikki transitioned from her corporate career after recognizing it no longer aligned with her strengths and passions, and how watching these principles work in real-time creates a powerful feedback loop of trust in the process.

We offer practical realignment rituals including breathwork, nature connection, and gratitude practices, while emphasizing the importance of knowing when to let go of what's no longer energizing. Our challenge to you: pay attention this week to what feels easeful versus forced in your body, and consider what small shifts might bring you into greater alignment with your authentic self and purpose.

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Chapters

• 0:13 Welcome to Modern Zen Collective
• 1:37 Grounding Meditation
• 3:18 Demystifying the Concept of Alignment
• 5:15 Nikki's Corporate Alignment Journey
• 10:08 How Alignment Feels in Your Body
• 15:15 Signs of Being Out of Alignment
• 19:40 Practical Alignment Rituals
• 25:00 Recognizing When to Pivot
• 31:53 Taking Aligned Action This Week

Transcript

Speaker 2: 0:13

Hi, I'm Lizzie and I'm Nikki. Have you ever felt that your life was missing purpose, joy or deep connection? Welcome to the Modern Zen Collective podcast, where we embrace holistic living for a joyful, purpose-driven life.

Speaker 1: 0:29

In this podcast, we'll explore holistic practices, consciousness expansion and spiritual alignment. We will dive into personal development practices that connect mind, body, spirit and share secrets that ancient cultures have known for centuries. Together, we aim to guide, educate and connect individuals eager to transform their lives.

Speaker 2: 0:49

Join us weekly on the Modern Zen Collective podcast and elevate your mind, body and spirit. And now on to today's episode. Hello everyone, and welcome to another episode of the Modern Zen Collective Podcast. Lizzie here with Nikki, and today we're going to be doing our first spiritual Q&A session. So before we get into it, we just want to take a moment, just to ground and be present and just focus our energy, our intention together, both of us along with you. So take a moment. If you're able to close your eyes, go ahead and do so, or allows your gaze to soften and begin to deepen your breath, allowing your inhales and exhales to get longer and deeper. Notice the sensations in the body as you breathe, where you feel your body expand, where you feel it contract, noticing any points of tension, and allow yourself to just slowly let that tension go with every exhale, letting yourself relax just a little bit more with every inhale and every exhale. Whenever you feel complete, you can open your eyes, allow your breath to return to normal and just notice how you're feeling.

Speaker 2: 3:18

And today we're going to be diving into a question. I feel like we get asked all the time. Actually, I also thought of this the other day in the car. This is why Nikki and I are doing this one, because I was like I randomly had this question and then it popped up between us as well. But it's like what does being in alignment actually feel like?

Speaker 2: 3:26

Alignment is the new buzzword. It used to be manifestation and now it's alignment in the spiritual community. And I'm like what the fuck is alignment actually? Why do we keep throwing this word around Alignment, alignment. And everyone's like yeah, yeah, alignment, alignment. But then I sat there and said what does that even actually mean? Do we ever even talk about what that actually means? And so today it's like we just want to demystify this beautiful word alignment that we throw around everywhere.

Speaker 2: 3:54

It's not just about success or ease. It's really about deep inner knowing yourself and like really how you move and how you flow and how you work the best. How do you move through life the best for yourself? And it's just so interesting because it can change at different times, and Nikki and I were literally just talking about how, as we've moved through this past year, at different times of the year, we've been able to give more or less to different areas of life and the way that we spend that time that we're able to give. It has to be aligned, it has to be in flow or nothing is moving forward, and when we have such little time, it's so important to spend it in the places that are the best places for us in this moment. So, nikki, can you share, I don't know, maybe something recent, maybe something in the past few years, something that really sticks out to you on, when alignment has felt different to you in like one period of your life versus another?

Speaker 1: 5:15

Yeah. One that stands out to me is we've talked about this a lot in corporate and how I always wanted to climb the corporate ladder, get to a VP role, corner office, all of the things you know growing and evolving, et cetera and I was at the director level just realizing do I even like what I'm doing? I'm going and I'm pushing and I feel that I'm good at what I'm doing. I feel that there are areas I could be better at what I'm doing and I started to have this reflection when I was the head of people and culture at a company that there is someone out there that is far better suited for this role, who is going to get ignited by it and has strengths that are better at this particular type of work that I have. So I took inventory of I really enjoy working with people. I love being a leader. I love connecting people with the right role for themselves. I love holding space. I love having conversations.

Speaker 1: 6:18

I don't particularly like the legal side of things. I don't like the mounds of paperwork. I don't like the red tape. I don't like the bureaucracy. I don't like that it takes six to eight months to get something done sometimes and I'm not throwing shade on anyone. I'm just saying some people operate and really enjoy that.

Speaker 1: 6:36

So I felt out of alignment at that threshold of 2021 when I decided to leave corporate because I felt that I wasn't actually living with to the best of my abilities for my career. Like that's one part of it where I didn't feel really that I was doing the company I was with the best because I wasn't showing up as who they actually needed for the role and I was holding space for someone who could be in alignment being in that role. And then for me personally, I realized what I enjoyed and didn't enjoy, what I was good at and not particularly good at and decided to remove myself from that role to find I didn't know what it was, but find my alignment on a career path. My alignment on a career path and along the same timeline, I would say, you know, right around 2020, I started working with coaches a little bit more one-on-one and during that time I found really the spiritual alignment path and I found the deep connection of you know, having the path laid out in front of you, and ease and manifestations and you know fluidity and all of these buzzwords, et cetera, truly come from, I personally believe, from being alignment with who your soul came here to be and a lot of who of us being here on earth is, you know, pulling the layers and getting back to who we truly are and what's that authentic piece of us? And where are we wearing masks? Where do we have stories that were told to us when we were younger that we're keeping with us that aren't actually who we are? How can we be individual?

Speaker 1: 8:14

So you know, my path during that I think they cross over because it was for my career and then it was for the spiritual aspect was to really find what is alignment for me. And it's interesting because for me I realized that as I was going through work with coaches and healers and having introspection and shadow work, realizing how I have a huge people-pleasing wound and with that I had a proclivity to want to make people happy, and it was a lot at my expense and through growing and evolving and you know boundaries and finding that I feel much more at peace and much more aligned. Also, I think it's age and wisdom. As I've gotten older, I feel that I can have boundaries and be direct, et cetera, a lot easier than I was when I personally was younger. But those are, for me, the ways that I saw alignment.

Speaker 1: 9:19

But then I also think ways in life, like this buzzword that's out there, what does it actually mean Like? Does it mean spirituality? Does it mean career? Does it mean both? Does it you know, and you might? There's days where you won't feel aligned right. There's days where you know Lizzie and I were both sick the last two months, so there's days and weeks where you're going to feel sick. You're not going to be in alignment when you're sick, really Like you're going to feel off kilter. So I guess, lizzie, what do you think are you know practical ways to recognize and if you're in alignment or if you're not, and what do you think about kind of that day to day aspect?

Speaker 2: 9:57

of it. Well, I think it doesn't mean that everything's always going to be easy or that everything's hunky-dory every single day of our lives. That's just not life. That's not why we came to this earth. You can't learn without struggle. You can't learn without the light and the dark. So alignment doesn't mean everything's always going to be easy.

Speaker 2: 10:24

I think, like what Nikki's talking about, finding that version of ourselves who we authentically are, and trying to make decisions from that point of view, from synchronicity, from flow, like even when things are hard. Really going back to how do I operate? How do I personally need things to move so that I can move through them in a quicker way and I think a lot of that has to do with the body. Like, where I always start is with the body. I think that is the easiest way to understand these, like more spiritual, esoteric practices and principles, is to start with how it actually feels in our body, and I think alignment feels like energy. Alignment feels like inspiration, lightness. It feels like ease, no struggle. It feels like less resistance, less tension, more connection to the body, more connection to the self, and I think that's really what it feels like to be in alignment. So I would just want to say, really, if you're questioning, is this quote, unquote, aligned to me? Drop into the body and ask yourself how does your body react when you ask the question. How do you feel? Do you feel more tense? Do you feel less tense? Do you feel lighter? Do you feel heavier? Do you feel more connected? Do you feel less connected? And I think that's a really good way to start to develop that conversation between your intuition and yourself is through the body and to understand how it speaks to you on a mental way is to start with the body so that we can mentally understand, because then when we can connect the physical and the mental and the emotional, there's like so much belief and faith and trust we have in things when we connect those three. So start with the body, then to the mental, the understanding, and then connect the feelings and the emotional with all of that together and I think that's when we can develop like a deep trust in our instincts and in our inner knowing of if something is in alignment with us. So it feels so good to have clarity.

Speaker 2: 12:56

It's exciting to see things move more quickly, more easily, move with the momentum, with the flow of energy, instead of having to push and push and push and fight and try to force things, you know, like the round peg into the square hole, that whole forcing thing, that's not a thing. When you're in alignment, that stuff pops up and it's you're so clear on what things feel right to you and what don't, because you've been practicing that you're able to say no and let that opportunity move forward to go to somebody else that it actually is more suited for in this lifetime, so that you can continue to move how you move and then say yes to the things that do feel really good. And I think the biggest thing is that once you start to make these decisions and you start to choose things that do feel good to you in your body, that you do do with ease, that you have strength behind that, you are in alignment with more. Things start showing up, things start happening quicker Synchronicities.

Speaker 2: 14:08

You know things like we've talked about, like all of a sudden you think of something and then it happens. Or my husband wants customers out of state and then all of a sudden you think of something and then it happens. Or my husband wants customers out of state and then all of a sudden he gets three customers out of state in a week, like who said you had to get one customer a month. You know, all of a sudden he asked for it and he's taking action, aligned, inspired action, something that is actually in a place that is right for him in this moment. And the universe is showing him like yes, you're on the right path. Here's three. You wanted one, you wanted some business. Here's hundreds of thousands of dollars if you continue to move and make the right decisions with the right people.

Speaker 2: 14:47

So it's really interesting when you come into alignment and you choose to make decisions with intentionality and alignment intentionality of being in alignment more things start to happen and you feel more connected. You feel more in flow, you feel more like you're being supported by the universe and having this deep faith and deep trust and deep knowing, deep peace that you will always be taking care of when you make decisions in alignment. It's so crazy to experience it and now to watch. I'm literally watching my husband experience it right now and every day I'm constantly like, hey, babe, thank the universe, thank you universe. Hey, don't you remember when you asked for this about two? Hey, don't you remember when you asked for this about two weeks ago? Do you remember when you told me that you wanted this. Here it is.

Speaker 2: 15:40

Say thank you, say thank you, and just like taking a moment to recognize that it's happening, because I think a lot of times we ask for things and then we don't recognize that we were given that thing that we asked for.

Speaker 1: 15:55

Yeah, it's because we're moving so fast we might not realize that we're receiving it, or we might have that human default of looking at. You know the problem or the strain, or you know what's coming in with this, et cetera. And you know you want to look at and see where you feel out of alignment. Common indicators are feeling drained, frustrated, stuck, overthinking decisions, second guessing, procrastinating things, feel forced, uphill battle, disconnection from your intuition or creative flow, like those are all indicators of having that sticky energy that you're not in alignment. So take inventory when you start to get these blessings that you asked for. You know having gratitude for them, like how beautiful it is that I receive this. And you know, with more customers for your husband, there's going to be more paperwork, there's going to be more travel, there's going to be more questions. There's going to be more paperwork, there's going to be more travel, there's going to be more questions, there's going to be more hands-on. Yes, all of these things happen and that's going to be such a blessing that more things happen. And it's, you know, our ego, our mind, that wants to keep us safe. You know, feels threatened by expansion, so we get to make the expansion feel commonplace. That's why there's so much in the manifestation community about feeling the energy of who you want to be so that it comes into your reality, so it becomes and feels safe inside your nervous system, with your mind, et cetera. Because if you do expand and you receive all of these new clients, your ego might want to keep you safe and might want to say, oh no, that's a lot of paperwork, this, this, that, this, that procrastination, don't return that call, don't do this, don't do that. Just, you know hurt, you know like it's okay, like they'll understand, you're super busy, so we can make all these excuses to not push ourselves through that threshold for that blessing that's coming into us. So you know there's a fine line of feeling where you're out of alignment and feeling where you are. You know avoiding pushing and stepping not even pushing, I don't like that word stepping into your highest expansion. And you know realizing the shift, like realizing your resistance versus your surrender and, like Lizzie said, checking in with your body. And you know looking at and feeling the synchronicities Thinking of someone having them call, seeing angel numbers pop up here and there, hearing a song that has words that you know, you start to connect with the words for some reason and you realize the words are telling you a message like little things, that everything is energy and everything is cyclical and what goes out comes back and you really get to see the universe speaking back to you. When you start to step into this aligned state and feeling grounded and feeling at peace and trusting, you can just make the decision of I want three customers out of state and feel that in your heart and know that feels aligned and trust that it's coming and when it does come, take the actionable steps to get there from an aligned place, not from a place of fear. So, with all of this, we'd love to talk to you about some practices for how to tune back in, realign with yourself and just feel at ease in your body, feel that alignment.

Speaker 1: 19:30

So something that works for me, also being a yoga teacher, but doing yoga is something that I feel very connected with my body. I feel I move the energy around. Even if you don't do a physical practice that feels like yoga or a workout or something like that taking a walk, moving our energy around. That helps you to start to feel more in tune with your body and it talking to you. Having also meditation Meditation is something that's been a big part of my practice, of my morning routine, my evening routine, when I channel, when I do Reiki for clients, meditating and meditation is something that can clear the clutter around us because it's.

Speaker 1: 20:19

You know, I had a coach once tell me we think we're so important, we're so busy, we can't take five minutes to meditate, we're so busy. The world's going to end if we close our mind out for five minutes. And it's so true, because we think there's not enough hours in the day to get everything done. But I truly believe when you meditate you expand energy. I've realized it firsthand. I have had times where I lose my practice and I don't meditate, and when I get back on my practice, I feel time expanded, I feel there's more time to get places, more time to get things done, etc. So those are some that work for me. Lizzie, I know you are big on breath work too. What do you think are some grounding rituals that you would do or suggest?

Speaker 2: 21:02

Yeah, breath work absolutely. And that's just as simple as like a 4-4. You can inhale for 4 and exhale for 4. And just that practice of balancing the breath, having the inhale match the exhale, balances the nervous system and brings you back to like a homeostasis place. So if you're a little bit crazy, it brings you down, if you're a little bit down, it brings you up. So really, just a four, four balance breath is a really great way to ground. Also, being outside barefoot I love being outside barefoot or laying in the grass. I love to lay in the grass. I've been teaching my son to lay in the grass and look up at the trees and he'll just go in people's yards and lay in their yards. Now he wants me to come lay next to him. I'm like, okay, they're going to be like who are these random people laying in our front yard? But you know what? Whatever.

Speaker 1: 21:54

You know kids.

Speaker 2: 21:57

Yeah it's wonderful, the freedom they have. So I love that. But I definitely I'm. I lean towards the breath work, I lean towards the being outside and I lean towards the gratitude for what has happened in this day. So I think it's easy to find things to be grateful for when you just think about your day that you've been through. So I think that's a really good way to ground and also heighten your energy, manifestation energy by putting more gratitude out into the world. So I, like those things are really my go-tos for grounding.

Speaker 2: 22:36

But I think one of the things that's been so great and one of the things that I've been practicing a lot lately is saying no, but not just saying no from the jump, but it's what have I been doing in my life that no longer excites me? When is it time to pivot or shift things? I might still want things, but for me, one really good example of that is with my service. I have been on the board of directors for the Parks and Recreation Board for the city of Benbrook for eight years and I was the chairperson for four, and I wasn't excited anymore about going to the meetings. And so you might think well, you've been on this board for eight years. You're like the head honcho, you're running meetings. Why would you step away from something like that?

Speaker 2: 23:33

But the thing is is that it was when I saw it on my calendar. I was like, oh no, I have that meeting tonight. I have to go to that, oh well, you know. And so it was time that those feelings like I'm saying when you actually think and feel into the body, like those feelings, were showing me that it's time to let this go. It's time to let, like Nikki said, someone with fresh energy, someone with excitement, step into these roles, move this forward and allow me to step away and create some space in my life for something that feels better. It can still be a board of director position, but it could be with a nonprofit. That I'm really excited about at this time, but if I don't create the space for it, I won't be able to say yes when that opportunity does come into my realm.

Speaker 1: 24:19

Yeah, for sure, absolutely. And you know, often we can feel we, you know, need to hold on for whatever reason, to not disappoint someone or because we made a commitment, etc. But it's really, you know, recognizing when it's time to pivot or shift and making that decision and following through with it. Because there's also the energy of living in that limbo which can also be energetically draining, where you feel, okay, I'm going to leave here, this is done, but I haven't communicated it to anyone. So I'm in this limbo where my energy feels pulled in two directions and I haven't actually made a very concrete decision to move the energy forward. So some tips too, too, that you can do in terms of your own exploration of this journal prompt. So writing in a journal what feels easy and exciting right now and what feels like a struggle, maybe making two columns, one on the left side, one on the right side, very Ross and Rachel, and when he dated another girl and he made the pro con list, but very, very much what's exciting now, what feels like a struggle, and write things down. You can also do a check-in. Ask yourself am I choosing this out of fear or alignment when you are deciding for something, to either shift the energy or stay in a space, like Lizzie said when she was working there for eight years. If she continued and committed to another year, is that out of fear or does she feel aligned? So checking in with yourself for that as well. And understand the universe is always speaking to you. Ancestors also are always speaking to you. If you have loved ones that have passed guiding you and your guides are guiding you, there's so much support that we have from unconditional love on the other side. So some signs, you know synchronicities we've talked about those already having that gut feeling, that heart-centered feeling, having that ping, that idea to you know do something. It might not make any sense in your head right now, but you know, for some reason you're supposed to start taking yoga at this yoga studio and it might not present itself as to why for three, four or five months, or it might present itself quick, but you followed that ping. And once you start going or doing whatever it might be, you start to feel that energy even more because you followed the ping. And when the universe is nudging you also for unexpected opportunities, you could be receiving a call or a text or an email and someone might say, hey, I remember you saying that you were doing this. Are you still doing that? Because my cousin asked me about that today. So unexpected opportunities show up when we start to choose ourselves and move forward in this alignment.

Speaker 1: 27:18

Something that really helped me as I was growing and moving from corporate into my own business before Lizzie and I merged together, was I stopped saying oh, I'm building a business, I'm building a business. Oh, I'm going to be a coach, I'm building a business. Oh, I'm going to be a coach, I'm going to be a yoga teacher, I'm going to be a meditation teacher. I took away the going to and I declared who I was and what I was doing. So I declared I'm a meditation teacher, I'm a Reiki master, or Reiki, not Reiki master yet, but I'm a Reiki practitioner, because I was. I just was saying I'm still trying to figure it out and gain clients. So I chose what I was and had confidence to explain that to others and I realized I was in that limbo state because I had credentials but I wasn't actually having any clients. So I felt I was in this limbo and I kept telling people oh, I'm working on being a coach, I'm working on being a yoga teacher. So something else to consider. Where are you keeping yourself in this limbo too?

Speaker 2: 28:19

Yeah, yeah, that's a good point. It's hard sometimes. It's hard a lot of times when you're stepping into something new to claim it and fully claim it, and once you can, it's pretty incredible what can happen after that. But really, like wrapping this up with alignment this word alignment which I love so much, nikki loves so much Demystifying alignment over here, it's really just about trusting yourself, trusting your intuition, just trusting that deep inner knowing of what is right for you, what isn't allowing for flow, allowing for things to be easeful, but knowing that it's not going to be like that all the time. Just notice with yourself, notice with your body. Pay attention this week, like this is our challenge, like this week, pay attention in your body when you're making decisions, like what feels easeful, light, exciting quote unquote aligned and what feels forced in your life right now. Like what are you forcing and is there a small shift that you can make to help move more towards that aligned feeling? What can you do? Because we're here all day to talk and listen to things, because we're here all day to talk and listen to things, but nothing changes unless you make a change.

Speaker 2: 29:55

And I'm guilty of that too. I listen to podcasts all the time and sometimes I don't do anything, but sometimes I do do things and the changes, like the big shifts in my life, are from the ones that I listened to, that I actually made a change, you know, like I mean, of course, it is, yeah, of course, and that knowledge sticks more. You know, I can tell you, I have listened to many podcasts about many things. I can't tell you jack shit about it, you know, but the ones that I did do things on, like numerology, that I love, you know, the angel numbers, which is my favorite synchronicity. So I'll tell you right now, if I look at my clock and it happens to be 1-11 or 2-22 or whatever time, I know that whatever I'm doing in that moment is what I'm supposed to be doing.

Speaker 2: 30:42

Whatever I'm thinking about is what I'm supposed to be thinking about. If I was thinking about taking action on something and then I looked at the clock and I saw those numbers, I'm like I should do that or you know it's, it's, that's one of my signs. But I have declared that as my sign, and so the universe knows that to tell me like, hey, you're on the right path with those numbers and so we're we're. That's part of our communication style here, but you can decide that for yourself too. Decide that, like Nikki and I have Angel. Numbers show that I am on the right path, that I'm making the right decision, that whatever I'm thinking about I should do, whatever I'm doing is what I'm supposed to be doing, and maybe that could be your small shift and all of a sudden, that makes a big difference, just reaffirming the decisions that you're making for yourself.

Speaker 2: 31:31

So, pay attention this week what's feeling good versus what's feeling forced and share it. Share it with other people. You know, the reason why we improve ourselves is to improve everyone around us. You know, realistically, the better we get, the better everyone that we touch on a regular basis gets, better we get, the better everyone that we touch on a regular basis gets, and that's our loved ones, our kids, our husbands, our wives, our parents, our coworkers, our friends. I mean when you start to shift and really gain a deeper knowledge and understanding of yourself and then choose differently for yourself based on who you are as an individual. People notice and it's that's one of my favorite things about coaching is when my clients will be like my friends will be like something's different about you.

Speaker 2: 32:23

I can't put my finger on it. What is it? I'm like oh, we've reached that point. This is fantastic. So it's real people, it's real. So, please, thank you so much for joining us. Take some action. We want you to live with ease, live with flow, live with alignment, because when you're living that way, it makes the world better for me, makes the world better for you, it makes the world better for future generations and past generations. Honestly, yeah, all of it.

Speaker 1: 32:54

When you live in alignment, you're healing yourself, healing past and future generations in the process. So we hope that you take this and enjoy your alignment. The smallest things they all add up. Taking aligned action when you feel it beautiful, energy from the universe and feeling that expression from the universe reflecting back to you the changes that you're making and the path that you're on. Well, we want to thank you so much for taking this time listening to us enjoying the alignment here. I know Lizzie and I are big fans of this, so thank you so much for listening and we will see you on the next one.

Speaker 2: 33:33

Thanks, guys. Have a great day. Don't miss out on our journey to living an authentic, purposeful and joyful life. Join our membership and subscribe now to the Modern Zen Collective podcast on all major platforms and take the first steps towards elevating your mind, body and spirit For all resources mentioned in this episode and to connect with us and our conscious community, check out the episode show notes for all links and our current offerings. See y'all next time.