Are you ‘aligned’?

That fancy car, the new home, the dream partner? – You just gotta align with it!
In the spiritual community, we often speak about alignment as if it means being in tune with our desires. And whenever we achieve any of that or experience something positive, this is seen as proof of our alignment.

I believe if we stop there, we are missing the point!

We all know, you can have millions on your bank account, can sit in the most beautiful house with a pretty partner next to you and the big car in the garage… and still be unhappy. Because genuine fulfillment doesn’t come from what we have, but from how deeply we are connected to who we really are, how much we live according to our innermost truth. Thus, true alignment will always have to include that: the Self.
When we try to align with something that we desire, we target an outcome. The focus is on what we wish for rather than on sinking deeper within, toward who we truly are at our core, our innate Divinity. And yes, at that core, we are abundant, are loved, are infinitely rich and deeply fulfilled. And the more we live from there, the more we will experience that in our outer world as well. Abundance and fulfillment in all areas. Miraculous manifestations of our heart’s desires, even those that we weren’t even fully aware of yet.
So at first glance, that might not sound all that different: we align and then get what we want. But that seemingly subtle difference actually changes a lot. It changes the focus of our expansion: Into the world and discovering ourSelf along the way, or toward Self and changing our world as we do.

What I’ve noticed about people who mainly focus on the fulfillment of their desires is that they often get visible results pretty quickly. They receive all these fantastic manifestations and their life soon seems pretty amazing. But what you don’t see is if all that actually fulfills them.

The problem is not desire itself. The question is: where in us does it arise from? Desire without Self, that is disconnected from our innermost truth, becomes distraction and often leads to a never-ending chase in the external world. And man, it’s easy to lose yourSelf in the euphoria of external achievements and confuse that with deeper alignment. Success can become the most convincing distraction from your Self. When tangible achievements become more important than living according to our innermost truth, then we’ve created a whole new level of ego. One that is super spiritual, successful and abundant on the surface – and still disconnected within.

Also, people who experience quick success, tend to attribute that to what they’ve done, to a certain approach. And yes, tools can be super helpful. But eventually we will have to choose: Am I willing to let go of a tool that has given me so much, so that I can finally meet the true source of my own power? Because if we don’t, this method will always stand between self and Self, between human and the Divine within. Unrecognized, because it works so well. And the master becomes a slave to their own tool. The real test of our alignment begins when what works starts pulling us away from a deepening of our connection to our own Divinity.

So rather sit at home all day meditating, do shadow work or some other kind of inner work? – Definitely not! This is actually the greatest pitfall of the internal path: not actually living and expressing the Self. Staying stuck in fixing mode or lost somewhere in the inner worlds. Because deep down we believe we need to be fully healed in order to experience the really good stuff. But that is just a belief of a part in us that does not feel fully worthy. – After all, we all know people who are totally messed up inside but still have an amazing external life.

A great pain point of those who mainly focus on re-connecting with their innermost truth is when they compare themselves with those whose priority is wish fulfillment. Not all signs of greater alignment are obvious to others. When we focus on the Self, what shows up first is usually not a private jet, but deep inner peace. So let’s stop measuring alignment only by visible results.

And just because you value a sense of being home within over a Gucci hand bag, please don’t discard all desires as an expression of the ego, or dismiss worldly success as superficial or even bad. Desires are beautiful. They are how the Divine in us propels us forward. And this physical plane is there to be enjoyed. So go out and live your life! Savor it to the fullest. Your true Self does not play small! That is just another lie of the ego. Rich, happy, successful – I want all of that for you, and your Self does too.

The ultimate truth of who we are is free, is abundant, is fulfilled. Pure love and aliveness. That is what wants to be experienced and expressed through all of us.

And maybe alignment is simply the process of embodying that truth more and more. A path of constant refinement, of never-ending expansion and thereby meeting our Self anew again and again, deeper and deeper.