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Up-Level Your Life with Mindy
Up-Level Your Life with Mindy
The Power of Alignment: Mindy Duff's Insights on Living Authentically
Have you ever felt a sudden burst of inspiration that completely changed your perspective? That's exactly what happened to me, Mindy Duff, and it shifted our podcast focus to a pivotal concept: alignment. In this enlightening solo episode of "Up-Level Your Life with Mindy," I share insights on what it truly means to be aligned with our inner selves and how these moments of inspiration can guide us toward authentic personal growth. Reflecting on relationships, career, finances, and spirituality, we delve into identifying areas where we might be out of sync and how to consciously make choices that lead to a more fulfilling life.
Discover the transformative power of self-trust as we explore practical steps to recognize and change aspects of our lives that feel unfulfilling. Learn how to cut through the noise of external influences, prioritize activities that bring genuine value, and quiet your mind through meditation. This episode is a call to action to not settle for mediocrity and to shape a life that feels ecstatic rather than just okay. So get ready to embark on a journey of self-discovery and alignment—it's time to unlock your greatest self!
To learn more about Mindy CLICK HERE
hey, friends, this is your host, mindy duff, and you're listening to up level your life with mindy, your number one personal growth podcast that will bring you closer to uncovering your greatest self. As a certified holistic health and nutrition coach, I created this podcast for anyone who desires to improve physically, emotionally and spiritually. I'll be interviewing experts and sharing tips and tricks that have helped not only my clients, but that have guided me on my own transformational journey. I believe that we all have a greatness that lies within. We just need to uncover it. Are you ready to level up? Then let's begin and welcome back to Uplevel your Life with Mindy.
Speaker 1:I am your host, mindy Duff, doing another solo episode today, and not actually about what I thought I was going to talk about. It wasn't until I just sat down just a little bit ago. I thought I was going to actually do a podcast on something totally different, but I don't know if this ever happens to you, if you ever just get completely inspired or some people will say they receive like downloaded messages or whatever you want to say I just it kind of just hit me that I need to do a podcast on alignment. So that's, I guess, what I'm talking about today and before we get too crazy into that, let's just take a second and talk about those, those downloaded messages or whatever you might have. I used to talk about those, those downloaded messages or whatever you might have. I used to oh well, I'm still part of a community online that's pretty pretty spiritual A lot of people that have a lot of amazing talents there and I used to hear them talk about, you know, getting these downloaded messages and whatever and I thought, wow, they must be some kind of crazy psychic and have these great abilities they were born with. And then, the more I kind of tapped into things myself, I realized and learned about it that we all have this ability to receive these messages from I don't know who God, angels, spirit guides, I don't know. I don't know who's talking to us, but you've had it happen before, regardless of what you called it, where you just kind of got this inspiration or this idea or this thought and you knew that it didn't come from your creation, your conscious mind. It seemed to come out of the ethers somewhere. So I think that that's something that's absolutely available to all of us and actually it's kind of relevant to what I wanted to talk about today with a podcast on alignment. So I know that I have a podcast out there about like vibration and raising your vibration and making sure that you know that kind of helps get you into alignment.
Speaker 1:But I don't think I've ever specifically addressed what being in alignment looks like, maybe because I don't know, I'm not some great alignment expert. I certainly don't feel like my life is. I'm not living completely in alignment, but I've learned some things and I'm here to share. So let's talk about what that means. Even just being in alignment Like what the heck am I talking about? So to me, being in alignment is really just being connected more with your inner self right and living in that the you-iest you.
Speaker 1:I've talked about authenticity quite a bit before and in living the becoming the you-iest you that you can be, and I think that's a great ideal that we all could strive for, but it's not easy to do, especially in this day and age. There's so many things that are pulling for our attention and wanting to get us off track. Maybe they don't even nothing that's trying intentionally to get us off track, but it's very easy to be pulled and to be swayed and to be further and further pulled away from who we truly are on the inside, and so I was reminded of this quote. I'm sure you've heard it before, Excuse me. If you keep doing what you've always done, you'll keep getting what you've always been getting Right, and that's so true.
Speaker 1:So I'd invite you, as you listen to this podcast, to just take a little bit of time and reflect on your own life. It's not like we ever are getting to a place where, ah, there, everything is balanced and in alignment and just how I want it, and it's going to stay this way forever. Now, you know better. That's just not what happens. You know, the more that we can be consciously aware of it, I think, the more we can live our life in a way that we want to live and in a way that feels good and that does feel aligned.
Speaker 1:So, yeah, so, take a look at your life and maybe reflect on the different aspects of it, maybe like categories, we'll call it, like relationships or career, finances those are some big ones Spirituality, anything else, whatever, just kind of pops into your mind, and then just kind of think about all right, well, what is an area of my life that's just not quite like I'd like it to be In this day and age groceries are a million dollars every time you go to the store. Maybe that's a struggle for you. Just think, really, just for a quick. Whatever comes to you first, you know that's probably a good one to focus on no-transcript pantries, so I shouldn't complain. I'd encourage you to get out of that mindset rapidly, because your life and your choices have led you to where you are.
Speaker 1:You are not living somebody else's life and you not living your best life, or it's not like you, making a sacrifice, is going to put food in somebody else's pantry, okay, you saying, well, I just won't complain. That's not going to make someone else's life better just because you don't have what you want and you're just going to not complain about it. I guess I don't know. So I would encourage you to not be concerned about other people's. Oh well, they have it worse than me. No, I mean, you can be concerned about other people and take action to help them, if you can, sure, but that still really doesn't have anything to do with your unique situation and where you are. So instead, I'd invite you to take a look at your situations that are not what you want. And now let's take a look at why, because the answer is in alignment. Okay. So let's just say finances for an example. That's an easy one Lots of people. If you're not having trouble with finances now, you maybe have in the past, so it's relatable, or you've had to keep an eye on it. So in alignment perfectly with who you are deep down inside, then your finances are now reflecting that in some way. Here's the thing Many of us are very disconnected from our spirit.
Speaker 1:I'm going to say spirit, you could say soul, you could say higher self, the God part of you, depending on if you want to get into religion or not, the most powerful part of us we're very disconnected from. In fact, I would say the bulk of myself, included the bulk of the people listening to this podcast, even if you are pretty spiritual or if you go to church regularly, we're pretty disconnected, just as a society, from that most powerful part of ourself and it just I don't know why, but that is what it is. I don't know if just our culture has evolved to become like this, but this is I think this is most people. You might be kind of connected some of the time, but ideally, if we really want that true alignment, we want full connection all of the time. So when you have a situation in your life like, say, your finances are not flowing the way that you want, this is a direct correlation to your alignment, or, more likely, lack thereof, to your true self. So what happens? So, some symptoms of being disconnected. If you're listening going, oh no, I think I'm pretty connected. Ok, we'll check this out.
Speaker 1:So when we're disconnected, we tend to feel more lonely. Um, maybe you might feel blocked. Common word that people would use is stuck. I feel stuck, lost might be a word that you're used to describe it. Um, you might feel a little more depression or anxiety. So if you are a person that feels any of those things lonely, stuck, depressed anxiety, any of those things lonely, stuck, depressed anxiety, even if it's just around one particular topic, so maybe you generally don't have very much anxiety and life is great, except when it comes to your finances and they give you major anxiety, okay, then somehow you are not being connected to the full part of who you actually are not being connected to the full part of who you actually are and that is causing some dissonance within your own life.
Speaker 1:So what happens when we have this disconnect, especially when we're not aware of it is that we no longer trust ourselves. We look externally for things or people or sensations that can fill this void. Essentially, maybe it's shopping, maybe it's scrolling on social media, maybe it's alcohol, escapism of any form, anything where you're just kind of avoiding things. Maybe it's fitting in with various trends for the sake of fitting in, not because, oh no, I really actually like this new trend. No, fitting in because, well, everybody else is doing it and I need to be accepted because I'm trying to fill this void subconsciously. Okay, so there's so many different ways and we all do it, so you do it too, whatever you might be thinking. Oh yes, I know people that use alcohol as an escape tool and et cetera, et cetera.
Speaker 1:Well, friend, I'm here to share with you that you have something that you're using to fill a void or to avoid a situation. Perhaps you read all the reviews before you purchase something, and then you're still unsure of whether you should buy the thing or not. Maybe you have a big decision or a small decision, and so you run it by every single person you see closest friends, closest family, and then they all give you their opinions and then you're still not sure. You know we have a lot of lack of trust in ourselves when we're disconnected from our full, full self of who we are. And you know, I do want to acknowledge that sometimes life deals us some rough cards and we can get into the whys on another podcast. But fact of the matter is sometimes life deals you rough cards, okay, and you might look at stuff and you might even say, well, this was beyond my control, which we can argue that again in another podcast, but let's just go with it, okay.
Speaker 1:So something horrible happened, fill in the blank. Perhaps again, it's financial troubles, Maybe you got a cancer diagnosis, maybe there's been more fighting with your spouse, maybe your kids aren't doing well at school, maybe, fill in the blank again, whatever your thing is. And it can be very easy. And sometimes when things are really big, like that cancer diagnosis I mean that's big, that's huge. It can be very easy to slip into a poor me, poor me. What did I do to deserve this? My life is horrible. Everything's going bad. It doesn't seem to matter what I do. Things always turn out this way. I've tried so many things before and nothing seems to work. It always ends up like this. If you have ever thought those things to yourself. That is a big indication that at least in that area of your life you are out of alignment. Again, we can talk about vibration and how we draw things to ourselves, but that's another topic for another day.
Speaker 1:Victim by saying oh poor me, and it's natural, we're humans You're going to want to say poor me, at least a little bit, and that's fine. But the quicker you can acknowledge it and get over it the better, because playing the victim will only bring more opportunities to be the victim. If you don't believe me, test it out. Actually, don't test it out, like really I would encourage you not to test it out, but prove me wrong on that one that the more you go oh poor me, this always happens. How come I, no matter what I do? And the more you put the energy and focus on that, you're going to bring more opportunities for yourself to be the victim In alignment with all of who you are. You will continue to attract things into your life that don't align or that maybe partially align, and then leave you feeling unsatisfied. Let me say that one again I have this one written down, because this one was like a word for word thought that I again I got from the ethers of, I don't know, the world here.
Speaker 1:If you aren't in alignment with all that you are, you'll continue to attract things in your life that don't align, or maybe they'll partially align, but they will leave you feeling unsatisfied. So maybe you've been looking for a new job and you've got a new job and you're like well, it's mostly good, it's I mean, it's mostly. You know, maybe this part's not good and that part I don't like, but it's mostly good. And then after a year or two, of the mostly good, you start to think oh, you know, this really isn't good and I'm just not satisfied here. Okay, you were not fully in alignment, otherwise the job would have been not just mostly good, it would have been great. Now again, that's not to say that every job is perfect, but you have we've all had jobs or situations where we're like yeah, yeah, yeah, this part I don't like, but it's so amazing, I don't even care about the part that I don't like because it's so great. Right, that's alignment, that's being in alignment.
Speaker 1:Maybe you're in a relationship, maybe you started dating someone and you're like you know they check most of the boxes and that's fine, you can stay with that person. But is that the kind of life that you want for yourself? Is to be a life that's in a relationship where you feel it's mostly okay? No, you don't want that. You want to be ecstatic and, yeah, maybe you know, maybe they load the dishwasher like a psychopath and maybe you know there's things that you don't like, that they do, but overall you want to be like yeah, but they're the most amazing person and I love hanging out with them and we have so much fun together. Yeah, that's what you want, right? So don't settle for the meh.
Speaker 1:If you are finding areas of your life where you are feeling it's mostly okay, you're not in alignment. And if you are having things show up in your life where you're like, whoa, yuck, don't like, it just declined, that is again, you're 100% not in alignment in that area of your life. Okay, so what do we do about it? How do we fix this? How do we change? How do we get into alignment? So there are four different steps that you can try and, hey, I encourage you, as you're listening to this, if something else pops into your mind of, ooh, I bet this would help me. Yeah, do it. Don't just trust the words coming out of some random girl doing a podcast in her basement. Right, that's where I am right now. It's my basement. If you always wondered, just listen to your own self.
Speaker 1:Again, this is partly of how you're going to get more into alignment and start trusting yourself is listening to the wisdom that is coming through your own brain and taking that into effect, taking action on those steps that you're hearing, not necessarily just doing these four steps that I'll outline for you here. You can do these four steps too. I mean, they're legit. I just encourage you to start trusting yourself and don't think that someone else has all the answers all the time, because they don't. You've heard this before. The answers all lie within. Yeah, they do, absolutely. So start trusting yourself.
Speaker 1:But here's some ways, some tangible things. If you're like somebody likes to do, okay, let's go, try it, let's do something. This is how you can start. So number one is to cut the noise. No-transcript, that's whatever just popped into your head. That's where you need to start. Cut the noise. So, whatever that means to you.
Speaker 1:So spend less time with people or things that are trying to influence your behavior. Spend less time with people that are trying to influence your behavior that could be on social media. That could be. You know, there are literally people on TikTok and Instagram all the social media outlets that their job is an influencer. They are trying to manipulate your behavior. And I'm not saying, especially if you're an influencer like you go, you do your thing, you make your money.
Speaker 1:There are people selling legit items that you really need that will make your life better, absolutely. There's some good stuff out there, but it's very easy to be swayed by that and to find yourself thinking that you need things that you don't really need. It's just easy to do so be aware. Also, this could come in the form of friends and family. As sad as it is, maybe you have an overbearing parent or even a friend that's very, you know, dominant and we need to do this. And how come you don't do this? You know, just start noticing the way that your friends and family treat you and speak to you and how, if they are supportive of you or if they are trying to influence your behavior. Just start noticing that. And if you really want to go out and be extra, take five minutes, I'd say, meditate for even just 60 seconds, a few slow breaths and then write down a list Like what comes to you when you think about cutting the noise.
Speaker 1:Number two focus your free time on things you truly enjoy and that bring value to you. So that one you might think well, hopefully you're not like me and thinking free time, what free time? I'm doing this podcast in my free time, but really most of the time we're like well, yeah, if I have free time, I do stuff that I like to do. I hope that's you, but listen to the next part. Does it bring value to you? Sometimes we do things that maybe don't. We don't think like scrolling on social media doesn't necessarily bring value, but maybe sometimes, when you're like you know what, my brain is going 100 miles an hour and I want to unplug for five minutes and I know that if I distract myself for five minutes, I'll be able to go back to whatever I was doing and be a little bit more focused. All right, so sure that maybe might be an instance where social media maybe brought some value to you. Or, you know, you can think of other ways, but actually be a little more conscious of what you're doing with yourself and with your time and your activities, and is this bringing value to me and supporting me in the way the life that I want to live and supporting me in the way the life that I want to live.
Speaker 1:Number three should not be a shock to anyone. This is meditation. My friends, I have podcasts on meditation. I have a podcast on oh, I can't think what I called it, but it's essentially like meditation for dummies. It's not hard, friends. The hardest thing is forming the habit of doing it, and I have a podcast on that too. So there's lots and lots of great resources out there on meditation. Trust me, if you've tried it and you're like, ah, I wasn't doing it, yeah, you were, you were doing it. It's not as hard as you think that it is.
Speaker 1:But meditation is going to help you cut the noise. It's going to help you find that stillness and you're going to be able to hear that inner voice a little bit more clearly and then finally detach yourself from the outcome of what being in alignment looks like. So don't worry about how long is this going to take? What's it going to get me? That's all your ego. Our egos serve a purpose, but our egos, when we let them in the driver's seat, take us in weird places, places that we don't want to go. So don't worry about you know, getting into alignment. Maybe you never will. I don't know, I can't say. Maybe you'll be 80 years old and kind of finally go. Oh, now I feel like I get it. Maybe it'll happen in three weeks, couldn't tell you.
Speaker 1:This is all just as individual as it can be. It's not like baking a cake where you put in the flour and the sugar and you bake it for 350 for 20 minutes. That's not how you bake a cake. But you know what I'm saying. It's not like you're going to get the exact same results if you just follow these steps. Ok, it's so individualized, but work on trusting yourself, work on doing these things to kind of connect back to yourself, and then again you're going to be more easily able to hear those quiet whispers of your soul, and that's going to lead you on a path that is the best for you. It's not like it's going to get you to this place. That's best for you and you got to wait till you get there. It's going to lead you on the path like the whole path is what's going to be best for you, not just waiting till you get to the top of the mountain, but the entire path is going to be the best for you, like taking the scenic route that's got all your favorite things up along the way. Okay, all right.
Speaker 1:Well, that is enough yakking from me on alignment here today. Again, as always, if you have comments on this, if you have tried some things and you want to share whether they worked or didn't work, let me know. Email me, mindy, at mindyduffcom. I love hearing from people and I'd love to support you in your up leveling of your life as best that I can and wherever you're at today. I hope you are having a fantastic day and I will catch you on the next one. That's it for today. Friends, if you enjoyed this episode, don't forget to subscribe or, even better, leave a review and let me know what resonated with you the most. The more you tell me what you love, the better I'm able to create future episodes with even better content. I'm sending you so much love and light. I'll see you in the next episode.