A Little Alignment
In "A Little Alignment," we pour our hearts into conscious conversations about the things we love to geek out about -- psychology, philosophy, optimal health, art, science, mysticism, spirituality, success, relationships and more.
We live for those priceless "aha" moments that have the potential to awaken creativity and curiosity, and remind you of your beauty, power, and presence.
Our intention is to help you realign with your most whole and exceptional self.
Tune in as we navigate the beautiful path to self-discovery together. 🎙️🥂
A Little Alignment
The Gift of Discernment | Finding Conviction in a World of Shifting Perspectives
When the world feels like it's spinning with a thousand different opinions, how do you trust your gut and find your true north? In today's episode we speak to the importance of marrying intuition with logic, to then stand firm in your beliefs while staying open to the ever-changing tides of thought. Join us as these girlies brave a conscious conversation around conviction in an election year! *crosses themselves*
We are spiritual beings having a human experience. Your spirit isn't in your body. Your body is in your spirit, with the human biofield and heart, math and all of the waves that are emanating from us way outside of our physical body.
Speaker 1:Right, and then also with quantum mechanics and understanding how molecules can affect each other from light years away. We can get on board with some of this stuff. But then when we just say I just have a sense, we have a hard time trusting that because we've come to rely too heavily on the intellect. Welcome to A Little Alignment. If you enjoy what you hear today, if you gain some value from our episode, please leave us a good rating and review at the end. Every single review counts. It really does make a difference. We would appreciate it with all our hearts. We're so glad y'all are here with us, helping us create a little more alignment in the world.
Speaker 2:So I feel like this topic of discernment that we're going to be diving into today is timely, in that we are in a spicy year I'll put it that way A spicy year, aka election year, and things can get a little rowdy, a little wild, and I feel like a really important component to just navigating times like this is discernment for the information you're taking in, for just even understanding others perspectives because boy are there a bunch of them which is why I think it's important to really like challenge yourself and push yourself to be as open as possible.
Speaker 2:You know, and I know, that that's a lot easier said than done, especially when you feel real passionate about something, but hopefully today's conversation around discernment can kind of give you some tools to, you know, approach this in a more compassionate, open I don't know just more at ease way, you know, because it can. I mean, I geez, thinking back to the last election we had, it felt horrible, it was a lot, and this is a good tool for any time. I'm just thinking because it's such a big year and these years tend to be so tumultuous yeah, they can be for sure.
Speaker 1:I mean for all of us. I think that it's difficult when people you trust have certain opinions or or perspectives or ethos. You know that you're like. That's not necessarily something that I. You know. Your gut instinct, your initial reaction is what you know yeah, it happens. But then that can be confusing. If you're used to trusting other people more than yourself, you know there's space to trust other people. I'm not saying that you can't, but I mean I know my experience with that has been who do I listen to when there is a lot of people that I respect and love saying a lot of opposite things from each other and I respect both parties, um, literally, in this situation because I do I I respect what everyone is saying, and some really intelligent people that I respect say things that are absolutely opposite of each other.
Speaker 1:And yeah, when you get caught in the crossfires, there it's.
Speaker 1:It can be really confusing to decide for yourself, or to know what's true If that is, your only source is listening to other people, and so this, this element of discernment, is that's where you find the clarity right. That's where you get to say what is it that I am feeling, what is it that I believe, even if like getting comfortable, getting yourself permission to disagree with people that that you respect or that are really intelligent or you know cause, it's yeah, or just to be cool with the fact that, like not, you won't always feel exactly the same way someone else does but, I, think it's important to know that it's there's so many variables to people's lives and what's good for them, what's most supportive, why they believe what they believe based on their experiences.
Speaker 2:Um, so it's like I know for myself I've been really guilty of feeling like at times it's my way or the highway, like I feel so passionately about something that I don't see any potential where someone could disagree and actually have like a sound argument. You know, I think that anything outside of what I believe must be completely bonkers on whatever given topic. Right, but I have been proven, I mean it has. In those times I have been shown a different perspective and been like whoa, I would have never considered that. And so it's times like that that's made me realize like you really just can't be so like rigid in your beliefs to think that you know everything enough or you have enough perspective alone to be able to have the answer yeah which even makes me wonder like is there ever even just the answer.
Speaker 1:That's what I was just thinking is. That's exactly. The point here is that there's not Like what could be really helpful and supportive and quote unquote true for one person is not necessarily going to be for everybody.
Speaker 2:Right, totally.
Speaker 1:And you and I were talking before this about, like, sometimes, the tumultuous nature of having a message and boldly sharing it, because the people who it doesn't align with will just want to point at you and be like, stop saying stuff like that, this isn't true, this is hurtful, this is harmful or this is BS, this is phony. And I, you, we've all seen this happen with somebody who's we, who's just their message is actually just really lovely yeah, you know I mean I'll just I'll go ahead and name drop.
Speaker 1:I'm not worried about it, but recently that I we saw this happening with jay shetty yeah and it was rough because I'm like, okay, well, first let's just listen to what the guy says. What he says is is healing, it's helpful, it's it's kind at. The guy says what he says is is healing, it's helpful, it's it's kind. At the very least he's it's kind.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:And that's what he's claimed and really embodied in his message that he just wants to help make the world a better place, and you and I do as well. That was our intention for starting this podcast is we just want to have these conversations and talk about things that have helped us and, out loud, contemplate things and record it and send it out into the whatever the world and see who it could help, if it can. Because 100% of people um well, I should say it this way zero percent of people will be helped if we say nothing. True.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:So, even with the slightest chance that you know you have something beautiful to share that might not resonate with everyone, if it could resonate with someone, then put it out, right. Yeah, but it gets scarier to do that when everybody is so, like you said, rigid and if something doesn't align with them. Then it's like, oh, this is a lie, this is untrue, this is. And it's like, maybe it's just not true for you, or maybe this is just not for you and that's absolutely fine, right?
Speaker 2:Yeah, I mean, I think it just comes back to like there, I really don't think that there's actually like nothing's black and white.
Speaker 2:There isn't any one answer on how to do things, like, if anything.
Speaker 2:The more that you start to learn about other people and share ideas, the more you see that there's so much variability in what can be true and what can be good for everybody, because it's not going to be the same for everyone.
Speaker 2:And so if you can at least hold space for the fact that, yes, you believe in what you believe, and there's also space for what someone else believes, and allowing them to believe that, I think that that's also part of what's really tricky is that, once we've made a decision for ourselves, this is like confirmation bias, like you want to stand by it so intensely that you can't allow anything else to shake that, because then it means that what you're believing isn't potentially true, but it's like no, like it could be true and not, or this person also has a really good point, yeah, you know.
Speaker 2:And so allowing both, I think, is a good challenge, because it's not easy to do that, but it also isn't easy to just get so stuck in a way and like just be fighting, fighting, fighting and not open yourself up to learning more. Yeah, not open yourself up to learning more. Yeah, because that's that's like. The beautiful part of discernment is that you can really like grow and expand yourself by approaching things without judgment in a way that it's going to give you more understanding yeah, yeah, and it's you know, as you're saying, confirmation bias and and all that you know.
Speaker 1:That, to me, is just really speaking loudly of the, the mind and the thoughts. Right, it's not necessarily feeling the truth of it, which and I know you and I talked about this before, and this is I I mean this is definitely the feminine space of feeling and experience and sensation of being present with what, whatever it is. You know this, the topic or the situation, and you know it. The one tool for discernment is to drop out of the mind and into the body and just ask yourself what do you feel about this like?
Speaker 2:what is, what is your?
Speaker 1:heart telling you Not what are the thoughts, what have you heard that you've absorbed? What are you trying to hear? What do you want to be true, but really allowing yourself, to be honest with yourself, and that might not be a tool that is helpful to everyone, because not everybody is super connected to their bodies at this point but you can develop that first.
Speaker 2:Of all yeah, you can, it's just a practice, but I I love that you brought in how something feels within your body, because that is definitely going to give you some guidance around what's true for you.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and that's important yeah, body, yes, and the body now, I mean mean, that's become a part of my daily vocabulary. Ooh, that was a full body. Yes, for me.
Speaker 2:I felt that was easy.
Speaker 1:I got really excited and you know, you can probably think back to times in we can all think back to times in our lives where that we have that experience where the initial response was like either a big yes or a big no, but then we started thinking about it and then that's when we fell into confusion. Right, but wait, do I want to do this? Because what if this happens? Or what about last time? Or what about what this person said? Or what do you think this person would think? And then suddenly you completely disregard that experience that you had, that gut instinct, if you will, that intuitive ping that may show up in your body. It may show up as a yes in your mind. I don't know exactly how everybody's connected to their intuition. For me it's the body. So that's the where I'm coming from, to talk about this, and you get, you can see so clearly, looking back at the times when I've thought myself out of discernment which is interesting, right, right because you think discernment is a thinking thing.
Speaker 1:It's like let me weigh this out in my mind, but we often disregard the body and how it feels, and the emotional holding, the emotional space as well, like put yourself emotionally in the situation of what someone else is saying and at the very least you could of what someone else is saying and at the very least you could develop some compassion for them and why they take the road that they do, even if you don't agree with it.
Speaker 2:Right, yeah, and I think too, like yeah, you aren't truly discerning something if you're not open to seeing another potential right, that's actually just being closed off and being like rigid like what we're saying, so like true discernment comes from being open enough to hearing multiple perspectives, and so it's. I think it's challenging because you do have to open yourself up vulnerably to see where you might have been wrong, and that's not easy. Nobody really wants to be in that place. Everybody wants to act like they know what is right from like straight out of the gates. You know, because everybody sees the power in that. You know. But there's a lot of power and strength in being able to say you know what. I actually see things different now, or I actually really understand where you're coming from and I think that I can agree with what you're saying. But how many times do you hear people say things like that?
Speaker 1:Yeah, not very often.
Speaker 2:No, not at all, and I think that's you know, because it's like it's you admitting that you were potentially wrong, which I don't think is a horrible thing. I think it's really cool when people can show up that way.
Speaker 1:Me too, yeah, me too yeah. And on the other, on the other side of this, I think too I mean, this is definitely a message for me and has been many times in my life that, um, like I was saying at the beginning of this, you know, when you know that feeling, you get that just like sense, that something's just like not right yeah, yeah, it's like an intuition, yeah, and you know what's interesting is, we say that makes sense, but when we say it now, present day, we typically mean like biologically can work that out in my mind, when really sense is sensation, like there's just this sense, there's some knowing without knowing right.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:Without being able to see, Knowing without knowing, right, yeah, Without being able to see, I should say, or being able to prove it. Better said when, yeah, I've been in situations where I've had this sense of just like I don't know why, but I don't have a good feeling about this for example.
Speaker 1:But everyone around me might feel differently, or be acting differently anyway, and that is hard. Or be acting differently anyway, and that is hard. It's hard to without really being able to prove your case or say this is why, and just to stick by your guns. Like to let your sense To actually go against the grain To go against the grain, with only your sense to back you up.
Speaker 2:Right.
Speaker 1:Right. That's what, and I think that is what discernment truly is. It's like it has so much to do with what you can't necessarily prove. It's just like a knowing right. It's a sense about something, and you know it's difficult to look someone in the eye and be like I just have a sense, I disagree, or I'm not looking anyone in the eye, but living in society maybe differently, maybe in a way that people disagree with, and when they're like, tell, tell us why, what is what's going on? Why? Why are you making these choices? Or why do you feel this way or believe this way? And all you can say is I just have a sense yeah, that's hard.
Speaker 2:Yeah, well, I'm gonna just put myself out there and say that's how I felt about the backs, the vaccines, when they first came out. It did not feel right to me to jump into doing something that well. It didn't logically make sense to me either, to be quite honest, because I, in my mind, we needed more time to really understand whether or not what we had as an option was the best option. And, um, there was definitely times too, cause I had tons of pressure from my family and from different friends to become vaccinated or to get vaccinated, and I was like you know what, maybe I will, but every time I thought I was going to go do it, it did not feel right in my body and so I knew that was like a no, this is not supposed to happen. I'm going to wait it out. I'm not saying that I don't think anybody else should, I'm not saying that I never will, but right now it's very clear to me that this is not what's right.
Speaker 2:So, again, I feel like I really practiced good discernment in that, because I was not somebody out there judging people for getting vaccinated.
Speaker 2:I think that everybody, especially in that situation, really needed to make a decision for themselves, and there were people that needed to have that as soon as they could. There were people that did not need to have that as soon as they could, you know, and I was not the need to have that as soon as they could, you know. And and I was not the person to make that decision for anybody else, definitely not the person to judge anybody for deciding one way or the other. Because when do I ever, you know, get off thinking that, like I have the place to judge somebody else for their decisions with what they do with their body? So, um, yeah, that was one time where I think it was real, like there's and I actually think that I mean there's all the times like use all of your tools. Use all of your tools because you do have this incredible body between your heart and your brain, and then all the intangibles, with your intuition, that will tell you what is right for you.
Speaker 2:And I literally want to like, bold and highlight for you, because I firmly believe that what's good for you might not be good for someone else. And you have to respect and honor that there is a difference or can be a difference.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I love that Also. It's I mean, what you're saying is so powerful that this is a tool and it's like this built in really effective, really powerful tool that we don't harness very effectively because we have come to this society to really overvalue logic, right? Or what other people think of you.
Speaker 1:That's fair as well yeah, but even societal pressures when it comes to making decisions. You know, we it's like, we want to have this rule book of like this is how you do things, this is, this is the right way, this is the best way, or whatever. You know, this is the way and we want this rule book and that's so logical and, at the same time, there's so many people that are comfortable acknowledging that we are spiritual beings, having a human experience, yeah, and then the other thing that's coming to mind is that your spirit isn't in your body.
Speaker 1:Your body's in your spirit, and this is actually scientifically proven right with the human bio field and heart math and all of the waves that are emanating from us way outside of our physical body. Right, and then also with quantum mechanics and understanding how molecules can affect each other from light years away. We, we can get on board with some of this stuff, but then when we just say I just have a sense, even to ourselves, we have a hard time trusting that.
Speaker 2:Yeah, sense, even to ourselves we have a hard time trusting that. Yeah, isn't that?
Speaker 1:interesting, yeah, when it's like this is the spiritual, this is the energetic gift. You know that that's built in this tool, that's that, this, uh, navigational tool. Really, that's built into your field being, your being exactly, and we're discounting it because we've come to rely too heavily on the intellect and what we can prove on paper and how we can you know, make it seen or see it ourselves. Physically Provable, Right yeah?
Speaker 2:Yeah, they want to see the math. We want to see the math.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:But sometimes you don't get to see the math, you just have to you don't need to.
Speaker 1:That's. That's the point here is you don't need to see the math. If it makes sense to you, that's all you need yep, yeah, I'm, I, I still like.
Speaker 2:I just like the fact that there are also so many different perspectives.
Speaker 2:It can be looked at as a challenge or maybe something that's not great, but if you're opening yourself up and you can flip that thought to see it as something that actually is really good, then you're seeing it as a potential for growth, right, and like seeing something in a whole new light.
Speaker 2:And, um, it's so interesting because there's always something I feel like I'll come across on social media where somebody will have a catchy tagline or headline on their reel or whatever, and it sounds like something really polarizing, like, oh my God, what you can actually say that. And then you listen and you're like, okay, well, well, usually they pulled out like the most you know it was an attention grabber. Yeah, it was an attention grabber, but also it's just another example of you opening yourself up to seeing something in a completely new light that can change how you perceive things. And so, yeah, it's definitely challenging to hear all of the noise and like, quite honestly, the ruckus of what happens, specifically like on election years and everybody's like opinions and thoughts, but it's also like if you can just step away or flip it on its head, rather that there is so many of those ideas and thoughts floating around and just observe Like don't step into becoming a victim, don't step in to becoming offended, or like a dictator?
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:Yeah, just like approach it with curiosity. This reminds me of the episode that we did Like the cure, the curiosity cure. The curiosity cure is like the cure for judgment is just to apply some curiosity. But if you can do that, it's so interesting. I mean, human beings are so fascinating.
Speaker 2:And so if you can actually allow yourself to just like, observe, without getting emotionally involved, you might learn something and actually be able to take a little tidbit from someone else. Maybe it's you know you don't like it all, but take what you like and leave the rest. You're going to grow and learn something, If not anything else, if nothing else you will learn something You'll understand people, which is a huge I mean.
Speaker 1:That's so important and it's definitely powerful to be able to understand people. Empowering is a better way to say that.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:To be able to understand people. Empowering is a better way to say that, yeah, to be able to understand people I love. I think you're right about that. I also think, well, no, I believe deeply, actually let me rephrase that that you can hold the yes and space here where you can be open-minded, you can understand that what's a full-body yes for you might not be a full-body yes for someone else and be incredibly convicted in what your full body yes or full body no is. Be like I'm 100 like sure about this, like I feel definitely convicted about this thing, without needing someone else to believe it or align with it or act according to it as well for me to feel validated, you know, like I'm. You know, and I'm thinking even, too, about the election, because I definitely have a candidate that I feel real passionate about and I really believe in him yeah rfk, by the way this will come out before election rfk, by the way I really do.
Speaker 1:I, I and and I'll tell you what was funny is my husband and we're talking about this. He was like who you know? Why do you like him? And I was like first answer this stuff. I was like when he talks, in my body I feel peace, like I feel like I trust him, like what he says, I believe it.
Speaker 1:You know, and he's like well, he has a history too. All that doesn't bother me, the way that he's talking and how he's showing up today. When he talks, I believe what he says and that matters to me. It's the only candidate that I feel that way about honestly. And then, of course, we look he wanted to pull up the policies. This is just like the perfect example of the masculine and the feminine.
Speaker 1:He's like well what are his policies? I'm like I know a couple, let's look through them. And we looked through them and actually aligned with most of his policies as well, but it was just really um, it was. It was a funny interchange and he actually ended up being pleasantly surprised by some of the policies yeah but it was.
Speaker 1:I mean, like I said, I I'm really do, for the first time probably ever, feel like talking about politics and talking about him. And hey, what if we actually gave this a chance? What if this was a huge shift for?
Speaker 2:the country would definitely be and don't.
Speaker 1:It doesn't seem like that's what we need absolutely yeah I do think, I do believe that yeah, however, and I'm not afraid to talk about it. I'm not even afraid to preach about it a little bit. However, if I hear somebody else that disagrees with me or, you know, doesn't necessarily support that, or is going to vote for someone else, for sure I'm going to be bummed out. I'm going to be like oh come on, you know because I'm so convicted.
Speaker 1:But I'm not mad at them, I'm not judging them, I'm just convicted in what I believe and that's it. And there's a difference there, right? And I think that that's an important note to make that we can be firm in our convictions while also holding space for other people to have different perspectives and different beliefs and different things that matter to them.
Speaker 2:Right, a hundred percent.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yep, yep anything else about this discernment. I like the approach we took. This is a different. I was thinking, you know, usually when we talk about discernment it's more spiritual, it's more like reading the vibe, yeah, and I think this was. It was a more practical approach to discernment, which I like. That so I thought that was fun. I thought that was fun yeah, no, I think it's.
Speaker 2:I mean, we have all of these tools. We have our brain, we have the logic we can apply. We also have our heart and our intuition and what feels right in our body. Why wouldn't we just use both?
Speaker 1:Yeah, don't discredit it.
Speaker 2:And be open to people. I think a big thing that would shift everything is if people had to have face-to-face conversations versus conversations online. And when you do, you can see things through a completely different lens. Important for for you making a decision and deciding what's best for you without just judgment. Right, because there's so much left to the imagination. You can twist and change things when you're just seeing, like a one-liner or you know, just a caption and a post or something, but, like you know, really challenging yourself to go out there and have conversations about the things that you're trying to learn about or, you know, make decisions on. Because the more you can connect, the better. And that's the magic of all of this, because, instead of it pulling everybody apart, why don't we just like come together and talk about these things? You know that would be ideal.
Speaker 2:Sure would that would be ideal. We always have more in common than we think.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:More that's the same than that's different.
Speaker 1:And conflict is actually super beneficial to growing in relationship, and that can be the case for the country you know. Conflict is something that helps to grow. It's not a bad thing in and of itself and what you're saying the ideal, I agree. I think if we could use conflict to listen and to understand a different perspective, I wow.
Speaker 1:I mean instead of just running away and everybody like going to their echo chambers, and yeah, yeah which is what happens instead of just getting mad at each other for disagreeing when it's inevitable there's gonna going to be different opinions. Yeah, anyway, all right, I think we can call this.
Speaker 2:You good with that, feels good Cool. All right, go out there and make some good decisions with your head and your body.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and vote for RFK. No, I'm just kidding.
Speaker 2:Just kidding. I feel like this episode was all about not getting vaccinated and RFK. Clearly this episode was all about not getting vaccinated and rfk. Clearly they had an agenda which we totally didn't bring up vaccinations or rfk before we started recording, which is really funny that this definitely swayed a certain way, amazing, unintentionally.
Speaker 1:That's us, you know use your discernment to decide if you align with this or if this could spark some some people that are never gonna listen to us again.
Speaker 2:Yeah, Bye girl.
Speaker 1:Bye girl, okay, love you still. Bye, love you anyway.
Speaker 2:Bye. If you found any of what we shared today helpful, please share this with a friend, and we would so appreciate a rating and review to help us grow and reach more people. Also, please feel free to send us any feedback and questions. You can find us on Instagram. Kendra can be found at Kendra Dyer Crabb, k-e-n-d-r-a-d-y-e-r-c-r-a-b-b, and you can find myself at Lauren Pena Dial, and it's L-A-U-R-E-N-P-E-N-A-D-I-A-L. Thanks so much for listening and I hope you have a beautiful rest of your day.