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
Consciously Consuming | Attune to the Subtleties of Life
In our latest episode, we delve into the concept of a "life diet," examining everything from our morning routines to our interactions with others, and even the media we absorb. We'll guide you through the 'start, stop, continue' technique—a simple yet powerful method to align your habits with your personal growth and goals. Awareness and intentional living are key to crafting a harmonious existence amidst the cacophony of everyday life.
And I was just enjoying this cute little flower, thinking I could have missed out on this little subtlety if I was just like cruising doing my thing, even though this is literally here to be enjoyed easily and quietly and gently.
Speaker 1:You know and it to me really spoke of the magic of subtlety and how when the music is too high then you don't get to experience the subtlety of the song. At that point it becomes just noise. Even if you are consuming a lot of really good stuff, if you're over consuming, then it just becomes noise. 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:Okay, what we're talking about today is just becoming really conscious of everything that you consume, not only like physically, like eating, but what are you consuming energetically, through the people that you spend time with, both in person and virtually? What information are you consuming, whether it's through books or TV or social media, podcasts? Right, we're like always surrounded by something. We're in a certain place with certain people, we're eating, we're even just thinking, right, any little thing. It's like for me, like the second, I hear a song, boom, it's stuck in my head, but what are those lyrics that I'm like reciting in my head, even doing to my energy for that day, you know? So that's what we want to talk about. We just want to dive into becoming really conscious of what we surround ourselves with and therefore, what we are consuming yeah, I mean our, our external stimuli is.
Speaker 1:I mean we have a choice, what we decide to let into our energetic field. We talk a lot. You hear, probably pretty you've heard before, at least I'm sure, at least once to protect your energy right, oh yeah. And what does that even mean? Well, in this sense it means choosing what you let into your field, if you will, what you consume. What you consume, because that will affect your energy in every way.
Speaker 2:Right.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I mean it, it can right, and sometimes it's just a simple of a simple invitation to say okay, well, let me become more conscious of what I'm consuming. Yeah, and that's like this. The number one intention for this is to invite you into contemplation for your own life and to just kind of take inventory and and again become conscious of it and recognize that you are choosing into certain things maybe totally out of habit or convenience, and not necessarily powerful choice.
Speaker 2:Right. So this can even be a good time to do a reset, like I would love to just invite everybody who's listening If you're a journaler, you know me and my journaling Pull out a journal and like what is it that I'm eating on a regular basis and is all of it serving me? What is it that I'm watching? Or how much time am I spending on social media, who am I spending my time with? And just like you said, take a little bit of an inventory and maybe you'll notice there's some places that you have fallen into a pattern subconsciously, and you can then sort of tie back like, oh, you know what, like this is actually not totally in alignment with where I want to be going or what I want to be doing, or moving me towards what it is that I'm really working for right now. So let me make an adjustment. You know, and we all just get so caught up in the day to day and so it's easy to fall into patterns, whether it's just, you know, out of the need for efficiency, or it's just easier.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:Um, but this is an invitation to choose more intentionally.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and I think you know routines, falling into a routine isn't necessarily a bad thing. I think routines kind of help take the guesswork out of whatever. Anything right, you choose your routine and then you let it take root and become something that you know kind of carries you and you don't have to think so much about it, right?
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:But we are constantly changing. Life is constantly in motion. Everything is nothing is just still and unchanging. Everything is in motion, including life, including us, and so it's important to have these moments, like you said with the journaling, to check in with ourselves and say, okay, this routine has been working for me, is it still? Is this the best routine for me of the things I can incorporate or replace or take out? Right, and sometimes life gets our attention and forces us to. You know, acknowledge that I see this a lot with like diets, like I this, this diet worked for me so well before, but it's not now. Well, maybe because your body's shifted and it's changed and we need a different diet, right? So a life diet, if you will, since we're talking about consuming.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:Yeah, maybe it's, there's some. Yeah, anyway, to just take inventory of your routine and again your what you're consuming.
Speaker 2:Yeah, you could give yourself a little start. Stop continue feedback.
Speaker 1:Wait, what Say that again? No, but it sounds yummy.
Speaker 2:So there's this just way of giving people feedback and it's the start, stop and continue feedback, and you can make you know bullets under each category start, stop, continue, for let's say, you know an employee or whoever somebody that you know an employee or whoever somebody that you're meant to give feedback to. So start, or, yeah, start doing X, y and Z, right, like you see that there's maybe some holes in, like what's missing. So maybe you take an inventory of all of your habits throughout the day and you say you know what I really would like to read more. So start could be something you add in. There could be something you add in there, stop.
Speaker 1:I realize I'm spending way too much time on social media. Yeah, and so I'm going to stop Right.
Speaker 2:That's pretty common. That's why that one came to mind. So easy to get sucked into.
Speaker 1:Totally yeah.
Speaker 2:So then, continue. You might see, hey, like I've been really consistent with my meditations and my workouts, that's going to continue.
Speaker 1:So I'm feeling really good. It's still really serving me yeah.
Speaker 2:So you're just turning that start, stop, continue, feedback that you would typically have in some sort of setting with an employee, but you're turning it onto yourself. So what's the feedback?
Speaker 1:category.
Speaker 2:Is that where you do sit down? Oh, this is a whole feedback.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it's like it's just.
Speaker 2:It's helpful in getting a full picture of what's going well, what's not there at all and what you want to bring in right between the start, stop and continue oh, I like that so it's just good for yourself to do it, you know, give yourself some feedback yeah, yeah, I like that, um, yeah, and you know, give yourself some feedback.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, I like that, um, yeah, and you know, sometimes it is difficult, you know, with this whole, this whole podcast. It's called a little alignment, right, we're here to help people live in more, more alignment with their truth, with themselves, with you know, life in their version of it, and it's really difficult to receive. You know what's the word I'm looking for to feel, to sense the alignment or the um being out of coherence with something or something not resonating if you're not really tapped in and tuned in to yourself, right? So it's easy to say, you know, give yourself some feedback. Is this working, is it not?
Speaker 1:And perhaps there's some things that are really clear, but sometimes the noise of life is just so it's so loud, it's turned up so much that it's really difficult to get clear signals from your even your own body, even your own soul, your own self, Right, and so, yeah, something that a practice that's pretty popular is like deprivation experiences, right, people will go into a sensory deprivation of some kind to kind of cleanse, if you will, and get back to a more steady baseline instead of just the chaos of the day to day that's so easy to get, you know, pulled into.
Speaker 2:It's like uh just the churn getting lost.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, exactly, that's exactly what I'm picturing. I'm like it's just pulls you in, spits you out, pulls you in, spits you out, and it's. It's hard to hear, it's hard to receive the signs and receive the signals if you are lost in the sauce of the day to day.
Speaker 2:For sure, yeah, so like stepping out and removing yourself for a little bit, like a true reset, which you've done recently. Tell us about your reset and what this looks like, because you just became really conscious of what you were consuming. Right, but what? What this looks like? Because you just became really conscious of what you were consuming right, yeah but what did that look like for you? Yeah?
Speaker 1:well, I mean, to be honest, it was more of a necessity for me.
Speaker 1:My voice was really feeling tired and so I had decided.
Speaker 1:One day I was like I'm just gonna speak as little as possible today, yeah, and one day I was like I'm just going to speak as little as possible today, and because of that, I was forced not to do what I typically do, which is, in the morning, all voice message, or Marco Polo on my walks, or you know, I'm talking all the time because I love to talk and there is nothing wrong with that, right, but it's just constant and it's also habitual.
Speaker 1:I'm just like I don't really think about it, about it, it's just this is what I do when I'm driving, this is what I do when I walk right. And because I didn't, I stepped out of my routine and what I was used to. I suddenly became super aware of the fact that I was pretty much always talking, always, you know, and always digesting other people's thoughts, and you know, and when I wasn't talking, I was used to sound, and so I would put on music, or I would put on a podcast, or I would put on something an audio book and I would, or even, you know I would get on TikTok, I would get on Instagram.
Speaker 2:I'm just constantly consuming yeah, and like filling space with conversation, whether it was your own or someone else's, absolutely yeah, and I just it.
Speaker 1:I recognized it because I wasn't able to engage in it in the same way. I mean, I woke up to it pretty quickly and was like, okay, this is a great opportunity. I am going to very consciously turn the volume knob down on my life today while I'm not speaking.
Speaker 2:In terms of like yeah, so turn down the volume on the amount of conversation you were listening to and the amount of conversation you took part in.
Speaker 1:yeah, and sound really in general. Okay, yeah, I was like I'm not gonna listen to music, I'm not going to watch tv or have a show on or even like background ambience, which I love to have, right, yeah, and again, nothing wrong with that, I'm still love that but I was like I'm gonna give myself a break. A sound, sound fast, if you will. And I found myself you know that knee jerk reaction, just as I'm doing things, to just want to open my phone, or you know I I really started to see how, um, reactive I was being in relation to that. You know how just I was always putting something on, always going to something, and I've caught myself because I was like I'm not going to do that, right, I'm not doing this today. And so I read and I rested and I didn't talk and I it was really peaceful, you know, and and I stepped away from that day. It was pretty quick reset, I mean, it was just one day, but immediately I fell back in love with quiet a little bit more.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:And I was like I didn't know that I missed this because I didn't give myself the chance to recognize the difference.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:And so I recognized how little quiet I was allowing myself in the mind and also in the environment, because we connected and they're influenced by each other, I should say. And so, yeah, after that I was super excited to just sit and quiet a lot more, and I, on my walks, I was like, oh man, I forgot, I used to walk to get inspiration and to pray and to just be, and I had been using walks to chat with people, which I still do and I love to do.
Speaker 1:But I did, I received a lot that day because I was just quiet, right, so it was. It was a quick reset, but it shifted things for me and it's I still have these responses or reactions to, just you know, robotically, kind of go into what I'm used to, but now I have more consciousness around it, more awareness, and I'm like, oh no, because I remember how nice it is to be in the quiet a little bit, and it really did.
Speaker 1:It reset my senses in a sense in a sense, yeah, you know to be more sensitive to this, the massive amounts of constant sound and chatter and talk, and you know in literal, a literal sense and also in a figurative sense, the sound and the chatter of life, and I became more sensitive to it so that I knew when I needed to turn the knob down a little bit so that I could rest a little.
Speaker 2:Right, you know what I'm imagining. I'm sure I don't know, I don't know, I don't know. I'll just put this out there and see, like, even if you've been able to witness something like this, but for me I feel like there's people that you run into and you can almost tell that they live a very noisy. You can almost tell that they live a very noisy, constantly moving, very active life, because their level of presence is actually quite minimal, right, like they'll talk to you but they're also doing something else at the same time. Yeah, it's like their presence is loud.
Speaker 1:Yeah, Like they're in your space and you're like or it's.
Speaker 2:It's even just hard to reach them right, like it's almost like you feel like you're talking but you're just kind of like part of the noise. So the experience of even being with these people is a little bit surface level because it's like there's I mean, we all only have like a hundred percent to give, right. And when you're taking in tons of information and balancing a whole bunch of things, that 100% is getting divided into so many directions and I think that after a while it kind of numbs you to how truly plugged into the present moment you really are and how deep you can actually go in that presence. And then there's people on the other end who, when there's a lot going on, you can tell it's like whoa, it's like a lot, because they're trying to tune into you and and or like they will actually consciously turn things down to be more present with you, to go deeper with you, and you feel heard and you feel seen on a different level, right.
Speaker 2:And so I've had the experience of being with people who are on one end of the spectrum and then on the other end of the spectrum and obviously everything in the middle. So it's really interesting because what I'm imagining is probably the version of Kendra that showed up, you know, the day before she went on. Her sound fast, was probably a little bit more like numb to just yeah, all of of the sound, all of the things going on and multitasking and this and that and whatever. And then the version of you that emerged after a day of just quiet. You were probably so much more plugged in and present, and so it's so interesting because that really shifted your experience of life. But I think it's also really possible this is going to shift other people's experience of you as well.
Speaker 2:Right yeah, you don't always think about that, right? I think that's kind of interesting.
Speaker 1:I love that, that truth bomb for sure, because we're always, we're in constant relationship with whatever's around us, right? So if you are, if your energy, if you will, is noisy and it's just like chaotic and it's a lot, you know, you're in the churn, like you said, and you're right, there's not a lot of space to deeply connect or to be experienced, even in who you actually are, because they're just it's. The chaos is almost like creating this barrier, you know what is funny?
Speaker 2:It's yeah, I mean, it's that for sure, and it's funny like this is not a bad thing or a knock at moms in general. But you know, when moms have little kids and they have multiple little kids, I know exactly what you're going to say how present they are in the conversation with you.
Speaker 2:Not that present, right Like we've all had a conversation with a mom who's like out of pure necessity, right Like she's a hundred percent trying to, like she's trying to talk to you, but she's definitely trying to keep her kids alive and like make sure that they're, you know, not going crazy, or that they have what they need, or that they're not running away, right like.
Speaker 1:So, yeah, so true, but I've had so many times where I'm hanging out with a girlfriend who has her kids around and she is just not, yeah, there, she's not there on the other hand, though this is this is another interesting take some moms are so good at tuning their kids out because they're they're used to mommy, mommy, mommy, mommy all day, and so you're, you're sitting with them and their kid is like mom, mommy, mom, mom, and you're like waiting for them to listen, and they're just so tuned into they're like, that's so.
Speaker 1:True, they're so used to the noise right that they're not. Actually they might have tuned out and I think we all can do this too right, when we're overstimulated or we're over consuming, then the subtle we miss out on the subtleties.
Speaker 1:Not that a little kid represents subtlety ever, but that's not true. There's definitely subtleties that kids have to teach us. But yeah, subtlety is, it's where the magic is, it's where the sweetness lives. And I was just thinking about this today on a walk, actually without any sound, without talking to anybody, and I saw this is going to sound. I don't know how it's going to sound, it's cute, we'll go with it.
Speaker 1:I saw this little flower and it's kind of. I went off the beaten path a little bit and there was just one little flower and I was like how, how, like this flower just grew and it just to be here, I mean it's, it's so small and right at that moment I was really admiring it. I'm like that's such a pretty little flower and I'm like that flower grew to just be appreciated by anybody who could pause and appreciate a subtlety, because that's what, to me, flowers are. I know they serve multiple purposes, but they're also beautiful and that's part of their purpose, right, and I was just enjoying this cute little flower, thinking I could have missed out on this little subtlety if I was just like cruising doing my thing, even though this is literally here to be enjoyed just easily and quietly and gently.
Speaker 1:You know and it's to me really spoke of the magic of subtlety and how yeah it's I've heard it said to when the music is too high, then you don't get to experience the subtlety of of the song, right, it's just at that point it becomes just noise, even if you are consuming a lot of really good stuff. If you're over consuming, then it just becomes noise, even if it's good.
Speaker 2:Right, right. And then there's the other end of the spectrum, too, where it's like you might not be conscious of some of the things that you're consuming that are actually really damaging to you. Right, like the. Um, the thing that comes to my mind first is when you walk into a house and they have the news blaring and the language that's even being used is all so negative and just like the fear mongering and all of the crazy, because I mean, we all know like the news gets way more ratings when it's just like spicy and entertaining.
Speaker 2:And people are drawn to the drama and they're drawn to like, oh my god, like what this is happening right and like the energy in spaces like that is so different and in so many cases it's just background noise. My, uh, my grandmother listens to, listens to, watches, whatever the news like all day, and she came over and was staying with us for one weekend and, poor thing, can't hear very well. So this girl would talk about noise. She had the tv on like loud and it was the news. And that was one of those times, too, where I just became really conscious of like whoa, what a huge difference this is in creating the space, because I, you know, you walk into my house there's like 90% chance there's some sort of like just ambient music, or like DJ, or like just some sort of YouTube video, whether it's like a circle or something.
Speaker 2:Yeah, just playing music in the background circle or something, just playing music in the background and for that to be switched to like news and people just like I was like this place feels horrible.
Speaker 2:I hate this right now, but that's just another thing where it's like these, even just the language they're using and the words that were coming through, was completely shifting my energy and how I was feeling and experiencing that moment. And I mean the same can be said for even the kind of music that you listen to. You know like there's times where, like Rob and I are on very different pages around, like where we are energetically. I tend to kind of like always be up at the top, where I'm very like like I need to like come down a little bit, I need to like calm, whereas Rob he's always calm and sometimes he's trying to like lift his energy and like become more energetic and like pump himself up. So he'll turn on some like music to like get him to just be like amped up.
Speaker 2:But I walk in and I'm already amped up and I need to chill out, and so it's funny because I have to actually be like look, I need to turn this down. We've got to make some sort of shift, because it totally changes the way that you feel and how you will then step into every single other thing you do, and so it's just funny, but it's because we're on such different pages at points in time and it's like holy shit. But yeah, I mean it's, it's all coloring your experience, from music to social media, to the people, to the food right, like even oh my God, food is huge.
Speaker 1:It's huge. Yeah, I mean this is an easy one for everybody to relate to, because when we talk about protecting your energy, it's easy to be like what does that mean? Like I can't sink my teeth into that, really, but you can sink your teeth into food and think about how you are affected based on what you consume nutritionally yeah right. And even stuff that's yummy in the moment.
Speaker 1:It doesn't necessarily feel yummy after that yeah that doesn't mean that it's evil or bad, necessarily, but it's just just be aware, becoming aware of looking at you know, the choice you're about to make. Is this going to make me feel the way that I want to feel? Is this going to get me to where I want to be, or is it not? And whatever, sometimes that choice might be different if you're with people or you know it might serve its perfect purpose in the moment. But just being able to just remembering you have a choice and choose consciously and to choose consciously, yeah and yeah.
Speaker 1:And also with food, with sound, all these things that are just like constant. You know, in the churn that's such a great visual, it's um, they're all you know. They can all be really wonderful. But again, if it's just the churn, then you miss out on the wonderful of it all and you think about if you've gone a long time without food. When you do eat again, oh my God, it doesn't even matter what you eat, it's delicious. You're like, oh my gosh, food is so good, this strawberry. Like when you go without sweets for a long time and you start to eat fruit and you think, oh my gosh, I never knew fruit could taste so sweet and so good fruit. And you think, oh my gosh, I never knew fruit could taste so sweet and so good.
Speaker 1:Right, it is giving yourself a break even from things to be able to appreciate them more. I mean not necessarily that you have to, but when you do, you recognize that you've been missing out on something wonderful because you've just been stuck in the churn right.
Speaker 1:And, yeah, I, I had a vocal coach in college. That was we were doing this opera and somebody was delivering some kind of monologue, I can't remember, and they didn't. They just didn't give themselves a lot of pauses, they just kept going. And she stopped and said hey, don't be afraid of silence, because composers strategically use silence to create the story in the song. Right, like if it was just constantly like da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da. Out in the subtlety it just becomes noise. Yeah, but let's just for a second, just be quiet. It's almost like you feel the dust settle. You know what I mean? Like the hum that's constantly going. When you just sit and you're quiet for a second, you like feel the hum slowly, like oh, okay, now we're back, instead of just lost in the sauce. Yeah, you know.
Speaker 2:Yeah, well, I mean, I think everything needs a reset and just we're moving so fast all the time now that something's always going to be grabbing our attention. That something's always going to be grabbing our attention, and so the mind gets overworked and that will completely shift your state of being. The same thing with your body, physically, with food. Your gut gets overworked too. So doing resets every once in a while when we come back from Italy, because you know we wear the crap out of our guts out there, your digestive system is on the the food on the clock.
Speaker 2:Yes, like we're literally just wasting time between meals, like we can get to the next meal because we just want to eat more food when we're in Italy.
Speaker 2:Totally fair. So I usually fast for no less than 24 hours. I usually try to do about 48 hours when we come back home and it's so amazing. It just makes you feel so much better, you know, and then also like a reset from like, maybe just particular foods, like there's times where, I don't know, let's say it's like around my birthday or something and I've just been over indulging in treats. It becomes a habit to then have treats of that kind that are like more you know, rich or um, sweeter, like artificial sugars and stuff, because I've been eating cake or cookies or whatever, and so your taste buds literally change. When you reset them and you like bring it back down, then it's like, yeah, then you start to find more appreciation in like fruit, right.
Speaker 2:So it's like all of this is just it's good to have a reset to like recalibrate, because I feel like everything can kind of get to a fever pitch at some point where it's just like not even serving you anymore and it's not supportive of where you want to be. It's just more of a habit and it's noise and it's just a lot. So that's what meditation's for, that's what, you know, fasts are for, that's what just like taking a break. The same thing happens with work. You know we get so caught up in a certain level of stress. We get used to operating from that stress. You got to take a vacation or you just got to. You know, take some time to yourself.
Speaker 1:You know, hold some boundaries.
Speaker 2:Yeah, same with socializing. I mean people will totally get off of social media for a certain amount of time and you always hear about how good that feels.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, I think, yeah, it feels good because you're reclaiming your choice. That's how it feels for me when I do any kind of a fast. Then I feel like I'm reclaiming my choice because I'm not just lost in the sauce again of just like doing what I'm doing. I'm like I feel more aware of what I need and what I want and what's calling to me. So this episode is kind of in two parts. I mean, yes, this is a call to awareness of you know to take that inventory, to do that. What is it called again?
Speaker 2:Start stop.
Speaker 1:continue feedback Start stop continue feedback and then to, just you know, recognize that we all need to reset every now and then so that we can receive that feedback.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:You know, and to really be tuned into ourselves and to know how we're being affected by what we're consuming, because we are everything we do, everywhere we go, I mean everyone we're with yes, there's an effect and, and even virtually, with like you're never talking before this, like when you scroll on social media without even if you don't realize it, you are exposing yourself to people, all of those people's energy and all that Right.
Speaker 1:So just to become aware of that and to choose powerfully for yourself and to remember that you have that choice, and then if you're feeling like the receptors are a little fried, then that's perfect. It's an opportunity to take a break. However, you need to and I'll tell you what I do a cleanse of some kind, like physical cleanse, at least once a year, but usually twice a year, just to give my digestive system a break. And I want to start applying this in all senses, like a sensory reset, because the digestion, it, needs a break. Right, you need to give yourself time to rest your digestion, to rest mind, body and spirit. Yep, Speaking of food, our food just got delivered and I'm very hungry.
Speaker 1:I am deprived right now. It's going to be good, all right.
Speaker 2:Love you, bye.
Speaker 1:Bye.
Speaker 2: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.