What We've Learned So Far
Women, wizened by experience, presence, and attention, gather to discuss topics of depth in a world deeply in need of softer, fiercer, clearer perspectives.
What We've Learned So Far
Divine Alignment
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What We've Learned So Far gathers a group of wise women around life's big questions and everyday experiences. We explore what we're learning about life, relationships, purpose, community, and what it means to be human in a rapidly changing world.
Listen, subscribe, share, and join the conversation. We'd love to hear what YOU’VE learned so far.
In this episode our wise women explore Divine Alignment. And these are some of the questions we’ve posed for ourselves:
- What is divine alignment and what does it require of us? Is it something we do, believe, become, achieve?
- What does it mean to be out of alignment? And how do we recognize misalignment? Is this unique to our personal path?
- How do we find divine alignment? How do we shift our alignment?
- How does Divine Alignment change us?
Our panel of wise women:
Our moderator for today’s episode: Kay Eck kay@kayeck.com @kayeckwrites (IG) Kay Eck (FB) @kayeck1040 (YouTube)
Ashley Phoenix Guastalli www.ashleyphoenix.net @ashleyphoenixofficial (IG) ashleyphoenixofficial (FB)
Ceres Ruzich: www.awakensphere.com www.globallightworkersunited.org www.lololight.org
Michelle Dunk: @visionarymentor (IG)
Video Production by Cyber Citrus Creative: https://www.instagram.com/cybercitruscreative/
Music and Performance by Keith Hill: https://www.instagram.com/khillcorp/
Welcome, welcome, welcome, welcome. This is what we've learned so far. Welcome, welcome everybody to our panel chat. Uh, we have a special guest today, and that is Michelle Dunk. Welcome, Michelle. Thank you for having me. I'm so excited. Can you tell us a little bit about yourself and where you're joining us from?
SPEAKER_04Uh, sure. So, as you mentioned, my name is Michelle. I'm a transformation success coach, wealth mentor. I'm certified in Polyvegel Theory for Trauma. I've been doing um some form of coaching for two decades, um, once in a nonprofit where I started mentoring young tween and teen girls there. And then when all of the parents started telling me they wanted to learn what I was teaching, the emotional intelligence, the alignment, the um nervous system regulation, things like that, I recognized that there was a need for the adults that never learned this. So I opened the doors to my coaching company. Um, and prior to that, I stayed home with my girls. Um, had a very successful corporate career, left that to stay home with my girls who are now 21 and 19. Um, and used to just invite women into my home to have really great conversations like I know we'll have tonight. And that kind of led me down this path. Um, today I'm actually in my sister's bedroom at our family short house because people are spread out throughout in New Jersey. But we now reside in South Carolina where my girls um go to school, go to college, and we come home um for long breaks the summer and winter breaks, so that we can always visit with our family and friends. So that's kind of the long-winded um answer to your question. But I am right now in New Jersey.
SPEAKER_00Well, I just want to thank you for joining because um I can attest to your wisdom because I've been the beneficiary of your coaching for the last, I know it seems like a long time, but I'm pretty sure it's only been like a couple months. But um I just I had to have you join us tonight because I'm so glad and grateful that you could because I have been the recipient of so much of your wisdom, and it has um it has really just enriched my life. So thank you and welcome.
SPEAKER_03So thank you.
SPEAKER_00You're welcome. You're welcome. So we're also joined by our regular panelists, Ashley Phoenix and Cerise Rusich. Cerise, can you tell us where you're coming from?
SPEAKER_02Well, I am also in New Jersey, um, but not by the shore, like Michelle is, um, more in Bergen County. Um, and I am also a recipient of Michelle's Wisdom. I can't tell you how long I've been working with Michelle, but I look forward to our conversations every week.
unknownMe too.
SPEAKER_02Me too. I love them.
SPEAKER_03Ashley. Hello, um, my name is Ashley Phoenix. I'm currently in the Sedona, Arizona area. And um yeah, excited to have this conversation about divine alignment. Uh, I do a lot of work with divine feminine movement and body reading for women, uh, just kind of looking at trauma and where it's held and how we can release it so we can step more into divine alignment in a lot of ways. So excited to have this conversation today.
SPEAKER_00Thank you so much for joining us. You know, this this to me is such a big topic. Um, it's a it's a very beautiful topic, but I feel like it has a lot of potency to it. So I thought we could start off today with a little icebreaker question. So I'll start. The question is um, what is something that you learned or discovered this week that um either surprised or delighted you? And I learned that the Mozart sonatas, which are at a frequency of 448 hertz, have been proven to reduce the number of uh seizures that people with epilepsy have. And I did not know this, but I think it's incredible because uh I did not know that the sonatas were at 448 hertz. And um, but I did know that sound feels like the new frontier of medicine. So I was excited and delighted to learn that. So, Michelle, how about you?
SPEAKER_04First of all, so interesting you brought that up because Sarissa and I had this conversation just yesterday about the sound frequencies and healing and different things that it can do. So um we're in alignment to in what surprises and delights us. Um, when you asked the question, the first thing that came to my mind wasn't actually a delight, but a surprise. Um, nevertheless. So I do a lot of work on nervous system regulation and what our past traumas are that we bring into the present moment and how we're never often, I shouldn't say never, how we're often not reacting to what we think we're reacting to, right? It's never about what we think it's about. It's typically about what we haven't processed or released in the past. And the reason I set it up that way is that uh again, I'm in the Shore House, family shorthouse, and both of my daughters share a room here where I'm often in their today. They got their best friends, uh especially when they're at school. But when they're living in a small room together in the same roof and have different schedules and they're exhausted, they tend to go back right to those childhood um differences. And I heard them having a spot where they pulled me into it, and I recognize that in that moment, everything I teach and know was happening in real time, and I was reacting to it in what I teach not to do. So sometimes our greatest lessons is being in it and recognizing that we never get there. There's always going to be another lesson, there's always gonna be another opportunity to grow and heal. There's always gonna be another way that you're going to see something that you haven't seen before. So it kind of surprised me that I was experiencing it right in front of my eyes with my girls, but it was really a great opportunity to show them what um they were doing and to call myself out on it too. So it was a nice surprise, I guess. Didn't feel like it at the moment, but it was a nice surprise.
SPEAKER_00I love that. Um, I just want to let everybody know that my internet connection is a little unstable. Um so hopefully it'll it'll hold out if we just focus on it being good. Uh Cerese, can you tell us something about what surprised or delighted you this week?
SPEAKER_02Uh it's a combination, yes, of delight and surprise. I had dinner uh with a dear friend um last night in the city, and someone that I didn't really open up to much about a lot of my beliefs and you know spirituality. And it came up at dinner last night, and I was delighted that I was um able to open up and share and surprise at the same time at the level of comfort I had in the conversation. Normally I would, you know, I would keep a distance, keep a little bit of a wall up, protect myself, and I opened up and I was accepted. And it was a, you know, I didn't feel judged and it was just a beautiful, wonderful feeling.
SPEAKER_00Okay. I love that so much. Goals. Ashley, how about you?
SPEAKER_03Thank you. I love everything that everyone has shared. And um, for me, I definitely align with what Michelle was saying. I I went through a little bit of a trauma release last week. Well, I shouldn't say a little bit, it was a big one. And one of my self-resourcing tactics to shift my to shift my beingness to come more into alignment is to watch baby animal videos and to look at baby animals doing different things is just a part of how I regulate my nervous system when I'm in a really tough spot. And I was actually, I found this really interesting research project that someone did that actually proved that bumblebees like to play. And so there were these little bumblebees, and they gave them these little balls, uh, these little light wooden balls, and they were playing with them. And these bumblebees had a choice. They could either go and play with these little lightweight wooden balls, or they could go get food and nourishment and the things that they need for their day. And oftentimes the bumblebees would choose to play over nourishment, or they'd play first and then they would go get nourishment, showing that even animals like bumblebees have a preference to play over some of the more like survival skills that we naturally have, and that there's always space for play. And I thought it was just so beautiful, and it was exactly what I needed to see in my own space of like self self-care versus like the feelings that of survival. So just wanted to share that. Wow, I love that so much.
SPEAKER_00So, so much. It's just I know. It's literally the cutest thing again. I'm gonna need those links. Okay. Um so okay, so let's get started with our our topic today. And I want to ask each of you a little bit about what what this concept of divine alignment means to you and how it came into your awareness. So I'd love to start with you, Michelle, if we could.
SPEAKER_04Sure. Uh so let me kind of give you, I'm a I'm a very the way that I think is usually with visual. And so I give a lot of examples in that way. But alignment to me is is exactly that. So when what we want, what we desire, what our God-given goals are, matches who we show up as, right? What we do, what we believe, the actions we take. When those things are a match, that's divine alignment, meaning you are in the vortex locking eyes with God or the greater power that you believe in.
SPEAKER_00What did it first come into your awareness?
SPEAKER_04Oh, how did it come into my awareness? So I think like most people, when you're out of alignment enough, you get aware of what alignment is. And I think it's kind of similar to what I said. So um, I have a sociology background, started in a counseling setting setting, still consult for a therapy practice. And the entire reason that I took that direction in my life, probably because that was a calling, but because I grew up with chronic anxiety until my early 30s, I suffered with daily panic attacks, lots of anxiety. And so I didn't know it at the time, but this is misalignment. Anytime we have an emotional reaction or not able to move towards the things that you're here to move towards, not interacting with the things that are your calling, like I think about that B example, like the play. There was no play, there was just surviving. And so when you are in a state of chronic survival, chronic anxiety, chronic depression, chronic anything on the spectrum that's below baseline, this is a huge sign that you're out of alignment because alignment is love. No matter what kind of um, again, action you might have to take while you're there, that might be brave or courageous, it feels like love. It comes from the direction of truth. And so I was totally out of alignment, which in order to heal, I had to learn what that was. Now I didn't know what alignment was, and I had not even heard the term alignment, but I intuitively knew that the only way to recover was to find a way forward, and sometimes that's what we do. We fail forward into alignment. So the good news is if you're out of alignment, that is the that is kind of the uh cheat notes for life, is because anytime we're out of alignment, it's revealing to us that we are not in position to uh become a vibrational match to the things we want, to meet the people we want to meet, to do the things we're here to do. So it's really good guidance. I'm not saying it's fun, and I definitely don't want you to be there as long as I was, but the only way it ever came into my awareness is by not being in it.
SPEAKER_00That's that's so interesting. And it it's making me feel like there's uh there's this zone that we can move out of and into, and it's always there and it's always divinely connected. So previously, maybe we thought, you know, there was this concept that life was just lifing and we were just trying to keep up with that, rather than the fact that we were like off kilter somehow. And this is a concept that is it's fairly new to me. I mean, I I think it's maybe just the particular way that I've been thinking about it as this. I mean, there's such a big piece of surrender in it, you know, that when I'm out of alignment, I've got my ideas about how things should go and how I want things to go, or how I think things are occurring. And then when I'm in it, I feel like there's it's so much easier to surrender, it's a it's a conscious act to surrender to the wisdom that is greater than yours that you're get that you're tapped into. Um Ashley, I'm go ahead. Sorry.
SPEAKER_04Oh, I'm sorry. I want to finish just to piggyback off what you just said. What you just described beautifully is whether you're in ego or whether you're in truth. So when we're in ego and we're out of alignment, it's because we haven't done enough or we need to do more, or we need to figure it out, or we need to prove ourselves or earn something. When we're in alignment, we are matched to the truth that we are already significant, loved, worthy, valued because of who we are, not because of what we do. So that shift back into alignment is an ego versus spirit kind of um situation. So it is a surrender to back to truth, back to what we already know innately.
SPEAKER_00Beautiful. Thank you. Ashley, can you tell us a little bit about how you have come into this concept and what it means to you?
SPEAKER_03Yeah, thank you. Um it it started, I feel like this was another conversation we had a few months ago, but for me, it it started in a dance class. And it's surprising to me how much my answer is very similar to Michelle's. I feel like for me, I I also did not know what alignment meant. I don't even think I knew what divine really meant. All I knew is that something was off. I kept trying to leave my body. And I thought, I'm tired of this feeling of constantly trying to leave my body. So how can I become embodied? And through a dance class, through a through a movement class, that's when I really kind of started to find a spiritual awakening in a lot of ways because I could tell the difference. I could tell when it was pain or really separation from source that was happening in my body that was causing me to disassociate. And yet I was learning in this dance class some basic skills, breath, sound, movement that was pulling me back into my body and helping me to understand and discern the difference for myself of what felt good and what didn't. And it was a stumbly, messy process. And to me, divine alignment is not it's not always clean or perfect. Like there's this perception in the world that, oh, divine alignment, it must be like heaven on earth. And I I actually think divine alignment is truth. It it's a it's a it's a source of honesty where like the four levels of your being, heart, mind, body, uh, soul are really like moving in a direction, whether it's to um release something from the past to become more present, or uh, you know, life life all the time. We're on a beautiful roller coaster in these in these human bodies and and the experiences that we have. And you know, sometimes projection happens, sometimes these other things can happen. And the question I often ask myself is how can I embody my higher source consciousness? How can I embody love? How can I embody truth in this moment and you know not run from the storm, not necessarily face it, but but find a way to move with it so that way I can continue on my path of recognizing when that divine alignment is present. And so very, very similar, just different words and different example to what Michelle was sharing. I think it's it's also something that's natural. So divine alignment, I have never found when I strive to get there that I succeed. And I think that's part of the ego story of like we have to strive to get there. But I actually think it's about letting it naturally unfold through presence. Um, and for me, I've always found the techniques, neat techniques of breath sound movement uh to be the keys to connect to that divine alignment.
SPEAKER_00That's beautiful. And we're gonna talk a little bit more about those techniques later on, but it's it's it's sounding to me like um it's almost as if you can't really be out of alignment um because you're you're being drawn toward it at all times by our creator, God, whatever you want to call it. And um I'm wondering, like, even though we're having this conversation, and you know, it's really fun to talk about these topics, one of my favorite things, but I wonder if you know it's really impossible to offer people a way to get to their own truth. You know, it's like something that we really probably each of us have to figure out on our own, you know, so to speak. Um, Saris, do you have any thoughts about that and your experience of divine alignment, what what it means to you and how it feels to you?
SPEAKER_02Sure. Well, being, you know, spending most of my life in the greater New York City area, um, I think there's so much noise, congestion, fast-paced lifestyle that um it took a really long time to feel that alignment because uh by taking a breath, by speaking and listening. And that didn't happen for me until much later. Um so for me, um, the divine alignment was only accessible when I was able to quiet the noise, when I started getting into meditation, when I started, you know, going internal, um, doing breath work as well. So a combination of those modalities really did help me um to to notice and feel that difference and and understand more about divine alignment. Um, but it's still you know, obviously a work in progress and still learning and um and feeling. Um because again, being in the New York area, and for most of us, not all not everyone has the same experiences, but when you're in that hustle and bustle and it's it's really hard to quiet that noise. Um and and even hear your own thoughts oftentimes. So by being able to, you know, to quiet it and then then you're also able to, if I was able to reflect back and see, you know, with the help of others, you know, some of the paths and when things did flow easily, and when when there were some blocks or obstacles in the way, and you know, what were those situations and doing that reflection and seeing, you know, that's where a lot of the learning for me took place.
SPEAKER_00Love that. And I I love the way that you describe that because I think for people who um don't understand the benefits of meditation, like you know, they're thinking it's what good could that possibly do just to be quiet and empty. And you know, you're describing some of the incredible gifts of quiet and silence. And it's it's just, it's so incredibly rich and full. And it's not something that you can you can kind of guide someone to. It's really something they have to experience for themselves. But can you talk a little bit about how this how divine alignment has either fueled your evolution or shifted your evolution um think a little bit about that.
SPEAKER_02How it fueled my evolution. Yeah I think it's you know during those reflections and and looking at saying what was what you know when I was in alignment, when I was in alignment, who was I around uh who was in my life, um what was I doing? You know, by spending some time looking at those things really did help me say, you know, I want to be around more of those people. So a lot of it could have to do with you know matching the vibrations like Michelle talked about earlier or it could be you know there are some you know people that I don't like the term psychic vampires, but there's some people that really pull a lot of energy from you. There are some people that just you know are a little bit more on the toxic side not necessarily intentionally but you know you so you see who you're spending your time with, who's around you. So when things are in flow, you know, looking and understanding what that is and um and when you're not in flow. So I I think a lot of it had to do, you know, I was able to get there through some journaling, through reflection, working with other people to you know who were able to point some things out that I might not have been able to see. I think that really helped me to you know open my eyes and go deeper. And some of it's really ugly too. It's not easy right and looking at these things, you know, um you have to be ready you know to face some of the darkness some of the shadow work that needs to be done some of the integration there's a lot that goes into it also but it's um but I do think that the benefit far outweighs any of the hard work that goes into it as well because you end up more self-aware you end up you know with deeper understanding of life and the universe and I just think that um for for people that are open uh to exploring you know it it it definitely is a benefit. So um but but I think everyone's path is different and unique and you know people have to find what works for them and there are so many different modalities you know we mentioned the meditation and breath work and journaling but there's so many other you know Ashley talked about you know uh somatic movement and there's so many different modalities out there it's just a matter of really seeing what's out there that works that people are called to you know that might work for them to help them be able to see things differently.
SPEAKER_00Michelle I would like to can you hear me yeah yes yes okay I would like to ask you um a little bit following on um Cerise's comments um what exactly divine alignment requires of us so I love that I uh it doesn't require anything this is this is going to be kind of difficult for people to wrap their mind around for a second but follow me here you said it so beautifully when you said it's starting to feel like it's our natural state that's why it doesn't require anything meaning it's a return to home it's a return back to what you naturally innately know um what distracts us or disconnects us is what Cerise was mentioning the the noise of the world right the traumas that we've all encountered the fears that we've inherited or we've observed or we've experienced certain things that um we didn't like and we hold ourselves apart um as Ashley was mentioning earlier we separate ourselves from that truth and that's where all the pain comes from so think about what we're saying there we're naturally in alignment but most of us develop stories or we inherit belief systems that tell us in order for us to be in alignment to receive with flow, with ease, um, to heal whatever that looks like for us, whatever goal we're trying to achieve with that alignment, we have to do something, we have to become something we have to earn something we have to heal something.
SPEAKER_04So we're on this mission to always seek something else. And so we're trying to create circumstances to achieve something that's natural. So what we're doing is you know you and I have had this conversation before okay and Cerise we may have even had this before but it's the difference between what I call personal power and situational power. Situational power is when we get into alignment because we are journaling, because we are meditating, because we are doing somatic movement, because we are working with a coach or a therapist or Reiki or energetic healing whatever it looks like, right? These are circumstances because they're tools that help us get into alignment but they're not the power the power is us when we recognize our natural state is to receive from the divine that it's never withheld from us. In fact lack does not exist in any way including the receiving of alignment the receiving of the blessings the receiving of the abundance whatever it is that you're looking for so to me the alignment is surrendering into no matter what circumstances are going on no matter what things that have happened in your past for you to know that you're still worthy of receiving whatever it is that you're here to learn, to to achieve, to experience and it's about you withholding that with stories that say, but I have to now make up for this or I have to now prove this or I have to show them or I have to get a permission from them or the apology whatever that is. We could go into a million different circumstances but to me it just comes back to it is your natural truth nothing is required except for you to accept that you are deserving of it.
SPEAKER_00Beautiful you know that that makes me think of this little passage that I read in the uh Masters of the Far East books and they they kind it may have it may have been the Course of Miracles I can't remember which but they described um the the journey that you you only need to get so far and then God is going to come down and scoop you up. And so sometimes my prayer is like scoop me up scoop me up scoop me up. But what I what I think it's actually speaking to is that um God the source of all life good abundance love is like a magnet and the further away you are or if you're over to the side you feel less of the magnetism. When you're right in a direct line you you feel the magnetism and you're drawn toward it and you get to a certain point and your velocity picks up because the magnet is stronger. And so I think that like that's how I'm feeling that my path um that's how I would describe my path I got to a certain point where like I didn't really even I wasn't even familiar with the concept of divine alignment. And then suddenly boom I was and now I'm like on an accelerated path for that. And I I think that you know a lot of times we hold ourselves outside of the magnetism with our own as you said stories and and our own desires and our own think and our thinking that we're on our own. And if we just shift slightly let go and let ourselves be pulled toward the light I think I mean I don't know that's just kind of how I am thinking about it.
SPEAKER_04That's beautiful and and I if you don't mind I want to add to that I often say we move the needle and God moves the mountains right we have to do our part we have to participate and then he does the heavy lifting and what you just described about like that magnetism I I and maybe it's from my own experience or maybe I just teach this way. I love that example and then I reverse engineer that example like for anyone that feels like they don't know what it feels like to be in alignment or feels like they don't have that strong pull or connection or they don't know how to surrender. I want them to know that they're still in a really great place that the further away you are the more intense it is going to be when you do come into it. And so I want to give somebody hope that's like I've never had that experience or I'm so far from the magnet I'm not going to be pulled in. I want you to recognize that anytime we are far away from something that we desire, we're it's revealing to us in real time where we are in relationship to what we want. It's guidance. You're still being supported you're still being pulled in you're still having direction and if you pay attention to that direction that's where we recognize where we're out of alignment with our faith see it requires maybe it does require something it requires faith to know that the alignment still exists even when you don't feel it even when you're not experiencing it even when you think you don't deserve it even if you've been out of it your whole life and everyone in your family has been out of it so you've given up hope there is guidance and support there every second of every waking moment of your life calling you back to that flow.
SPEAKER_00Beautiful thank you so much.
SPEAKER_03Ashley can you talk a little bit about your um your journey your evolutionary journey in terms of divine alignment how has it how has this awareness um changed your path that's a great question um it's it's I it's strange because I I wouldn't say that when I became aware that divine alignment was the thing that I was experiencing I'm not sure if giving it a label helped um I actually think if anything my ego was like ooh how can I make this logical and flip it into a pain point you know so I I feel like you know we can um our consciousness can kind of be tricky like that. And so but I will say that once I got through that hurdle because I feel like the critical mind wants to come in and really make it very logical. And when I surrendered which to me surrender is equivalent to faith it's equivalent to trusting uh trusting source trusting you know that we're a part of something bigger. So once I got through the hurdle uh then I found that I could actually relax into it and that I again just re-emphasizing that for me I've always noticed that divine alignment is a natural state of being and um I I kind of want to take this opportunity to talk about when we're not in alignment because I think there are a lot of people in the world right now that are might be experiencing feeling out of alignment. And I just had this experience last week we were supposed to do this call on divine alignment and then I had this awareness of a pattern in my life a story that I that I needed to clear and I needed to work through some trauma release in my in my body and I felt on the precipice of a dark hole and not like a a no thing like you know where everything and nothing exists not like a ko-on but literally like I felt like I was going to fall into a deep depression and in that moment I surrendered and I said God show me how easy this can be how can I shift how can I shift what's happening right now and it has to be small and it has to be doable and it has to be digestible otherwise I will I don't have the capacity to do it. And I was reminded of a TED talk that I saw years ago by Amy Cuddy she actually wrote a book called Presence and she just encourages you to hold your hands in a yes position for two minutes and it will change your physical form and biological field to start to get new energy just moving your body like shifting your body in a different direction and that's what I had the capacity to do. And once I did that I felt myself get closer to being more in alignment with the frequency that was comfortable for me. And that's when the next logical step became I became aware of which was go find a documentary on baby animals and just watch those little ones play and get a good laugh and get some oxytocin in your body. And then it was what's the next logical step and for me it was reaching out to friends because I finally had the words to speak through whatever it was that I needed to speak through not from a projection space but more of a this is what's happening and I and I needed in that moment a compassionate witness that wasn't necessarily going to try and fix me but just was going to let create the space for me to create whatever the next logical step was. And that's how I moved out of what was a very dark space for me last week. And I I'm I'm speaking this into into the space because it's not the same for everyone that's just that's just what worked for me but sometimes just asking for what is the next logical step? Is it going outside is it drinking water is it calling a friend like what what how can we get curious and let a little bit of willingness to shift our field to take us in a direction and I do think it's actually quite powerful to be in spaces of what might be called misalignment or out of alignment because for me like messing it up not getting it quite right it's not quite the thing sometimes I learn more about myself in those spaces than I do when I am in alignment because it's it's easy and it's flowing and it's natural and it's my natural state and it's it's wonderful. And the misalignment gives me the pearls it gives me an awareness of how to move forward. So I know that was a big answer but I really wanted to speak speak that into the space.
SPEAKER_00Yeah thank you so much that's so lovely and I have something extremely mundane to add to that. It's not nearly so highfalutin but um I I just wanted to give this example because it's so practical and it's so everyday. I've been planning a trip to go see my son who lives in Europe and um there was like a slight um planning hiccup that uh was going to shift a few things and um I think that being out of alignment is like thinking through how everything was going to be affected and trying to manage around it. And um I was able to step into alignment and just take my hands off the wheel and say it's probably for the best and whatever happens happens. You know it can be it can be that simple and I think that the reward for well rewards probably not the right word but the empowerment of being able to um step back in to shift yourself is the the ease really you know the ease of trust the ease of trust that the that your best outcome your highest um your highest outcome is always being held for you. Saris I wanted to ask you a little bit about um this alignment misalignment scenario and how you move back into it like do you how do you come into the awareness that you're out of alignment in the moment and how do you shift yourself back in if you even feel like that's necessary maybe it's not even necessary.
SPEAKER_02Well while Ashley was um talking before I was remembering one of the things that I notice when I am in alignment and that's I feel like the universe is talking to me. I have all these synchronicities that happen. I'll see angel numbers everywhere you know I'll see you know 111s or or all different numbers that have all different meanings to them but I'll start seeing them I do notice when I don't see them. And so the lack of of the universe talking to me or speaking to me, you know definitely um I'm aware of that and one you know and then take some time to reflect on you know what you know is do I have a misalignment in some area of my life right now and usually the answer is yes and you know and then I do some you know internal work to figure out what it is if it's not obvious to me. But when I'm in alignment I also there's a feeling of you know things going well ease you know a peace and then when I'm in a misalignment that's where it's almost like a a shrinking it's you know there are all these different you know feelings that I have um or experiences that I have that just um come into my life that I recognize you know things are in misalignment there is a lack of ease there are blockages or things that are happening that um it's that um so many different examples are popping into my head at the exact same moment but um but it's it's recognizable so for me when I do notice the the misalignment you know it's when I say okay I have to take a pause I have to figure out what it is and usually you know I can see what needs to shift you know I'm getting better at it it's getting I'm getting faster at you know seeing it you know taking the time to reflect and working on it. And that's a huge shift from you know even you know a couple of years ago when it would have taken a you know I might not have even recognized the misalignment. I would not have recognized you know these things. But so the more you work on it the easier it is to start seeing it and to take some action.
SPEAKER_00Beautiful thank you I think this is one of the things that Michelle has helped me with so much is the the idea of asking um ask to be ask if you're feeling if you're feeling something's off or you're not comfortable with the way things are ask to be shown the alignment ask to be pulled toward the magnet and I want you to um speak a little bit about that Michelle because that's been a profound um teaching um for me uh because I'm accustomed to not asking for things and it I I put that I mean that it that was in my life in general but it was also ended up being in my spiritual life as well. Can you speak to that?
SPEAKER_04So it's interesting because this original idea of asking for it came when I read O Course in Miracles years ago and I read the definition of a miracle as anytime we shift from fear to love. And I recognized that I didn't know how to shift. I didn't know what that meant. I got the definition like okay get out of fear and get into love but I lived in fear like that was my home away from home that was my home base that was what I knew that's where people around me lived. So I didn't know how to ask for it. And so what it means to me is to actually say that this is also the definition of surrender in so many ways where we shift our perception by asking for it. God, I don't know what's going on here. I'm lost I'm scared I'm angry I'm whatever it is but I still trust So let me see this through your eyes. Show me what I need to know. I loved what Ashley said earlier about, you know, show me the best case scenario. These are so many prayers that I say where it is show me what's happening up here, like in a higher elevation, a higher frequency where alignment is when I'm playing down here. So what exists that I'm not seeing? What is possible that I'm not playing with right now, or it's not been revealed to me yet? How show me how to move in the direction of what you want me to. I'm willing to do my work. I'm willing to do my part, I'm willing to show up here, but show me what it is that you want me to know and what you want me to do about it. So one of my prayers is if anyone needs this tonight, is if you have a mind like I do, where it tends to overthink. And it really is something that needs solid, solid evidence that I'm going in the right direction, that this is the right thing for me. I want you to lean into the idea that there truly is infinite ways that this can work out. But there may be one or two things that you should not explore. So my prayer has become when I'm in that situation where I'm asking for the guidance, when I'm asking to be revealed of what's next. I literally say, to me, it's God. So I say, God, if this is not meant for me, shut the door so tight, bolt it, make it impossible for my stubborn self to knock it over. So I know it's not for me. And anything else you want me to explore, I know you have my back. Like we can do this. I'm here for it. But I just ask for that guidance now where it's bolt anything that's not meant for me, and we'll figure out the rest together. But it really is asking to shift my perception. It's not me mentally having this five-step process where first I close my eyes and then I breathe like this, and then I call upon this, and then I these are tools, right? It literally is just saying, Hey God, you know better than I do. I don't know what's going on here, but I trust you. So reveal to me what you want me to do next, and you will be shown. But if you're stubborn, ask to make sure that you don't go around down the wrong path and any direction you take will be made right. I love that. I often say, like, make it so obvious that even I get it. Yes, same. I'm like, give me all the flashing lights because I will keep on going.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, for sure. Ashley, I think you can probably relate to that um because I think that when you are accustomed to figuring things out and being in charge and managing things, you can get into this um do, be, create, you know, mode where you're sort of overriding um the divine alignment that's pulling you. You're like, I'm gonna swim through upstream myself, you know. So can you talk a little bit about how you um you watch yourself for the override, I should say?
SPEAKER_03That's a really, really good question. I'm gonna need a need a little bit of time to to think about that because um, oh gosh, I I honestly feel like it comes to observing patterns. Um, so so I don't necessarily take a journaling approach, although I do feel that that for some for some people, journaling is a really powerful tool. Um, but I often think I think about the last time I felt this way. So for so for example, one of my largest wounds is if I perceive that someone is in authority, then I immediately go into people pleasing. And that was not something that was easily observable to me for a long period of time, but now I've identified it because I've started when I'm in a, when I'm in a uh, when I'm out of the pickle of whatever misalignment I've sort of discovered when I'm when I'm out of it and I'm feeling like that natural neutrality, I'll oftentimes reflect and just kind of take a little bit of a spiritual inventory, maybe. Like I don't want to go too far down and try to be very light about it, but I just kind of look at um what happened and is this similar to the last time I felt this way? And it's a pattern that I this pattern is a good pattern, but it's something that I've developed over time and I've started to notice that there is a theme that is pretty consistent with every time I've been out of alignment and it has to deal with this piece of in connection to authority. And so now I'm getting better, kind of similar to what Sarice was saying. It's like it's like once you start to observe that there's a pattern, you kind of pick up on it a little faster, and the pain isn't as or the the dis-ease, the discomfort isn't as significant because you're able to catch to catch the that uh rhythm a little sooner and start to shift it or start to question or start to think about it differently. Um so I hope that answers your question. Uh it took me a minute to kind of think about it.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, yeah. Um Cerise, can you um answer that question as well? Which I can't what was the question, Ashley? Um I have another question here. Um can you Cerese, can you talk a little bit about your practices for shifting back into alignment? So I just let see how I just let that go and I love it.
SPEAKER_02Um for me, I think that um I mean definitely I've gotten way more into meditation than any other practice. Um try really hard to meditate at least once a day, um, if not a day. Um, but then I do have some weeks that you know it's just three times a week or four times a week. So like I definitely try to spend as much, you know, to meditate daily as much as possible. I've noticed for me personally, um it is something that has definitely helped shift so much for me in my life and getting into that divine alignment. For me, a lot of it is about remembering and that has and the way that I remember is through meditation. And so um, and I think it just goes back to some, I think very similar to what Michelle was saying earlier. It's that we the natural state is the divine alignment, right? So that remembering, you know, is the divine alignment. Um, and so for me, meditation helps me get there. Um, I've also, you know, similar to actually think I want to journal more. Um I try to journal and I do find a lot of benefits in journaling as well, but um I'm not uh I'm not as great at maintaining that modality as I am with meditation. Um but I think it's I think journaling can definitely help with the remembering as well. Um I remember I'm trying to remember it's the Julie Cameron, the artist's way, Julia Cameron, um where they talk about like the daily pages that you you know every morning to wake up, and that's one method of helping to quiet the noise, you know, in the in your head to then get to the creativity, right? And that's the way that you get there. I don't know, I read the book like 20 years ago, but um but the same idea, right? It's to get to that um natural state by getting some of the noise out. Um so, but for me to answer your question in a the most long-winded way um has been through meditation.
SPEAKER_00Thank you. Thank you. I remember what the question was, and I want to pose it to Michelle. It's basically um when you're a very capable person and you're used to being in charge, and maybe your upbringing, uh you had to take care of yourself a little bit too much, you can you can get into this habit of overriding um your either your intuition or your alignment. And so how do you recognize when you are kind of powering through? And um what what's the practice for letting go of that?
SPEAKER_04I'm laughing because I you know you just spoke my life in existence. So I think a lot of us can relate to this, right? Um, so what it is when we're trying to override is we're trying to actually find safety in the world. We're trying to control circumstances and other people and our experience so that we can feel safe, we can feel significant, we can feel valid, we can feel worthy, all the word the buzzwords that you hear. But truly what it just means is we're trying to find alignment and we don't know any other way. And the way that we know, and and when Ashley was speaking, I thought to myself, I call it good girl syndrome. When she says when someone's in authority and she starts people pleasing, I I think we learn most women especially learn this from a very early age, that star student behavior, like, okay, I recognize that my chances of survival, and this is a um uh an ancestral brain situation, is that we understand that we're here to survive. We need each other to survive. So very smartly we look and see how do I please that person in front of me? How do I receive love from them? How do I receive safety from them? How do I receive support from them or whatever it is we need? And we pick up very early that if we perform certain ways, if we're, you know, easy to love, if we, you know, help them out in this way, if we perform like this, if we overachieve like this, if we look like this, we download this in our brains and therefore somatically in our body, it's blueprinted that this is who we need to perform as for all of our life to feel safe. And so we're overriding the truth that we don't have to do anything. And and both of you girls have heard me say this a million times, but this is the exact example. It's not what we do, it's who we are when we do it. So you could be totally relaxing, and that's the thing that brings the desire you have. You're not performing, you're not doing something, but who you are is in alignment. Or you can be overachieving and overdoing and efforting and struggling and you know, sacrificing everything to get the praise and approval of everyone around you and still never get there because who you are in that moment is again out of alignment, overriding, playing God. Um, and so I think that's what a lot of us do as women is that we play, we have this uh survival technique that is that we try to be the God of the universe for everybody, including ourselves. And it's not because we have huge egos, and I mean that in the egotistical way, it's because that's what our survival mechanism and our nervous systems have taught us to do, and we haven't learned any other way. So, to answer the second part about what do we do if we're constantly overriding, we're trying to control for safety, we're overdoing to try to be somebody, to try to perform our way there, is to learn what nervous system regulation is, to learn somatic things. And again, these are tools, just like meditation, just like um journaling. You don't actually have to do anything to get there. But for a lot of us who've never learned to relax and experience alignment and experience trust and faith, tools will help you achieve that at first. And so simple breath work, movement. I love what Ashley said in the beginning about sound, vibration, movement, breath. These are things that can help us move in. And if you have not heard of nervous system regulation, I mean, you can just Google it and millions of um, you know, talks or uh ideas and tools will pop up for you, but it is a conversation worth exploring. It is something to worth looking into. But what it does is get you out of that survival mind, moves you back into the truth. And I like to think about it like a thermometer in your house, right? And this is a whole other um segment we could go into. And you you've you girls have heard me talk about it before, but the different stages of your nervous system for survival, it's all necessary. But we want it like a thermometer, we want it programmed for ventral where you're safe and you're grounded and you have faith and you are trusting that everything's working in your favor and there is a greater force in control here, and you don't need to be it for yourself or for anyone else. And so you have to learn the tools to get yourself back up there as often as possible. So my answer would be nervous system regulation, which truly is just another way of saying alignment. When you are in alignment, you're at peace, you're regulated. When you're in alignment, you're in faith, you trust. When you are in alignment, you surrendered, you let go. So all of these words are saying the same thing that you are locking eyes with God and saying, I know you have me, show me what the next move is.
SPEAKER_00Well, thank you so much. That was beautiful. I just love it. And it also is a perfect segue to let everybody know that um Ashley will be leading our next panel chat on embodiment. So I have a feeling that we're going to be talking a lot about these very specific techniques and um how to how to step into alignment. So I just want to thank you all so much for joining us and um for your wisdom and for your care and for the way that you bless our lives and our planet at this time. Thank you so much.
SPEAKER_04Thank you so much for having us.