What It Means To Live In Alignment

In today's session with Kemi Nekvapil, we will be doing a self-inquiry journaling exercise. In our fast-paced lives, even when we think we have everything in check, we can get so caught up in our routines that we miss the signs when a part of our being is out of sync. This simple yet powerful journaling practice will help you zoom out and see which areas of your life are in harmony and which ones need re-calibration. Get ready to be surprised by what may come up in this exercise.

Transcript

Welcome to day one of Living a Purposeful Life,

A challenge here on Insight Timer intended to help you live a life that is in alignment with your values,

Your goals,

And your priorities.

Let's jump in to today's session.

Hello,

And welcome to Living a Purposeful Life,

A challenge here on Insight Timer crafted to help you vision a life that feels aligned with who you are,

What you want,

And how you want to contribute in your world or in the world as a whole.

In short,

Living a life that is true to who you really are.

But we all know that this is easier said than done because there are many things in our lives that hold us back.

Maybe it's lack of clarity around the life that we really want,

Or external pressure from others to live a certain way.

Fear of failure,

Fear of rejection,

Diminished self-belief,

Or maybe thinking we're not capable or deserving of achieving the life we want to create for ourselves.

If this resonates with you,

You are in the right place.

And firstly,

Let me acknowledge you for giving yourself the time and space to connect to yourself and your life.

My name is Kemi Nekvapil,

And over the next seven days,

You will explore your internal and external obstacles and start to shift and move towards a more aligned and fulfilling life,

One action,

One shift at a time.

Now,

Before we move into the depth of this session,

I just want to make sure that you have a pen and a journal handy because we will need that soon.

So what does it mean to live in alignment?

The Oxford Dictionary definition says,

A situation in which something is in the correct relationship with something else.

And I interpret this as,

You are in correct or right relationship with your life.

And there are many ways that we can be in correct and right alignment with our lives because we are all unique.

So alignment is different for every single one of us.

And I'd like to share with you a story that changed how I felt about alignment and how it shifted how I now live my life.

Many years ago,

A friend of mine passed away.

We met practicing yoga,

Which we did for many years together.

And we were always saving each other's mat spaces so that we could practice next to each other.

She was older than me,

Very wise and a great cheerleader.

We learned from each other and with each other.

I loved her and I adored our friendship.

After she passed,

I attended the celebration of her life.

I started speaking to a few of her other friends whom I had never met.

And as we began sharing stories of our friend,

We began to realize that none of us really knew her,

Not even her parents.

We all had fragments of her life and fragments of what was important to her,

But none of us had a whole picture.

So we all decided to sit down at her wake and try to piece together what we each knew about her so that we could get a fuller picture of the woman that we all loved.

None of us had actually known her.

It was a very difficult and transformative afternoon for everyone there.

As I left the wake,

I remember thinking that I wanted to live a life where people who loved me knew who I was and that there was an alignment with who I was and the life that I was living.

My friend taught me so much when she was alive,

But this was one of the biggest lessons that she ever taught me.

Before we move into the practical side of today's session,

What resonates with you when you hear this story?

What questions or answers bubble up for you about your own life and what alignment is for you?

As I said earlier,

You will need a journal and pen because I want to take you through an exercise now that will support you to examine the life that you are currently living so that you can recognize for yourself where you are out of alignment and where you are doing just fine,

Thank you very much.

As a coach,

I believe in self-coaching and I'm going to ask you a series of questions that I started to ask myself after my friend passed away.

As I guide you through this self-coaching process,

I ask you one thing,

Marinate yourself in self-compassion and kindness.

This process is not about judging or berating yourself for where you currently are.

This process is going to give you feedback,

Nothing more,

Nothing less,

So that you can then make decisions and take meaningful action for yourself to move closer towards a more aligned and purposeful life.

Stay curious about yourself and out of judgment about yourself.

Here we go.

Question one,

In what areas of your life are you showing up 100% as yourself?

In what areas of your life are you showing up 100% as yourself?

Question two,

In what areas of your life are you hiding?

In what areas of your life are you hiding?

Question three,

Who in your life knows you 100%?

Who in your life knows you 100%?

Question four,

With whom are you hiding parts of yourself?

With whom are you hiding parts of yourself?

Question five,

If you were to use three words to describe your current life,

What three words would you use?

If you were to use three words to describe your current life,

What three words would you use?

Question six,

If you were to use three words to describe how you want to feel in your current life,

What three words would you use?

If you were to use three words to describe how you want to feel in your current life,

What three words would you use?

Question seven,

If you were to use three words to describe how you would like to know yourself,

What three words would you use?

If you were to use three words to describe how you would like to know yourself,

What three words would you use?

And the final question,

Question eight,

If your loved ones were to describe you in three words,

What would you want them to say about you?

If your loved ones were to describe you in three words,

What three words would you want them to say about you?

Now,

Look at your answers.

What do you notice?

Where are you in alignment?

And where are you out of alignment?

And as I mentioned before,

Stay curious.

You now have feedback from these eight questions,

And some are gonna be very clear to you,

Some you're gonna need a little bit more time to sit with and process and think about,

But you've now begun the journey of understanding where you currently are,

Where you are aligned with yourself and meaning and purpose in your life,

And where there is work to do.

If you have engaged in my other offerings here on Insight Timer,

You will know that I believe in one small action at a time.

So now have a look at your answers to those eight questions,

Because now we're about to move into action.

Gentle,

Meaningful,

Purposeful,

Aligned action.

So if you were to take just one action that will move you closer to living a more aligned life,

What one action will you take?

If you are to take just one action that will move you closer to living a more aligned life,

What one action will you take?

It could be something around where you're hiding.

It could be something around,

You know how you're living your life or how you're showing up in certain areas of your life and not where you want to be.

And it may be a conversation that you need to have with one of your loved ones.

It may be that you need to move away from a situation or it may be that you need to move toward a situation.

It may be that you need to say no to something.

It may be that you need to say yes.

What is the one action that you can take from this session that is going to move you toward a more aligned life?

And by when will you take that action?

You could decide you're going to take it before you listen to the next Insight Timer session within this challenge,

Or you could decide that you're going to take it at the end of the seven days.

It is up to you.

And finally,

How will you celebrate yourself once you have taken the action?

How will you celebrate yourself?

It may be going for a walk in a beautiful park.

It may be chilling out for the afternoon if it was a,

You know,

Sort of action that made your palms sweat and your knees tremble.

How will you celebrate yourself?

As we finish off today's session,

Let me know how you found this process and what action you're going to take and what living in alignment means to you.

As I said,

It's unique for all of us and it changes through our lives as we change.

I'm so excited for you because over the next seven days,

You are going to go on a wonderful journey of self-exploration with the other teachers.

And your answers to today's coaching processes will be the springboard and foundation for you to use as you create a more aligned and purposeful life.

I invite you to show up for yourself for the next few days.

Take the actions that resonate for you that lead you towards who you want to be and the life you want to create because you are worthy of it all.

Enjoy the journey and I'll be with you again in seven days.

Take care.

Reviews

Whew! I listened twice to absorb the questions. At this rate and depth of inquiry, I think I will know a great about myself at the end of this course.

This was an amazing self-assessment and self-realization exercise. I also love the calmness of your voice. It let me know everything is going to work out fine.

A great day 1 of this journey through this course. I so look forward to this continued opportunity for self discovery.

Not so coincidentally I've been writing to our incarcerated brothers about purpose, so this meditation/process will impact everyone on my "Love & Blessings" email list as well as myself, my family and my friends. Lovely and helpful! ~ Rev. Julie

Todo un reto para pensar y reflexionar, gracias aún lo estoy digiriendo

Loved this!
I’m dropping judgement, pausing letting go and forgiving myself when I catch myself there. Thank you 🙏🏼

😌🙏🏼❤️

Master fully done, direct and thought-provoking, question number 1 of 8 gave me pause for several hours. Very much, looking forward to the rest of the series.

Love it!

So inspiring - as always! Thank you 🙏🏽⭐️🏄🏽‍♀️

So helpful! Thanks 🙏

Wry helpful! I did this during the challenge & then again a few months later. I could see where I have grown and what’s going well (my glows), as well as where I can grow more in this present season of my life (my grows). A helpful tool to gauge my progress and where I can continue to improve. I look forward to learning more as I sojourn. Thank you 🙏

Brilliantly done and immensely helpful 🤍

I’m excited to begin this journey of living in alignment I am very grateful for the way Kemi laid out the foundation for discovering where I am and what I can achieve

Powerful

Beautiful. Thank you. ❤️

Kemi is the truth!

Beautiful

This session allowed me to gain clarity and perspectives in area that I’m looking to expand and develop. Thank you 🙏🏽

Thank you- very interesting and challenging questions - fascinating to see the ways I am out of alignment written down