What is alignment?
Part one of a mystical deep dive on living in alignment with your Human Design.
In my recent post about soul communication, I said:
“My sense is that there is a misunderstanding that “aligned decisions” are about what we will experience in our outer world, or that things will automatically work out perfectly if we make “aligned” decisions, or that our decisions will please our ego.”
I also said, in passing, that I often cringe when I use the word alignment. And that our experiments in Human Design are actually about surrender. This sparked some interesting contemplation and conversation.
Amy asked:
”What is alignment? What does it feel like?”
In this next set of posts, we are going on a mystical journey to unpack that question as deeply as my consciousness will allow.
We are going to explore it using the key questions of the Human Design Head Center (what (63), why (61), how (64)) as the structure:
WHAT: What does it mean to live in alignment with your design, like, on the deepest levels? What do other spiritual traditions across the globe have to teach us about this?
WHY: Why we feel shame when we believe that we are out of alignment and why its mission critical to let that go.
HOW: How to know that you are “aligned” and get back into alignment when you (inevitably) fall off the path.
Let’s start with the first question:
WHAT: What does it mean to live in alignment with your design, like, on the deepest levels?
Human Design aside, what is living in alignment?
Living in alignment is the ever-evolving practice of bringing your present moment questions, thoughts, feelings, and actions into resonance with the edge of your consciousness.
By consciousness, I mean the highest level of Divine Union you’ve experienced in your body, not just understood in your mind.
And since the purpose of life is to continually expand your consciousness, living in alignment becomes a day-by-day, moment-by-moment, breath-by-breath practice of the embodiment of your truth.
Alignment in Human Design
In the context of Human Design, alignment means exploring aspects of your chart, experimenting to discover what is true for you, and transforming any patterns in your energy—questions, thoughts, feelings, and actions—that conflict with that truth.
In Human Design, we call that transformation process deconditioning, and it’s a natural part of living in alignment. I’ll dive deeper into this in future posts, but it’s important to remember:
Realizing that you need to decondition (aka noticing you’re not in alignment) isn’t a reason to be hard on yourself.
It simply means you’re walking the path of surrender—and that’s a cause for celebration. Because you cannot transform something you can’t see.
That said, here’s an example.
Let’s say you learn that you have Splenic Authority, like I do. The spleen communicates through the five senses, giving you a clear NO when something is unsafe. And, lets say that you eat something that tastes bad.
That bad taste is communication from your soul, letting you know that whatever you just put in your mouth isn’t right for you—even if it’s on the world’s top ten healthiest foods list.
Alignment, in that moment, would mean not taking another bite—or even spitting the food out.
But alignment also means noticing the habitual questions, thoughts, feelings, and actions in your energy that prevent you from spitting out the food, like:
Questions: What about the starving children?
Thoughts: It’s wrong to waste food.
Feelings: Guilt, shame.
Actions: Eating the food even though it tastes bad.
All of that is what we often call a “misalignment.” But it isn’t a problem, its your soul redirecting you.
When you notice those stories, practicing alignment isn’t just about spitting out the food. It’s about intentionally going through the transformational process of becoming the person who doesn’t eat food that tastes bad. It’s about becoming the person who embodies radical self-trust—even when others judge you for it.
Every time you do that, your consciousness expands. And on an on you go.
In my next post, I’ll talk about how “alignment” corresponds to other spiritual practices across the globe. For now, let me know how this post lands with you or if you have any questions.
Mmmmmm....crystal clear, and so thought-provoking.
Especially this: "living in alignment becomes a day-by-day, moment-by-moment, breath-by-breath practice of the embodiment of your truth." Particularly the word embodiment in this context.
Realizing that I am still linking alignment primarily with conscious thought -- assuming that alignment means consciously knowing what my values/truths are and then consciously aligning my actions with those.
Redefining consciousness as you do here: "the highest level of Divine Union you’ve experienced in your body" takes it out of a purely intellectual exercise to an embodied one.
Curious to see how this shifts my experience of checking in with myself and choosing self trust.
Also, checking back in on how (ideally) this fits with my HD as a MG with emotional authority -- in addition to clearing out/releasing the conditioned thoughts and feelings, I will witness my emotional wave, find neutral, and then listen for the sacral response. Hmmmm.....ok.
Thank you for sharing your insights. As an aside, I always go to your posts when I need clear answers that resonate with me. You speak my language.
I’ve been thinking about the
process of deconditioning, what it looks like from the long-view, as part of the whole (Human Design). I’m 71, with a lot of insight and life experience, so I’m reviewing and evaluating, looking at my life from the back end. What I have concluded, is that we create a starting place by looking at our “whole”, and embracing it. We have to start the process with radical self-acceptance. We can’t shine the light of Love into the shadows until we have fully embraced the fact that we exist. That we exist in the fullness of all our complexities, dysfunctional coping strategies, the guilt and shame of it all. We are human beings. We are human and we live in a protective shell that we have created. The trick is to acknowledge the entirety of it with unconditional love.
I even had a long conversation with my therapist this past week, about my perceptions of how deconditioning works, and what pieces of the history of yourself, you should launch into the cosmos.
I think we all have to figure out that the starting point is radical self-acceptance, and it is the beginning piece of the integration-and-release process called deconditioning.
Your concept of radical self-trust gave me what I needed in order to hang onto my vision of my Soul-Self. The vision kept escaping me. I just couldn’t keep an image of it in my head. Now I have a trigger word, “self-trust”, that connects me immediately to the movie screen in my forehead. Your idea taught me how to conceptualize a missing piece of my infrastructure for “integration of the ‘me’ with my Soul-Self”.
An author doesn’t get much feedback about the concepts they teach. Feedback is usually about punctuation and grammar. So I just want you to know that you have changed my life in all kinds of ways by clarifying information I needed. You have helped me understand meanings behind the odd language of Human Design. I tend to jump into the deep end of the pool and start with the deep dive. I read it all, take mad notes, and then go back and give it meaning. Your explanations show up all over the place in my journal. It’s an honorary place to be!
Sub-stack is just the right spot to see your in-depth explanations.’
Keep on explaining. You have a gift.