ISSUE 44 - What Belongs Beside You

Some weeks, you can feel the alignment before you can even explain it.  The energy shifts.  Things begin moving. Pieces that felt disconnected suddenly start meeting one another in ways you never could have orchestrated on your own.  This was one of those weeks.

Last Sunday, I wrote about finally releasing something I had been carrying for a long time. I remember describing the weight lifting off my chest and the energy moving all the way through my fingertips.  Then Monday came.  And almost immediately, I was met with evidence that the release had been necessary.  Things started aligning.  Projects I had barely thought about in months suddenly resurfaced. Work that had already been completed long ago came back into view at exactly the right time. It reminded me again that just because something is not actively in front of you does not mean it is gone.  Sometimes it is simply waiting for its moment.

That is one of the things I continue to learn about timing. We can believe something has stalled, disappeared, or lost momentum, when really it may be moving in ways we cannot yet see.  And I think this is also where alignment becomes such an important part of manifestation.  Whenever I have felt lost, or unsure of what the next step was supposed to be, I have learned that I do not always need a bigger plan.  I need to come back to what feels most authentically like me.  Sometimes alignment looks like making a decision.  Sometimes it looks like having the difficult conversation.  Sometimes it means finally saying the thing you have been afraid to say because you know you deserve to be heard.  The more I choose what feels true to who I am, the clearer everything else becomes.

I believe God, the Universe, Source, whatever language resonates with you, has a way of making misalignment increasingly difficult to ignore once you begin choosing alignment for yourself.  What no longer fits starts to feel louder.  What drains you becomes harder to tolerate.  What asks you to shrink becomes impossible to pretend is enough.  And strangely, that clarity can be a gift.  Because once you can see what is out of alignment, you can finally take the steps necessary to move forward.  Maybe manifestation is not always about knowing exactly where you are going.  Maybe sometimes it is simply about choosing what feels honest, taking the next aligned step, and trusting that the path will continue to reveal itself.

Then Saturday came, and we had another Studio to Shore event.  I woke up that morning wondering whether anyone would show up.  I also did not have a babysitter lined up, which meant my kids came with me to Walk Club for the first time.  And somehow, what I thought might make the morning more complicated ended up making it even more meaningful.  Watching them write their own words in the sand, seeing them experience the community I have been building, and having them walk beside me felt incredibly special.  Three new women joined us that morning.  Women I had never met before.  And within such a short amount of time, we were connecting over dreams, challenges, transitions, and the things happening in our lives behind the scenes.

It was another reminder that you do not always know what is being arranged for you.  Sometimes the only thing you are being asked to do is keep showing up.  Show up for yourself.  Show up in the energy you want to live in.  Show up before you know who will meet you there.  Because people can walk into your life at the exact moment they are meant to.  And sometimes they bring with them the reminder that community is not separate from healing, expansion, or manifestation.  It is part of it.

This week, we were also working on the temporary holding page for the Manifest in Motion website, and I was sent several possibilities using images from our recent brand shoot.  Seeing those photographs affected me more than I expected.  It was not just how I looked.  It was how I remembered feeling when they were taken.  The movement in the images.  The confidence.  The energy.  There were years, especially when my kids were younger, when I was almost always the one behind the camera.  And some of that was because I did not like seeing myself in photographs.  It was painful to look at an image and feel like I did not recognize the person staring back at me.  That is why seeing these new images felt so emotional.  For the first time in a long time, I did not just recognize myself.  I recognized what I had become.  I could see the embodiment of Manifest in Motion.  I could see the methodology, the system, the work, the healing, the movement, and the life that came out of all of it.  And I could see myself inside of it.

There is something incredibly powerful about reaching a point where your external life begins to reflect what has been shifting internally for a long time.  But this week also reminded me of something else.  Your own energy is powerful when you are in alignment.  But collective energy can be even more powerful.  The energy of the right friendships.  The right partnerships.  The right community.  The right people standing beside you with no competition, no jealousy, no need to diminish what is expanding in your life.  Just support.  Encouragement.  Belief.  Joy.

There is something profound about being surrounded by people who are also healing, creating, growing, and calling in more for their own lives.  Their expansion does not take anything away from yours.  It adds to the field around you.  The more people around you begin to rise, the more possibility becomes visible.  The more courage becomes contagious.  The more belief becomes shared.  And the more the energy around you begins to reinforce the energy within you.  When you look at nature, you see this everywhere.  Nothing exists completely on its own.  Trees depend on soil, water, light, insects, fungi, and one another.  The ocean supports entire ecosystems.  Everything is in relationship.  Everything is exchanging energy.  Everything is participating in something larger than itself.

Maybe we are no different.  Maybe part of alignment is not only becoming the person who can hold the life you desire.  Maybe it is also finding the people who can hold that life with you.  The people who can celebrate your expansion.  The people who remind you who you are when you forget.  The people who do not feel threatened by your becoming because they are committed to their own.  This week, I saw so many women showing up for one another.  Supporting.  Encouraging.  Reaching out.  Creating.  Believing.

And I was reminded again that the life we are building is not only shaped by the energy we create within ourselves.  It is also shaped by the energy we allow around us.  Sometimes alignment looks like an opportunity.  Sometimes it looks like a project resurfacing.  Sometimes it looks like a difficult conversation that finally brings clarity.  Sometimes it looks like seeing yourself differently in a photograph.  And sometimes it looks like looking around and realizing:

I am surrounded by people who want to see me rise.  And maybe that is one of the greatest manifestations of all.  The more you choose alignment within yourself, the more clearly life reveals what belongs beside you.