I am a real do-er. I love taking action. I love creating results and outcomes. I get a massive kick out of it.
However, lately I have been crossing the line between taking beautifully aligned actions steps, and taking an excessive amount of action to the extent that I am burning myself out. Yep, I have been feeling knackered lately. My action has began to feel effortful, forceful and like I am trying too hard.
And the funny thing is, although I am taking a whole heap of action, I do not feel like I seeing results to reflect my effort.
So, here is the first way that we go wrong. We think that it is purely our action that creates. Yes, sure action does produce results, but if this is all you focus on, you are missing one key component – Energy.
It is the energy behind the action that creates, not just the action itself. This the key to the alignment before action theory.
It Is Your Energy That Creates
You can take all the action in the world, but if your energy is out of alignment you will not get the results.
Example 1: Let’s say you want to get fit and healthy and lose some weight. You may look in the mirror and feel unattractive, feel overweight or feel unloveable, so you decide to try and fix it. You decide to take some action – you might start exercising, cutting out unhealthy food from your diet etc.
But here is my question – how are you feeling when you take those action steps? What energy are you bringing to these actions?
Do you feel unhappy with your body? Do you feel doubtful about your ability to create your results? Do you still feel fat even if you are starving yourself?
It is your FEELING that creates, not your action. The results you create come from the energy space you are holding yourself in constantly, not from the action you are taking.
Your feeling of being ‘overweight, unhealthy or not beautiful’ is what will manifest, even if you are taking huge amounts of action.
Example 2: Let’s say you want to make more money. You may be noticing a lack of money in your bank account and feeling as though there is not enough. So, you start taking action. You might implement some new strategies to get more clients, raise your prices for if you are employed you may ask for a payrise.
Here is the question again: How are you feeling when you take those action steps? What energy are you bringing to these actions?
Are you feeling like you do not have enough money? Are you feeling needy or lacking when you ask for more money? Are you feeling doubtful that you may actually get the results you want?
Once again, your FEELING of ‘lacking money’ is what will manifest, even if you are taking whole heap of action.
Alignment Before Action
So, here is how you change that.
Take your focus off action, and put your focus on alignment first. You must bring your energy in to alignment with what you want FIRST and then from there you take action.
Do not take action, until your energy is in alignment.
How do you know you are IN alignment?
You know you are in alignment when you think about your desire and you feel: Belief. Expectation. Knowing. Happiness. Excitement. Love. Joy. Certainty.
How do you know you are OUT of alignment?
You know you are out of alignment when you think about your desire and you feel: Fear. Doubt. Worry. Anxiety. Frustration. Powerlessness.
Do not take action towards your dreams when you are in this space.
How I Align Before I Act
You must get in to the feeling place of having what you want before you act. Action amplifies feeling. Whatever you are feeling will be amplified through your action.
You must take the mental and emotional journey first, before you take the physical journey.
Here is the process I am currently working with;
1) I identify my desire. What do I want to create?
2) I check in with how I am feeling about it.
3) I work with my thoughts and my energy to bring myself in to alignment eg: I move myself from a place of fear, doubt, worry or frustration, to a place of love, excitement, knowing and belief.
4) From that place, I take the action that I feel inspired to take
I would love to know your thoughts on this. What are your practices to bring yourself in to alignment?
With love,
Connie x
This has been on my mind of late. I am at a point where I am pondering decisions that can take me in different directions. However, I have been idle with action. In the past I would have thought that pushing myself out of my comfort zone (to the point I felt unstable under my feet) would have meant I was taking a leap of faith and just had to be brave to see the results. But, I have found a gentler approach to feel more natural recently.
You have spoken about inner guidance recently and this is what I have been listening to. Allowing myself to sit on an idea and see how it feels has been a new and beautiful thing for me. I have been feeling stronger and more comfortable with where my decisions are taking me and this new patience with myself has been a great act of self-love.
You help put many of these concepts into real ‘aha’ moments, Connie!
xx
Oh Jess, this is gorgeous. It is so important to tune in to your feelings and allow yourself to follow them. The only way you can really do that, is to create the space for yourself – which is exactly what you are doing.
As you said so beautifully, as you allow yourself to connect with your feelings first, before you take action, you start to build a strong confidence and sense of knowing when you make decisions. Seriously wonderful stuff xx
Good morning Connie!
Wow, what a great post this morning! I feel like you are trying to tell me something!!! 🙂
I wonder if this is what is occurring with me right now, because what you say is true – everything feels so hard!
When I made my original decision to step into this new journey everything happened so smoothly and quickly. It felt divinely right. It was easy. It was meant to be. Now, I feel I have lost those feelings of why and as we have talked about; I feel like I am trying to hard to do everything!
Definitely something to think about and do some work on to get myself realigned.
Thank you for sharing!
Love Erin
Erin, yes that feeling of trying too hard is a big indicator of being out of alignment. The most important thing you can focus on now is not trying to do anything to ‘fix’ this, but rather taking some time to tune back in to your feelings.
Notice what feelings are coming up around your business. If there is any resistance, and you are trying to take action ‘over it’, it will feel off. Take a break from it all. Tune back inwards and work through that resistance first, before you do anything else x
Hey Connie! I loved this post. It totally hit home with me because one of my big things is to never act from a place of desperation. It always brings about a negative outcome (sort of like in your example: if I act from a place of desperation while searching for clients, I may find some but they likely will not be an ideal client and I will detract the people I really want to connect with). I never really expanded that thought to include all negative emotions attached to action. Love this post, great stuff! xo
Hi Erin,
The example you gave of searching for clients from a place of desperation is spot on!! Start using that same awareness across all areas of your life. It can happen quite subtly, so always pay attention to how you are feeling before you take action x
Wonderful post Connie, I’m totally getting this lately. I think The Vortex is meant to be similar to The Science of Getting Rich and Think & Grow Rich which are the books that influenced Rhonda Byrne and Bob Proctor from The Secret.
I think the hardest thing is moving out of a negative mindset (bad energy) when things appear to be wrong on the outside. Ie I have had a couple of setbacks lately & it’s hard not to dwell on. I’m a bit scared to move forward while in this space.
It’s uncommon for someone to have 3 things go wrong in one week, so I take it as a message there’s some major past healing to be done before I step into this next phase of my life (I’m planning on starting a business) So that’s what I’m doing, focussing on deeper healing, so I’m in a healthy emotional alignment before I do anything. I think we forge how important the emotional body is for the results we end up seeing in life. I watched Super Soul Sunday on OWN the other day and Dr Robyn told Oprah she discovered that adulthood is replaying the past to heal the wounds of childhood. Eep!
Thanks again for your post its inspiring to know the keys to manifestation is a shared true knowing
X Nat
Hi Nat,
One of the things I love about books by Esther and Jerry Hicks is that they give you a whole heap of powerful practices to help you get in to alignment. Their book “Ask and it is given” has 22 processes in their that you can use!
One of the key factors in the alignment process lies in being able to detach from what is going on around you, so that it no longer triggers such a strong emotional response. You want to be able to choose how you feel on the inside, regardless of what is happening on the outside. The practices of witnessing and observing are really powerful for that.
Just start by being really aware of how you are feeling, and when you catch yourself feeling ‘off’ check in and see what you were just thinking about!
I love this post, is as beautiful as usual..or even more 🙂
While I was doing some meditation this morning I realized I much fear I’m bringing to my desire to really find a good job and start living on my own. I truly percieved I wasn’t in a place of joy and love. I need to reset myself 🙂
Thank you for this post, I’ll use the method you’ve just described!!
You’re wonderful xxx
Daniela
Hi Daniela, thank you for your comment. Yes, our careers are a big place where fear arise! It is great that you have an awareness around that now, and that you can start to choose to shift your energy to a more loving place x
I just watched The Secret again yesterday cause I started to feel that I have forgotten some really important points of the Law of attraction (and creating my dream-life) cause everything seemed to take a lot of energy and I have been feeling like I’m forcing myself to stay positive and feel good.
And now I read this (Fortunately The Secret also woke me up to look for signs more carefully 😉 ). Yesterday, while watching The Secret for the 100th time, I realized that this has been my problem (again), this seems to be so easy to forget! Thanks Connie for an inspiring post again, I will start to use your process of alignment and can’t wait to see the results. 🙂
xo Hanne
Hi, Connie.
Thanks for this. What a great post. I needed this today. I have strayed a bit from the principles of the Vortex and this was my ticket to get back on board. I like meditating, affirmations, visualization, and exercise to shift my energy. I have Esther Hicks Vortex meditation APP for my iphone- highly recommend.
I’m a Health and Wellness Coach in Boston, MA. If you get a chance- check out my fb page here:
http://www.facebook.com/BeyondFoodWellnessCoaching
Such an insightful post Connie, which talks so much to the importance of our mindset! It’s reassuring to hear that this is something we ALL work on EVERYDAY! We have to show up for ourseleves and constantly create the life we desire through aligning our intention. Penny xxx
Hi Penny, yes it can be so easy for our mind to run on autopilot and to not even be aware of the impact our thoughts are having on what we are creating in our lives. As you say, intention is key. Intend to feel a certain way each day and then be self-aware enough to catch yourself when you slip in to a different energy space. Thank you for your comment hun x
This came at the most perfect time for me (naturally!) I’ve lost faith in my ability to manifest. Of course it’s because I’ve forgotten how to trust, and I’m holding on too tight to my dream (but with fear). Today I’m going to work on shifting my focus to a place of love and trust and am looking forward to feeling happy again. x
perfect post for today!
Really refreshing to read this perspective on the whole manifesting she-bang. I’m positive that sometimes I do forget to focus on the feelings that I desire, whilst implementing steps to reach my goals. It’s easy to get caught up in action, action, action. Thank you for the beautiful reminder to reconnect with my core desired feelings. Great post. x.