2020 has most certainly been a challenging year. Unexpected twists and turns have met us around every corner. It seemed as if each time I adjusted to the ‘new normal’ and felt as if I could rest in a routine, along came another unforeseen turn of events. Each time it would blow my house of cards down and require yet another adjustment. To survive this year, I’ve had to grow increasingly comfortable with the unknown. I’ve had to allow myself to accept the unexpected. I’ve had to learn to live with a progressively unclear future and an uncertain timeline. Time itself has felt as if it slowed down and sped up simultaneously. Any attempt to try and control conditions, let alone time, led to massive amounts of stress and overwhelm. The silver lining of this chaos? A desperate need to let go of planning for an uncertain future and the relief that focusing on only the present moment provides.

It’s common as we near the end of any year for us to take inventory of our lives and our progress. Where have we succeeded? Do we have any regrets? Where can we improve next year? In taking inventory of my own life, I have grown to realize some very important things. When 2019 was drawing to a close and I was eagerly anticipating the gifts and opportunities 2020 would carry, I chose a word, an intention that I wished to focus on for the year. My word was alignment. Little did I know that I would be taken on quite the roller coaster ride to show me in the clearest ways possible exactly what alignment means.

Like many, I often get stuck on the hamster wheel of my mind. Of the tens of thousands of thoughts I think every day, many of them are not only the exact same thoughts from the days before, but also the thoughts I have acquired from others over my lifetime. Specifically, any of the thoughts that follow words like ‘should’ and ‘need to’ quickly indicate that the ideas following do not originate with me.

Albert Einstein (amongst many other brilliants) pointed out that all things are made of energy, including us. Energy vibrates at varying frequencies causing the infinite expression and transformation of itself into all that exists in reality. We too are vibrating energy and each of us has our own unique energetic signature—a song if you will, that is played in perfect harmony when we are in alignment with our authentic selves.

Alignment is defined as a position of agreement or alliance. When we are in alignment, what we think, what we do, what we feel, who we are, how we express ourselves, who we spend time with, are all in agreement or coherence with our unique and individual energetic signature. Alignment happens when we build an external world that matches our internal world.

What is the point of any of this? We are all seeking happiness. However, we will never find sustainable happiness in an external world that is not in alignment with who we are. When we insist on forcing ourselves to fit into a misaligned reality, we become the enforcers of our own suffering. So we must consider this: it’s not always that we are failing to find the happiness in the moment. It’s possible we are standing in the wrong moment. Moments that are misaligned with who we are. When we find our moments, the ones that match our unique energetic signature—our people, our passion, our power—we feel alignment. Unknowingly, we’ve had it inside out. If the point of it all is to feel happy, we must seek alignment first. Happiness is the side effect of alignment.

May we all set our compass toward alignment in 2021 in order to invite the peace and happiness that we all deserve into our lives.