Misalignment can leave you drained. 

Living in misalignment with your values and who you are at your core, can be a challenging, dissonant, and often an extremely exhausting experience - both emotionally and physically.

Emotionally, one may go through extreme emotions, feeling out of control, unsure where you are headed, questioning the very basis of your existence or what you are doing with your life.

Physically, you may experience health issues, regular headaches, fatigue, stress, depleted energy levels, sleep disturbances, insomnia, or evenmore severe health challenges.

The impact of misalignment on one’s physical and emotional well-being can be quite detrimental, so when left unaddressed, it can cause major dysfunction in your life and lack of effectiveness at work. 

But, misalignment can be quite sneaky and hard to recognize as it can show up in various forms and in various emotional, physical, behavioral ways in our daily life and interactions.

If you haven’t been through the inner exploration of discovering your values and who you are at your core, you might find this guide below helpful in recognizing the signs and symptoms.

Here’s what misalignment feels like -

➞ a constant tug within as you are doing something other that what you believe you should be doing,

➞ discomfort in taking certain decisions or actions (mostly that are against your will, like, or intuition),

➞ feeling angry, frustrated, irritated, more often than not,

➞ feeling uninspired, or lack the innate energy or motivation to take the next step,

➞ higher distractive tendencies reducing productivity and efficiency at work, creating a backlog,

➞ constantly shifting and oscillating between two directions, decisions etc.

And here’s how it manifests in your daily life -

➞ stress, headaches, anxiety, worry, fatigue, or general gloominess,

➞ procrastinating or avoiding certain tasks, activities, to dos,

➞ reduced ability to set clear goals,

➞ reduced ability to be fully present or remain engaged with people or work, sometimes impacting relationships,

➞ actions may appear inconsistent to others as you are oscillating quickly,

➞ distance yourself from others to be more and more isolated,

➞ avoiding to talk about certain areas, topics, or challenges,

➞ decision-making and actioning is slower as there is a flux between your true desire versus the expectation,

Leading and living with misalignment often results in burn-out and unhappiness.

It is important to recognize though, that everyone experiences some degree of misalignment through various phases and junctures in their life and to some degree while making daily smaller, perhaps less significant choices.

One may also experience some of these symptoms due to a momentary dip, or when we meet failure, or when we experience the struggle when starting something new. But when one experiences most or all of the symptoms and they persist for a long period of time, it is time to hit the pause button, step back, and reflect to understand what is causing these symptoms and weigh on it carefully in order to address it appropriately.

Aligning oneself doesn’t require any drastic steps like quitting your job or changing your career or getting out of a relationship, it requires a more innate journey of exploration that leads you to unearthing your values and who you are at your core. It is about gaining clarity and staying grounded in that clarity. It is about making conscious and more resonant choices.

One must remain mindful though, that there is a thin line between misalignment and depression, and symptoms may overlap so distinguishing can sometimes be challenging. I’ve been on both the sides and have experienced both living in misalignment and depression. So here’s what can be helpful to remember that misalignment arises from disconnect between one’s core values and actions and choices. When you start living and leading aligned to your values and making choices that are resonant, you will start feeling the energy and the motivation again, and over time remaining grounded in it can help you lead a grounded and fulfilled life.

If you feel, you are experiencing the signs and symptoms of misalignment, lean into your close people or partner with a coach or a mentor. They can support you in getting to the root and creating the realignment that is needed.

If you’d like to unlock your alignment with my support, schedule an experience coaching session.

Hope these insights support you in identifying the cause of the tug, the push and the pull you might be experiencing.