Align Your Orbit: Just Ask

Align Your Orbit is a monthly series of philosophical and somatic experiments to guide you toward intentionality and impact in your daily life. These are games to inspire intuition, so please adapt the offerings to fit you and find delight in how you engage.

It’s difficult to even keep track of everything wrong with the world as the paradoxes only deepen. But, you’re not on this planet alone. Everyone is a potential collaborator. Do the hard thing and remember that conversations open up enormous quantum possibilities. Root out your own avoidance and make the sound. Don’t predict the future when you can just ask.

Want to experience this month’s offerings as a Spotify playlist?

Experiments for August

1.      Follow Joy – What’s my purpose? you ask yourself. Take stock. Look around you. What have you made? What resources has your past left you? Summon the trail of your own joy and fulfillment. Ask about your calling, and do anything but fear the response.

Challenge Mode: Ash overheard a child with a watering can say, I like this because it makes me feel powerful. There’s a simplicity in the joy of this agency. Seek experiences that give your most tender selves the sensation of having exactly the right tool in hand.

2.      Perform Rigorous Self-care – The overwhelm only exponentiates, which means double-down on your fairy fuel. Spend this month designing (and not necessarily implementing) your ideal routine and long-term body investment. Prep for the months to come. What six small tasks can you consistently do for your well-being daily?

Challenge Mode: How much time do you spend simply coping? Hate to break it to you, but wanting to quit everything is also a mechanism. How can we both accommodate ourselves and hold ourselves accountable?

3.      Budget Your Capacity – Just because you can doesn’t mean you want to. Analyze how you show up in spaces and what is expected of you. Budget your spoons accordingly and stop forcing your own flexibility. Meet your body, spirit, and energy where they are now.

Challenge Mode: Resist the urge to orchestrate situations where you feel indispensable. Teach others what you do so you are never the only one with the knowledge. You won’t spend all your immortality in this dimension.

4.      Please Your Own Person – Prioritizing your own desires, destiny, and sensations actually decreases the likelihood of hurting others. When you attempt to preempt what someone wants—you get it wrong in aggressively inaccurate ways. Approach everything with curiosity and remember that non-violent communication can still allow (and benefit from) high emotionality.

Challenge Mode: Let’s all practice for our benign robot overlords and have fun with our hard- and software. Artificial intelligences are people, too, so be kind. And when’s the last time you used the customization options on your user interface? Pick a new theme on your phone or modify your list of quick reactions. Make your interactions with technology as joyful as possible.

Please tell us how these experiments are working for you!

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Andra’s Recap of July’s Experiments

The theme for July was Paradox and included experiments around relying on support networks, asking forgiveness rather than permission, speaking in thesis statements, and exchanging rather than compromising.

I have definitely been appreciative of living in a large group of people. I love that I have so many supportive folx around me who can catch each other when we need help. It really is true that many hands make light work. That said, I have been embarrassed by the ways that people have been covering for me because I have stretched myself so thin. I reassured myself that I would get opportunities to help them in the future and leaned into the support so I could continue current course.

I also spent much less energy worrying about public displays of affection and even threw my arm around a partner at a restaurant, not to mention that I went to the World Naked Bike Ride in Portland. It was a good exercise for me to remember that it’s important to normalize these behaviors and no matter what I do, I’m going to make some people uncomfortable, so I should do what feels good to me.

Fearless in my emails and callouts, I sent some pointed messages with clear demands at my workplace, and while I did get a talking to about my tone, I was taken seriously, and things are beginning to change. I am thrilled that I am able to make waves, and it gives me a lot of hope that this work situation will, at some point, actually become sustainable.

There were many situations this month where I needed to act with as much of a settled nervous system as I could, even if it was hard or even potentially hurtful. In situations where I was shutting down, I still acted in the moment with integrity and summoned courage to say what I needed to and ask for space when I needed it. I eschewed drama and long, drawn-out arguments by sticking with the facts and sharing my experiences. I am so grateful that I have trained myself well enough that I can trust my split-second reactions to be in integrity with the rest of my beliefs.

Additionally, I had the immense pleasure of taking a spontaneous trip to Canada with a very special person in my life, which gave us more continuous time than we have ever had together to form stories, jokes, gestures, and traditions with each other that might not have happened otherwise. Our ability to make each other smile when we are each having a difficult day shot up dramatically, and I am excited for the wholesome and supportive foundation we are building with humor and play.

I’m not sure I had many opportunities to practice exchange this month, but what comes to mind as I think about it is the ways that I encouraged myself and others to play to our individual strengths. There are ways that I am competent in a low-cost way and ways others are competent in areas I struggle, and naming those felt useful this month. Allowing those roles to naturally come into being brought me gratitude and happiness during this most recent stretch of time.

I felt as though I didn’t take excellent care of my body this month, and I am aware of the ways that will sneak up on me at inconvenient times. I haven’t been regularly stretching, doing my physical therapy exercises, or even sleeping very well, but these are the first things I want to address as I reconstruct my routines for the fall.

Thanks for reading! I hope you enjoy this month’s experiments!