Stepping Into Alignment For The New Year With Lisa Foster

Hi everyone and welcome to Real Life Momz. I'm your host, Lisa Foster and Real Life Momz is a podcast that's all about connecting moms through real parenting conversations. I believe that moms have so much insight and knowledge, and together we are powerful. On this podcast, we give moms a voice to tell their stories and share their expertise and resources through real conversations. And this week we're talking about my favorite holiday, New Year's, and creating a vision that aligns with who you are as you step into the new year.

Happy New Year, everyone. And I cannot believe it's already 2023. That is crazy. Time just totally flies by so quickly. But actually, New Year's is one of my favorite holidays because it gives me the time to reflect on last year, but it also allows me to step into the new year with a clean slate and really think about what it is I want to do and achieve in this new year. So every year my family has a tradition and it is to make a vision board.

These vision boards are huge. We make them out of oak Tag that you would use for a school project, and we decorate it, we write on it. We use colors and markers and pictures to really give us a vision of what we want for the new year. My favorite part of our tradition is actually that we sit and we look at our old ones first and we see what we've achieved in the year before.

You know, some years we look back and we're like, Ooh, didn't really achieve what we wanted to. But other years we're amazed at how many goals, how many things we set out to do that we did. And that really feels good because I think we forget what we even wanted the year before. So every year I kind of think of a theme, a theme for my vision board before I create it this year. The word that kind of sticks out to me is alignment. You know what is alignment, right?

What is it really? You know, as a physical therapist, as a cranial psychotherapist, you could think of it as more in a physical term. Like if our body is in alignment if our spine is in alignment, we feel good, you feel healthy, you feel like you can go about your day being your best self, being in alignment.

And I feel this on a, not just a physical level, but also a mental level, a spiritual level when we are doing things that are not working with our own beliefs, that is not sitting well in our gut, that are not technically in the alignment of who we are, you know, that causes stress. That causes feelings of being overwhelmed and we don't usually achieve what we're hoping to achieve when we're always working against our own alignment.

So this year I'm writing down on my vision board what really aligns with me, what really aligns with my core beliefs. And I'm looking at this through all aspects of my life, looking at it, what aligns with me at work, what aligns with me at home as a parent, as a wife, who are the people that are in my life that align with me. Because when you work within your own alignment, doors just start to open.

And not only do they open, but you can actually see them open and you can really see what it is you really want. You know, I feel like a lot of times we are just walking around in our day-to-day lives, and what happens is it's just so easy to focus on what is going wrong, what don't we want that is so easy to see instead of seeing what we really do want. And there are all these beliefs out there that talk about, you know, thoughts becoming things, right?

So if we're always thinking about the things that we don't want or the things that are going wrong energetically, we are connecting to those same things. And that in turn is what you're getting. There are so many gurus out there that talk about this. There are the Bob Proctors, there's the Joe Dispenses. There are so many people out there discussing thoughts, becoming things, and energetically connecting to those things.

And this could be a new concept that you're hearing for the first time today. This could be an old concept that you've been practicing. This could be something you believe in. This could be something that you don't believe in. But it's interesting cuz I started to talk to my kids a little bit about this concept. And you know, in school, of course, they're learning things like math and reading and writing. You know, maybe you get a finance course or cooking, which I do think is helpful for the households, but you don't get a lot of these life teachings in school. And I wanted to bring more to their awareness because they're not always so happy in school or in the day-to-day.

So there's a lot of pressure on our children right now, and I had them watch this movie. A lot of us have heard about The Secret, right?

Kind of a manifestation. But there was a movie created that was based on The Secret, but there was more of just a movie. It was called The Secret Dare Dream. And it had Katie Holmes in it. So it was just like they were just watching a regular movie. And there's a part of the movie that just really hits home for me. There was a teenager who was, I believe, getting ready for a party and she was kind of not in the happiest place. And then there was a character in the movie that really lived by the Secret if you will.

And he said to her, well, what do you want for your birthday party? And as a typical teen,  she rolls her eyes and kind of is in that moody dark place. And she's like, I, I don't know. And his response hit really home to me.

His response was, well, if you don't know what you want, how do you know when you get it? And to me, this was such an aha moment, such a teaching moment. Because I think that every day we are walking around missing opportunities that might be right in front of us, or we don't even see them because we don't even know what we want. So for me, in my vision board, I'm writing down what aligns with me, what I want, whether that's in business, personal life, or material things, so that when they come to me, I can just take them because I know that's exactly what I want.

I don't have to sit and think through, oh, if I took it, maybe this would happen. And let all that conscious stuff like roadblock me into the thing I probably really want. I know I'm writing down a list of exactly what it is I need, what I want.

I have a little story for you. When I first started listening to some of these gurus out there that talk about really learning about what you want, putting it out to the universe, you know, skeptical. I was skeptical because I had grown up skeptical <laugh>. But you know what? I wanted to play. I love to play. I love to learn something new and I love to try it. I love to play with it. So on this particular day, I was like, let's try it.

I started out my day with a quiet meditation, which I normally do. And then I started a little practice where I'd like to just kind of visualize or write out what my day will look like. I kind of tell a story of that day before I step into it. And I added this new piece of just putting out there what I wanted and what I wanted that day was a free cup of coffee.

I know it sounds really simple, but at the time we were definitely budgeting money and we didn't wanna spend on things like that. You know, that was just really extra at the time. So I just did it. I was like, I'm gonna put out a free cup of coffee, that's what I want today and I'm gonna go on my day, stay unattached and let's just play with it. See what happens, right? So that day we just took a little drive as a family, and on our drive, we see a Starbucks. Now I'm gonna deviate for a second because I love Starbucks and I'll tell you why I love Starbucks because it is the only place I can say I would like a peppermint mocha with maybe some pumpkin foam.

Please make it fat-free, caffeine free. And you know what? Put a cherry and some sprinkles on top, and they will always answer.

Sure. They don't make a judgment; they just say yes. And I love that so much. I feel like I need more of that in my life where I can just say what I wanna say, do what I wanna do, and it's uh, sure. So I do love Starbucks. But back to the story we were driving, we go decided to go through a Starbucks to treat ourselves to a drink. We decide to share my favorite holiday drink a peppermint mocha, which is my favorite. And we were just gonna get tall, so we weren't gonna spend the extra money.

It's still extra, it wasn't really in our budget, but we were gonna do it. We go up, we order, hi, can we have a peppermint mocha? And the guy says, oh, we are out of peppermint mocha. And my mind goes to, oh really? And so quickly went to all the wrong, you know, thinking all the wrong thinkings come flooding into my head.

And he quickly says, but because we don't have peppermint mocha, I am going to give you a free coffee of any other flavor you would like. And I'm going to make it a venti boom, my free coffee. Now, was it exactly what I wanted? I could have gone right to like stuck on, oh, my favorite holiday drink, the peppermint mocha isn't there. My mind could have stayed there, but I had put out what I wanted and I what I wanted, it wasn't super specific, but what I wanted was a free cup of coffee.

And guess what? I was about to get a free cup of coffee. Now, I may have missed my free cup of coffee because I was maybe stuck on that. I wasn't getting the peppermint mocha. How many times in our life are we missing our free cup of coffee? How many times do we not know what we want and we're focusing on the things we don't want or don't get that we miss a free cup of coffee?

But not that day? That day changed my life. From that day forward, I started writing down what I wanted. Do I always get what I want? Maybe, maybe not, but at least I always know it when I see it. So this year for me is all about the word alignment. This is going to be the center of my vision board is aligned mentally, physically, and spiritually. And I feel like when I'm aligned with those things that I've written on my board, that I'm aligned with spiritually, mentally, and physically, doors start to open.

But not only do they open, but I could also see them and I could walk through them. Because when I work in my own alignment, things come easily. I don't have to work extra hard cuz I'm not working against myself. It's funny because as I start to read more and try to learn more about even just business, you know, I am attracted to people like si, the Simon Cynics or like the book, the Seven Habits of Highly Effective People.

But the reason I like those so much and they are business books is because the underlying core belief is the exact same thing that the Joe Dispenses and the Bob Proctors and all those people that believe in knowing what you want, your core belief, putting it out there. It's all the same thing, whether it is in business or in life. And the stuff that I was struggling with in my own business and practice.

It's funny, I turned to my husband, who's a business guy, and I said, wow, it's all the same thing. They are saying the same thing. And it felt really good. I didn't have to be someone else in different aspects of my life. I could just stick to this core belief, this alignment, and be myself, whether it was in business or being a parent or hanging out with friends that felt like such a weight lifted off of me.

I didn't have to be in all these different places. I could just be in one place, being myself, sticking to the things that aligned with me. Now of course, people are gonna listen to this and say, oh, this is not for me. This is not for me. But that's okay because that's who they are. That's who you are. And then there'll be people who listen to us and say, yeah, that that's my person. Well, that's great because I don't need to be liked by all, cuz that's exhausting.

Trying to fit in is exhausting. But I want to be liked by the people who appreciate me for who I am unconditionally. Watching my kids go to school is heartbreaking, honestly. I feel like they are constantly being pushed into molds so that they can be accepted. And I hate that. I hate that it's so hard for them to figure out who they are because they're constantly being pressured to be someone else.

And it took me, gosh, like 40, 50 years to figure out who I am. And maybe you need all those steps, and maybe you need all those pressures to get to the point to know who you are. But it is so sad to watch that they can't feel fully themselves. But what I can do is I can model it for them. I can model owning who I am and allowing the people into my life that align with that.

And when they're ready, at least they'll see it and have the skills to do the same. So as we come into this new year, I would love for you to come with me on this journey, this journey of finding your true self. What you align with, write it down, make a vision board, and see it in front of you. So when those opportunities, those doors open, you're not gonna be afraid to step through because it checks all the boxes of all the things that you want and what feels good to you and who you are.

And there's nothing to be afraid of when you're stepping into something that fits you that perfectly. So I'd love to hear what your visions look like. Email me; I will read each and every one of them. I will respond to you as well. You can reach me at Real life moms podcast@gmail.com, and that's Moms with a Z. Tell me what your visions are, make a vision board, take a photo and send it to me. I would really love to see them and come along with you on your journey to this new year.

Happy holidays everyone. May you have a happy, healthy, aligned New Year.