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Over the past month, we've explored something that most people never stop to consider. The invisible field from which we live our lives. We've discovered that thoughts don't create reality by themselves. Because meaning creates belief, and belief creates the field. The field creates the conditions, such as thoughts and emotions, and the conditions produce the symptoms. The symptoms lovingly guide us back toward the meaning that's ready to be transformed. But today I'd like to ask one more final question before we move into a new chapter. How do we know if our field is changing? And the answer isn't found on a vision board or an affirmation or even a meditation practice. It's found in relationships. Because relationships are where the invisible becomes visible. And when our field and our form begin expressing the same truth, something extraordinary happens. People experience us differently. They trust us. Today I'd like to explore why trust isn't something we earn through performance. Trust is what most people feel when there is no gap between who we are being and what we are expressing. Hello, hello, and welcome to the Aligned Human Project. I'm your host, Don Elgin. If you've ever looked around at your life that appears successful on the outside but feels disconnected on the inside, you are in the right place. If you've ever wondered why you keep repeating the same patterns, carrying the same emotional weight, or chasing goals that never quite bring you the peace you hoped they would, you are in the right place. This podcast is about remembering who you were before the world told you who you needed to be. Together we'll explore the intersection of neuroscience, psychology, ancient wisdom, quantum science, and practical spiritualism to understand how awareness shapes our field and how our field shapes our lives, and why lasting change begins from the inside out. We'll talk about leadership, relationships, health, purpose, emotional well-being, and conscious creation. Not as separate parts of life, but as reflections of one thing: our level of alignment. Because most people don't need another strategy, they need a new relationship with themselves. So whether you're leading a business, a family, a team, or simply trying to lead yourself with greater intention, welcome. Take a breath, become the witness, and let's begin. Hello, hello, and welcome back to the Aligned Human Project. This month we've been exploring one of the deepest teachings within field and form, which is the field. We've asked questions like, what creates our field? How do beliefs organize our lives? How does meaning shape personality? And what is prayer? What does coherence actually feel like? And perhaps most importantly, how do we consciously participate in life rather than unconsciously react to it? Every one of those conversations has been pointing towards today's episode. Because none of this work exists in isolation. It exists in relationship. And the field isn't something we cultivate so we can become better meditators or better manifestors, or even better versions of ourselves. We cultivate the field because everything meaningful in life happens in relationship, relationship with ourselves, with our bodies, relationship with our partners, with our children, with our colleagues, our communities, our relationship with the divine. The quality of those relationships reflects the quality of the field from which we meet them. That's why I believe trust isn't created by clever words. Trust isn't created by charisma. Trust isn't created by perfection. Trust is what it feels like when someone's field and form are in alignment. Just read that again. Hear that again. Trust is what it feels like when someone's field and their form are in alignment. There's no gap. There's no performance, no mask, no pretending, just coherence. And people feel it long before they can explain it. Think about someone that you've trusted deeply. Not someone who always agreed with you. Not someone who never made mistakes. Someone whose presence made you feel safe. What was it? It wasn't perfection. It was congruence. Who they were privately matched who they were publicly. What they valued matched how they lived. What they believed matched how they treated people. Their words and their actions belonged to the same person. That's coherence. And coherence is something human beings recognize instinctively. Long before consciously evaluating another person, our nervous system is already asking questions. Is this person safe? Can I relax? Can I be myself? Can I trust what I'm experiencing? That's why trust is fundamentally relational. It isn't manufactured, it's experienced. This is also why we cannot fake alignment. We can perform confidence. We can rehearse charisma. We can memorize communication techniques. But if our field is communicating fear while our words communicate certainty, people sense the gap. They might not be able to explain it, but they can feel it. That's why alignment is never about appearing different. Alignment is about becoming so coherent, coherent enough that there is no difference between who we are being and what we're expressing. Human beings are biologically wired for relationship, for tribal beings. From infancy onward, our nervous system continually reads subtle cues from the people around us, facial expressions, tone of voice, pupil dilation, body posture, eye contact, even the breath. These cubes help us determine whether we're safe, whether we belong, and whether we can relax. Researchers sometimes describe this as neurosception, the nervous system's ongoing, largely unconscious evaluation of cues of safety or danger. And much of this happens before we're consciously aware of it. From the perspective of field and form, this is profoundly meaningful because coherence isn't simply an internal experience. It's relational. When our thoughts, our beliefs, our emotions, and our body and actions all move together, people experience congruence. When they move in opposing directions, people often experience uncertainty. This is why leadership cannot be separated from inner work. And it's why relationships become one of the clearest mirrors of the field we've been cultivating. Not to judge us, to help us become more aware. Because awareness is always what comes first before conscious choice. I'll give you a simple example of this. I am the MC for a local woman's business network. And I am not the best speaker in the group. I'm not the most polished. I have never done any speaking courses or Toastmasters. But what I do have is presence. And see, at the very beginning, I would read from the script, trying to make sure that I was perfect. I'd made all the points, everything was serious, I could be taken as credible, and there was some performative pieces to it. And not because I was trying to deceive anybody, but because I genuinely cared and I cared about my reputation. I cared about how people saw me. And so in the beginning, that was how I MC'd. But as I continued, I started to lose that mindset, we'll call it. And instead, what I started to do was get really present. And it happened after some flubs. All of a sudden, you're up there and you're talking and you mispronounce a word. And instead of, you know, going red in the face and trying to correct it or compensate, I just started cracking jokes about it. When I forget a word, I'd be like, what's that word? And I started, people would call out the word they thought I was trying to get. And we would laugh until finally somebody got it. I'm like, that's the word. And it became this beautiful experience where I was present in the room and everyone felt my presence. It was only once I started being present, I let go of the need to be perfect, let go of the striving of the trying to perform. And instead got really into my body, really into the room, and focused far more on making eye contact and talking with people and involving them in the experience. The people started to come up to me at the end of our events. And it wasn't that they said, oh, you were perfect, you're amazing. What they would say was, that was the most fun I've ever had at a networking event. That was so much fun. You're hilarious, or that was so enjoyable and joining. And it was such a fulfilling experience. And it wasn't fulfilling because I was perfect. It was fulfilling because I allowed myself to be seen and I cultivated intimacy and trust. Those people knew exactly who they were getting in the front of the room. There was no need to be performative. When I couldn't pronounce somebody or somebody's name, I would jokingly call out to uh Allie or Chrissy, one of the women that do the script, and I'd be like, can we get this with enunciation next time? And everybody would just laugh because we've all been there, embarrassed because we say somebody's name wrong. Embarrassed because you can't pronounce something. And it's like, why? Just be present. And all of a sudden, it started to shift to the point where just a few weeks back, I was asked to put on a keynote about commanding the room and asking how to kind of teach people to command a room if they're at a networking event, if they're in a board meeting, how do you teach people to really kind of take control of the room? And when I reverse-engineered what I do, I had to explain that it's not about perfection. It's it's important that we nail our topic, that we get really clear on what it is that we're trying to communicate. But more than anything, it's to be present, to be real. We are in a world of artificial, whether that is AI or people on TikTok, we are in a time where we don't even know what's real anymore. And so we are in a massive trust recession. And because of that, this year they say the highest frequency that we can hit is authenticity, not perfection, but authenticity, because it's authenticity, it's presence that creates trust. And authenticity is what comes from us being coherent. You see, performance creates distance, but presence, it creates relationship. Authenticity settles the nervous system, and congruency invites trust. Trust becomes the natural expression of an aligned field. People rarely trust us because we appear perfect, they trust us because they experience us as real. So now let's challenge another idea. We being taught that trust is something that we earn. I don't believe that. Trust isn't earned through performance. Trust isn't earned through saying all the right things. Trust isn't earned through pretending that we've got it all together. Trust is revealed through coherence. Think about the people you've trusted most in your life. They weren't flawless. They weren't always certain. They weren't always successful, but they were authentic. There was no gap between what they believed and how they lived. No gap between what they said and what they did. No gap between who they were privately behind closed doors and who they were publicly. That's coherence. And coherence has a feeling, and we call that feeling trust. Trust is what another human being experiences when your field and form are expressing the same truth. That's why trust can never be manufactured, it can only be embodied. Human beings are constantly communicating, long before we speak. Our physiology is already in conversation. Our breathing communicates, our facial expressions communicate, our posture communicates, our pace communicates, our tone communicates, our whole nervous system communicates. Research in psychology, neuroscience, and interpersonal neurobiology continues to show that people influence one another through subtle verbal and nonverbal cues. Our bodies are continually responding to signals of safety, threat, openness, and emotional regulation from those all around us. And we often think communication begins with our words. But it doesn't. Words simply give language to a conversation that's already happening. This is one of the reasons presence is so powerful. When a person's internal world becomes coherent, other people often experience them differently. Not because they've learned better communication techniques, although, trust me, tone of voice and all the rest can help, but because there's less contradiction between what they're saying and what they're expressing. Within field and form, I see trust as a lived experience of coherence. Not perfection, not agreement, not certainty, but absolute coherence. That changes leadership. That changes parenting. That changes coaching. That changes every relationship we will ever have. So you go back into that situation of MCing events. And originally I wanted to avoid mistakes. I wanted everyone to think that I was polished. But then something shifted. I laughed when I stumbled. And I got really curious instead of self-conscious. And I stopped reforming and I started focusing way more on connecting. Ironically, the less I tried to appear trustworthy, the more people ended up trusting me. And again, not because my words had improved, but because my field became coherent. People weren't connecting with perfection. They started to connect with me through presence. You see, performance creates tension. And tension creates separation. There's you and there's me. And if there's perfection over there, then I'm judging where I'm at compared to you. So I'm actually cultivating separation, which is the opposite of what I'm trying to do. But presence, presence dissolves separation and authenticity, it creates coherence, and coherence is experienced as trust. You see, people rarely remember our perfect words, but they do remember how safe they felt in our presence. Now every element expresses trust differently. See, an aligned wood expression creates trust through courageous action. Whereas an aligned fire expression creates trust through joyful connection. Aligned earth expression creates trust through steady presence. And an aligned metal expression creates trust through integrity and clarity. Whereas an aligned water expression creates trust through quiet wisdom and deep faith. Notice something? None of those qualities require performance. They're expressions of coherence. Trust isn't something the elements go looking for. Trust naturally emerges when each element expresses its aligned nature. So if trust is a lived experience of coherence, how do we cultivate that coherence every single day? Not for the sake of influence, not to become more persuasive, but because alignment is the greatest gift we can offer every relationship in our lives. That's where I'd like us to finish today. I'd like to leave you with one final thought before we begin our next chapter together. For years, I thought leadership was about helping people change. Today I understand something very, very different. Leadership is about becoming someone whose presence makes change feel possible. Just let that land for a moment. Leadership is about becoming someone whose presence makes change feel possible. Because people rarely change when they feel judged or they feel unsafe. People change when they feel safe enough to tell themselves the truth. That's why trust matters. Trust creates safety. Safety creates awareness, and awareness makes free will available. Free will makes alignment possible, and alignment changes the field. The field changes everything. This is why I believe leadership begins long before strategy, long before communication, and long before vision, all really important, but leadership begins. With stewardship, stewardship of the field we bring into every room. I'd like to invite you into one final practice before we close out this month of August. Begin your morning the way we've been practicing together. So we start by becoming still. We take a breath, we start to feel it in our bodies, letting it land to our pelvis or our belly, placing one hand on our heart or our fingertips, and we allow genuine gratitude or appreciation to rise. Not because life is perfect, because life is present. And we stay there for a few moments, a few rounds of breath until we notice the body starting to soften, your breath slowing, your mind becoming quieter. Then you ask your daily prayer, show me what I'm ready to see today. And then just release the question. And then go live your life. Trust that awareness will arrive. And when it does, pause. Take one conscious breath. Feel it from the beginning to the end. And then ask, what's the opportunity? And before you respond, ask one more question. What would the most aligned version of me choose in this moment? Not the version trying to protect itself. Not the version trying to prove itself. Not the version trying to control the outcome, but the witness. And practice that for seven days. Not because you'll become perfect, but because you'll become more coherent. And coherence changes everything. I will place a link in the show notes that will lead you also to the heart coherence meditation that we've recorded earlier. Before we finish today, I want to share something I'm incredibly excited about. For the last several years, I have been pouring my heart into a project that brings together everything we've been exploring here on the podcast and YouTube. My book. It's called Align Your Life: 10-Step Guide to Coming Back to Your Pure Potential. Over the next few weeks, I'll be sharing more, and I've created an advanced community where I'll be releasing exclusive companion resources, some behind-the-scenes teachings and practices that won't be available anywhere else. If you'd like to join us, you'll find the link below. I'd love to have you there. Now, as we bring this month to a close, I want you to notice something. We've never actually been talking about changing your life. We've been talking about changing your relationship with life. Those are not the same thing. When your relationship changes, everything changes. Not because the world suddenly becomes easier, because you begin meeting the world from a different place. That is practical spiritualism. Not escaping reality, participating in reality consciously, not trying to become someone else. Removing everything that has been keeping you from expressing who you already are. The witness has never needed healing. The witness has never been broken. The witness has never been unworthy. The witness has simply been expressing through a field shaped by meaning, beliefs, and survival. And now you know how to cultivate that field consciously. That's alignment, not perfection, practice, one conscious choice after another. As we move into September, we're going to explore what happens when coherent human beings begin leading, leading families, leading organizations, leading community, leading conversations, leading culture. Because relationships are where the field becomes visible. And trust is what people experience when there's no gap between who we are being and what we are expressing. If today's conversation resonated with you, I'd love for you to share it with someone who's tired of trying to earn trust through performance. Maybe they're ready to discover that trust isn't something they have to chase. It's something they embody. And if you'd like to continue this journey with me, download the Five Elements of Alignment Assessment and join us inside the Aligned Human Project, because every healthy relationship begins with one coherent human being. I want to leave you with this. Trust is not created when people believe your words. Trust is created when people experience your being. Words communicate information. Coherence communicates trust. Prayer is not asking. Prayer is gratitude and appreciation for that which is already unfolding. Presence is where spirit and your soul are encountered. Gratitude is how we participate in that in that encounter. And compassion opens awareness. Awareness reveals meaning. Meaning creates belief, and belief creates the field, and the field creates those conditions. And the conditions produce the symptom. And the symptom avoids us right back to the meaning. Free will is the sacred gift of consciously choosing our relationship with every moment life places before us. Repeated conscious choice is alignment. Alignment cultivates coherence, and coherence transforms the field. And the field transforms every single relationship we touch. Because relationship is why we are here. Not to control one another, not to fix one another, not to save one another, to meet one another consciously, to become mirrors of compassion, to create spaces where truth feels safe. To live in such a way that our presence quietly gives other people permission to remember who they are. That is trust. That is leadership. That is practical spiritualism. You are the witness. You shape your field, and your field shapes your life. I'll see you next month as we begin exploring the architecture of trust. Thank you so much for spending this time with me today. My hope is that you leave each episode not with more information, but with greater awareness. Because awareness is where every meaningful change begins. If today's conversation resonated with you, I'd love for you to subscribe, leave a review, and share this episode with someone who's ready to stop surviving and start living from alignment. If you'd like to continue this work, you can join us inside the Aligned Human Project community. Explore the free five-element alignment assessment, or learn more about Align Your Life, Aligned Living, and Alignment Operating System at Practical Spiritualism Co. com. Remember, awareness reveals. Alignment chooses, and creation follows. You are the witness. You shape the field, and the field shapes your life. Until next time, keep pausing, keep noticing, and keep choosing. I'll see you in the next episode.