“When our life is aligned to what truly matters, that is when we experience the most enduring joy.”

In this episode, Dr. Pam King explains the 3rd step in the 5 A’s of Agility for Spiritual Health. Alignment is the process of becoming more reflective, drawing connections between our thoughts and emotions—and our beliefs, values, habits, and the experiences that shape us.

This is the step where we look for our intentions and expectations and hold them up to our raw experiences and the possible meanings associated with them. We begin by identifying what's true or what's false in our feelings and thoughts so we can more clearly move toward our purposes.

ANNOUNCEMENT: With & For Season 2 launches on January 6, 2025!

Show Notes

• “Alignment involves aligning the insights that you gained from taking inventory and attuning to your feelings and becoming aware of their meanings of then aligning these feelings to your ideals, your values, and what you assume matters.”
• What matters to you?
• Taking stock of what we attuned to, and what we became aware of
• How do we align what is with what we want?
• How to practice alignment
• How do you spend your time?
• Reflecting regularly on life goals
• “When our life is aligned to what truly matters, that is when we experience the most enduring joy.”
• Resilience and stability

About the Thrive Center

• Learn more at thethrivecenter.org.
• Follow us on Instagram @thrivecenter
• Follow us on X @thrivecenter
• Follow us on LinkedIn @thethrivecenter

About Dr. Pam King

Dr. Pam King is Executive Director the Thrive Center and is Peter L. Benson Professor of Applied Developmental Science at Fuller School of Psychology & Marriage and Family Therapy. Follow her @drpamking.

About With & For

• Host: Pam King
• Senior Director and Producer: Jill Westbrook
• Operations Manager: Lauren Kim
• Social Media Graphic Designer: Wren Juergensen
• Consulting Producer: Evan Rosa

Special thanks to the team at Fuller Studio and the Fuller School of Psychology & Marriage and Family Therapy.

It’s not easy to reflect on our emotions without judging them or running away from them. It’s difficult to stay with challenging or frightening feelings and thoughts. But to cultivate awareness means taking an open, curious, and non-judgmental approach to observing our minds.

More than simple or immediate observation (like Attunement), awareness asks us to get curious and reflect on our feelings, emotions, thoughts, and the landscape of experience we discovered in step one of attunement. What emotions are coming up for us? What thoughts keep coming into our consciousness?

In this second step of the 5 A’s of Agility for Spiritual Health, Pam King explains how we can become more emotionally aware and open-minded about our psychological reality. The key to observing our thoughts and feelings is to simply look, and not judge yourself. Let the emotions come and go, and learn from they provide information to us.

ANNOUNCEMENT: With & For Season 2 launches on January 6, 2025!

Show Notes

• Jill Westbrook introduces the episode
• For the most enriching and helpful listening experience, make sure to start with the beginning of this series!
• More than immediate observation: we must reflect non-judgmentally
• Just observe, don’t judge yourself.
• Examining the meaning of our feelings, thoughts, and sensations
• Attach reflective thoughts to our embodied and psychological experience
• Journaling is a powerful exercise to connect kinetically with emotional realities.
• Narration and storytelling helps with processing non-judgmentally.
• Cultivating curiosity and open-mindedness
• “So be curious, welcome the dust, welcome the muck,  hold it, consider what it means and what it's pointing you towards.”
• “Avenues for growth. Avenues for loving yourself.”
• Uncover the values that fuel our life.
• Understanding anger, sadness, disappointment, joy, delight—all as emotional signposts to meaning and purpose
• Emotions that direct us to what matters.
• Practical Example: Anger
• Practical Example: Sorrow or Sadness
• “Linger, but don’t loiter.”
• “You’re not in this alone.”

About the Thrive Center

• Learn more at thethrivecenter.org.
• Follow us on Instagram @thrivecenter
• Follow us on X @thrivecenter
• Follow us on LinkedIn @thethrivecenter

About Dr. Pam King

Dr. Pam King is Executive Director the Thrive Center and is Peter L. Benson Professor of Applied Developmental Science at Fuller School of Psychology & Marriage and Family Therapy. Follow her @drpamking.

About With & For

• Host: Pam King
• Senior Director and Producer: Jill Westbrook
• Operations Manager: Lauren Kim
• Social Media Graphic Designer: Wren Juergensen
• Consulting Producer: Evan Rosa

Special thanks to the team at Fuller Studio and the Fuller School of Psychology & Marriage and Family Therapy.

What’s happening right now? What do you feel? What physical sensations are present from head to toe?

The first step in practicing the 5 A’s of Spiritual Health is Attunement—a simple, direct process of connecting to reality, perceiving your experience of the present moment, and paying attention to our physical sensations. It’s as simple as a clear-eyed consciousness: listening, feeling, acknowledging, being aware of basic sensations.

In this episode, Dr. Pam King explains attunement and the foundation it lays for cultivating greater agility and adaptivity. She oconsiders theological and psychological grounding for the benefits of attunement, and offers practical techniques, including a body scan and breath exercises.

ANNOUNCEMENT: With & For Season 2 launches on January 6, 2025!

Show Notes

• Jill Westbrook introduces the episode
• ANNOUNCEMENT: With & For Season 2 launches on January 6, 2025!
• What is attunement? And how does it support personal agility and adaptivity?
• Connecting to reality, the present moment, and our physical experience and sensations
• Clear-eyed consciousness
• Listening, feeling, acknowledging, noticing sensations
• Embodiment and rooting in the body
• Our bodies are part of the created order.
• God has given us bodies to know and serve God.
• Pain and stress, joy or pleasure
• How do we attune?
• How to perform a body scan
• Breath exercises
• Walking as a spiritual practice of attunement
• Breathing
• Andrew Huberman’s breath exercises: “the physiological sigh” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kSZKIupBUuc

About the Thrive Center

• Learn more at thethrivecenter.org.
• Follow us on Instagram @thrivecenter
• Follow us on X @thrivecenter
• Follow us on LinkedIn @thethrivecenter

About Dr. Pam King

Dr. Pam King is Executive Director the Thrive Center and is Peter L. Benson Professor of Applied Developmental Science at Fuller School of Psychology & Marriage and Family Therapy. Follow her @drpamking.

About With & For

• Host: Pam King
• Senior Director and Producer: Jill Westbrook
• Operations Manager: Lauren Kim
• Social Media Graphic Designer: Wren Juergensen
• Consulting Producer: Evan Rosa

Special thanks to the team at Fuller Studio and the Fuller School of Psychology & Marriage and Family Therapy.