Dear Reader,

A few weeks ago, Richard and I traveled to Rio de Janeiro and Buenos Aires, and I'm still sorting through everything I saw, tasted, and felt.

We went to Rio for the International AIDS Conference, something we've done every two years in a different city. But once the conference wrapped, we gave ourselves something we don't always allow on trips like this.

Space.

Space to have a plan, but not follow it too tightly.

Space to wander into whatever a city wanted to show us that day, rather than only what we'd researched beforehand.

That openness ended up giving us some of the best moments of the whole trip, not the ones we planned for, but the ones we simply walked into.

Now let's get ALIGNED...

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Inspirational Quote

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The Story

On our first Sunday in Rio, we had a plan. Walk through the open air market, see some of the shops, maybe find a few souvenirs.

But a few blocks in, the plan stopped mattering.

We turned a corner and found ourselves in the middle of a crowd dancing samba in the street, no stage, no announcement, just music spilling out of somewhere and people already dancing before we'd even figured out where it was coming from.

A few blocks after that, we passed a bar so packed with people watching a soccer match that the sound of the game seemed to be coming from everywhere at once, everyone in the same team's colors, shouting at the same screen.

We hadn't researched any of this. We hadn't even known to look for it. It simply found us, because we'd left enough room in the day for it to.

Later that week, we made our way to Ipanema and Copacabana, places we'd only ever heard about, and they were beautiful. But if I'm honest, it wasn't the famous beaches that stayed with me most.

It was that stretch of street we never planned to walk down.

The Spiritual Lesson

I think most of us travel the way we live. We make a plan, we research what's supposed to be good, and we measure the trip by how well we hit the list.

There's nothing wrong with that. Plans matter, and some things are worth seeking out on purpose.

But the quote that's been sitting with me says something a little different: The Universe has imagined it even better than you have.

What if the challenge isn't simply trusting that something better is possible?

What if it's recognizing it when it arrives?

Because sometimes we're so attached to the picture we've created of how our lives are supposed to unfold that we miss what is actually unfolding in front of us.

We know what the right job is supposed to look like, what the right relationship is supposed to feel like, what success is supposed to mean, and where we thought we'd be by now.

And when life gives us something different, our first instinct may be to think we've somehow gotten off course.

But what if different doesn't mean wrong?

That's what the samba in the street reminded me. I didn't ask the trip for that moment. I didn't even know to want it. But it became one of my favorite memories precisely because it wasn't something I could have planned.

I wonder how often life works that way.

The opportunity you almost said no to. The friendship that began with a conversation you almost skipped. The version of your life that's arriving right now, in ways you can't yet recognize as arriving, because you're still looking for the version you already imagined.

Your imagination isn't wrong. It's just smaller than what's actually possible for you.

The invitation isn't to stop planning or stop wanting things. It's to hold what you've imagined loosely enough to notice what else might be trying to find you.

Your Call to Action

This week, notice where you've been holding tightly to an idea of how something in your life is supposed to unfold.

Maybe it's your work, a relationship, a goal you've been pursuing, or simply where you thought you'd be by now.

Then ask yourself:

What might already be trying to emerge that I'm not seeing because it doesn't look the way I imagined?

You don't have to abandon the plan. Just loosen your grip on it enough to get curious about what else might be possible.

Take the street you didn't plan to walk down. Say yes to the conversation you'd normally skip. Leave one corner of your week unplanned.

You don't have to know what's better. You just have to leave room for it.

I'll be back next issue with more from this trip, including our time in Buenos Aires, a city that felt alive in an entirely different way. For now, I'll leave you with Rio.

May you leave enough space this week for something better than you imagined to find you.

Abundant Blessings and Namaste.

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Abundant Good News and Notes

One-on-One Coaching: Sometimes the hardest part of a transition isn't figuring out what to do next. It's letting go of what you thought your life was supposed to look like long enough to hear what might actually be calling you forward. That's much of the work I do with my coaching clients, helping them get clear about what's emerging, trust what they're sensing, and take meaningful steps toward it. If you're in that kind of season right now, hit reply and let's talk.

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Thanks for reading ALIGNED!

If you have any questions or want to share what you thought about this newsletter, hit reply and let me know.

Abundant Blessings,
​Joselito Laudencia

Spiritual Life Coach, Teacher, Speaker
Author, The Creative Impulse: Answering the Highest Calling of Your Heart​
​www.abundantgood.com​

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