Over recent months, I’ve become increasingly interested in what it means to develop a more compassionate relationship with time. Not time as a resource to manage or a puzzle to optimise, but time as something deeply human – a rhythm we live within, a companion in our search for meaning, wisdom, and balance.
This curiosity has invited me to experiment with small practices that help me live more intentionally. One such practice has gently risen to the surface: The Aligned Week Review.
It’s beautifully simple.
Once a week – perhaps on a Friday afternoon as the week naturally winds down, or on a quiet Sunday as the new week whispers in – you set aside just a few minutes to ask yourself two centring questions:
Where did I live aligned this week?
Where could I gently recalibrate?
These two questions act like bookends around your week. They don’t judge, and they don’t demand perfection. Instead, they invite you to notice. To grow a little. To honour who you are becoming.
Where did I live aligned?
This question is an act of self-recognition. It asks: Where was I true to myself this week? Where did I live in ways that reflected my values, my intentions, my personal manifesto?
Perhaps you paused before reacting.
Perhaps you reached out to someone who needed you.
Perhaps you chose rest instead of rushing, or courage instead of comfort.
These aligned moments – no matter how small – deserve to be seen. Noticing them builds self-belief and fosters the quiet confidence that I am capable of living the life I want to live.
Where could I gently recalibrate?
The second question is where compassion enters the story. This isn’t about self-critique. It’s about curiosity. Were there moments in the week when you felt pulled off course? Times when tiredness, hurry, or stress nudged you further away from the person you aspire to be?
Gently noticing these moments isn’t a sign of failure. It’s a sign of wisdom.
Because recalibration is how we grow – not through harshness, but through awareness.
As Sue so beautifully reminds us in My Manifesto, the aim is never perfection. “There is nowhere for us to arrive at, but there is a way to be.” The Aligned Week Review helps us return to that “way to be,” week after week.
A powerful addition: read your personal manifesto first.
You may wish to begin this brief ritual by reading your personal manifesto. Many My Manifesto mates tell us that when they revisit their words – their chosen guiding statements of wisdom and intention – something inside them settles. Their week comes into clearer focus. Decisions make more sense. Alignment becomes more visible.
Your personal manifesto becomes the lens.
Your weekly reflection becomes the learning.
And together, they become a practice of living with integrity and self-compassion.
So, I invite you to try it this week. Choose your moment. Read your manifesto. Ask the two questions. Capture a sentence or two. And then simply carry forward what you’ve discovered.
You may be surprised by how quickly this small weekly pause begins to shape your days.
Go gently, and go well.