Welcome! I’m Heather McKay and I created Become Aligned from my passion for wellbeing and self development.

I’m a qualified Professional Life Coach, and a Level 2 qualified reiki practitioner. I can help you find clarity about your wellbeing – what is it you need to change or improve on? I’ll guide you through the process of putting those thoughts into action. “One step at a time” is such a true statement, and often the small steps, repeated over and over, are what lead to big changes over time. Sometimes you just need someone to help you identify those small steps and get you on the right path.

I provide reiki treatments. I hold a Level 2 Reiki practitioner qualification, am a member of The Reiki Association, and am CNHC registered for reiki. Having treated many clients, I’ve seen first hand how reiki can help with physical and emotional pain, and it can also be a wonderful way to support you on your journey of changing your life and health. Contact me if you’d like to find out about booking a session.

If you’d like to know more about how you can support your health with natural health supplements, check out my page here and my Facebook page Synergy Health with Heather to learn more.

And I host wellbeing days and retreats, where you’re treated to guided meditation, yoga and sometimes even a cold water dip! You can follow my social media to hear about the wellbeing events, or the best way to be in the know is to join my mailing list – drop me an email to ask to be added!

Freedom, happiness, wellness

It’s taken decades of self-reflection, but I now know that these are the things I value more than anything.

I’ve always been fascinated with what our purpose is in life, and how we can continually strive to be at our best. I’ve consumed great piles of self-development books and courses over the years with a never-ending thirst for this concept that we can keep improving ourselves and creating the life we want. To me, it comes down to aligning everything – our values, our mindset, our energy, our wellbeing.

My background

Following a traditional path, I entered the corporate world after finishing university. As a chartered accountant, I had the privilege of working with a huge variety of companies in different industries, sectors and countries. I believe it’s one of the best careers there is to help you learn about how businesses, and people, work. I had various employments, lived in a different country for a few years, and ran my own businesses a couple of times too.

I spent about 20 years helping all different types of organisations define their goals and values, assess their risks, and align everything with their procedures for optimum performance. No matter what type of organisation it was, the same model always worked for them. This was my area of expertise and I loved the theory of it all, however I’ll admit to having times in my career where it all felt a bit “empty”. I was always grateful to have work and be paid, but something was missing. Each time I dived into the self-development work I would draw the same conclusion – I simply needed to find more purpose in my work.

The transition

When I started to examine my fascination with self-development, I gradually realised that I wanted to work with people and help them improve the quality of their lives. I’ve been mentored one way or another for most of my life, from sports coaches, career mentors, managers and life coaches. I’ve done a fair bit of it myself too, managing teams and the career development of staff, and doing coaching of my own. I know the value of coaching and mentoring, and it was something I decided I wanted to do for others.

So I launched into a life coaching qualification, initially feeling like this was a significant change in direction for my career. Little did I know it was just an extension of the path I was already on.

It all led me here

As I learned more about life coaching, everything started to fall into place and I had a realisation: as individuals, we’re just the same as all those organisations. We have goals, we have values, we manage risks and overcome fears, and what we do every day directly affects whether we’re going to achieve our goals or not. What a breakthrough to see that I wasn’t stepping out into a completely different career world after all! I was simply shifting my focus from organisational success to individual success.

We put a lot of effort into organisations – the goals, the culture, the team, the performance, the results. We know that success comes from the inside out. If we have good people, if our team is working well, if our processes are good and we’re clear about what our goals are, we create a great working environment and we expect to see that reflected in our results.

I really believe we have to put the same effort and attention into ourselves as individuals. What’s on the inside? Are we looking after our health so that all the various functions in our bodies can operate well as a team? And what about our mission, our values and our goals – do we know what we’re aiming for, and why? Do we set out clear action plans for ourselves, and stick to them? In other words, are we creating a great environment and setting ourselves up for success?

The magic of self development

The more we improve ourselves, the more we can bring the best version of ourselves to our work, our families, our relationships and our leisure time. And by doing that, we inspire others to be their best too. It’s infectious.

Making that decision to shift my career focus opened my mind up to other possibilities too. Things that I would have kept in the “hobbies” category before are now part of my new career.

I learned about reiki, and as I got deeper into it, I saw how beautifully it enhances the principles of self-development. Reiki helps us to release blocked energy, and it maintains balance and flow to the energy we receive, contain and transmit. If we want to be the best version of ourselves, what better base to have than a well-balanced body that nourishes the energy it needs and releases the energy it doesn’t?

And I immersed myself in my interest in exercise and nutrition and how it can support our health. Diseases and illnesses happen, and there are elements of that which are completely out of our control. But there are definitely things we can control, pieces of the puzzle that we have within our full power to make choices about. It’s those pieces I’m interested in – those things we can do to give ourselves the best chance of feeling healthy and well.

It all comes down to one thing for me. My mission is to help you improve the quality of your life, one little step at a time.

Being on this journey makes me feel fulfilled, and I know why: it’s because I feel aligned with my true values. I have freedom, I feel happy, and I’m looking after my wellness.

And this is what I want for you too, to feel aligned with your true values.