A client came to me hoping to reclaim his spark and move more joyfully toward important life goals which he hadn’t pursued in years because of the usual—a demanding job, kids, marriage, family, staying healthy, and a million other energy-expending reasons.
He wanted to feel good in his body, and to reconnect with his sense of excitement for life, his motivation to move toward fulfilling his purpose.
I asked him: What is the predominant feeling you’re experiencing?
Frustration.
What are the thoughts you are thinking, before, during, and after you experience the feeling of frustration?
Not being where I want to be.
Feeling like I want to move faster, but I don’t have the freedom to just be where I want to be.
Feeling a lack of agency.
Feeling a lack of direction.
Feeling tired.
Feeling powerless.
The thoughts, words, feelings, and actions he was spending most of his time and energy experiencing were not bringing him to the physical, emotional, mental, and energetic states, nor to the outcomes where he wanted to be. He wasn’t likely to collide with bliss and passion and the results he desired on the current course.
We were going to have to shift things.
But how do you move from being where you don’t want to be, to a place where you are excited to be?
Over the past several years, I’ve developed a toolkit of mental, emotional, and physical techniques to move you from where you don’t want to be or live, toward what you do want to be or live.
I think of this as alchemy.
According to Google, alchemy is “the medieval forerunner of chemistry, based on the supposed transformation of matter. It was concerned particularly with attempts to convert base metals into gold or to find a universal elixir.”
My quest isn’t to turn lead into gold, but I am looking to create a replicable process of inner transformation to achieve new outer results: the alchemy of moving from suffering to healing.
Isn’t that, on some level, what we’re all seeking?
Here, we’re going to transform the unwanted, heavy, painful, tragic, traumatic experiences as human beings into much finer matter of human experience—the desired, the sublime, the joyful, the fortunate, the abundant, the blissful.
So, what are the steps? Here are mine. No chemistry required.
1. Identify the thought, feeling, or experience you’d like to transform. Be as specific as you can. Write it down.
Example: Lack of money.
2. Identify why you want this transformation. Be as specific as you can. Write it down.
Example: Because I want to feel secure, I want to do important work, I’m a good person, etc.
3. Identify what the preferred state is (thought, feeling, or experience). Be as specific as you can. Write it down.
Example: Abundance.
4. Make a list of “power emotions” that can help you achieve that state. To create this list, name the emotions you feel when you’re at your best.
Example: Elation, power, ease, joy, fulfillment, gratitude, appreciation.
5. Choose an emotion from the list in #4 above.
Example: Appreciation.
Time to transmute!
6. Revisit your answers to #1 (Lack of money), #3 (Abundance) and #5 (Appreciation).
7. Apply your power emotion to the thought, feeling, or experience you seek to transform. Start from a curious place, where anything is possible, and activate your power emotion to move and transmute the energy. Write a series of multiple short statements using that emotion. These will become a list of affirmations you can return to in the future.
Example:
I appreciate the concept of abundance.
I appreciate the money that has come to me throughout my life.
I appreciate that abundance has come to me in many ways throughout my life, including through money.
I appreciate that when I’ve really been in trouble, things have often and usually worked out for me.
I appreciate that sometimes those things worked out for me even though I wasn’t aware of what was going on, nor how things were working out.
I appreciate that there are probably many things in the universe that are working out for me and for others, without my being aware of them.
I appreciate that it might be true that I don’t have to keep track of all these things that are working out for me and for others, because that would be a lot.
I appreciate that if it’s true I don’t have to keep track of all these things that are working out for me and for others, maybe my attention isn’t what creates things that work out for me and others.
I appreciate that there are lots of ways, many of which I’m not aware of, for how money can work out for me and others.
I appreciate that if there are lots of ways, many of which I’m not aware of, for how money can work out for me and others, I may not need to be so involved in figuring out the how of how money will work out for me.
I appreciate thinking about all the ways the universe could be at work, helping money to work out for me.
I appreciate my creative brain that is capable of imagining so many ways the universe could be sending me money right now.
I’ve used this technique to transmute fears related to money, self-worth, codependency, and more. It’s helped me start a highly successful business, attract the right amazing life partner, harmonize relationships I thought were beyond repair, and in so many more applications.
Tip: You can read your list silently, create new ones daily, or read them to yourself out loud once or twice per day. You can also record a voice note and play it for yourself when you’re feeling like shifting the energy.
The alchemy is in your hands. What will you transmute?