Emotional Alchemy

See if this scenario sounds familiar. You're under a lot of stress. You feel irritable, angry, or depressed, and you wish with all your heart that you could "snap out of it" but you just seem to be attracting more of the same. Every attempt to jolly yourself out of the blues just seems to frustrate you more ...  nothing changes, your emotional state is like a snowball rolling downhill and everyone is walking on eggshells around you.

If that scenario rings a bell, then you might need some emotional alchemy. Originally, alchemy was the art and science of transforming base metals like lead into the precious metal gold. Today in magic, alchemy is the art of transforming anything from a lower to a higher state. So if your emotions are hanging out in the lower tones and you can't get any relief, try some alchemy.

Surprisingly, emotional alchemy doesn't require candles, sage, wands, or firebowls. It's much simpler than that. All you have to do is reprogram one single part of yourself. One of my good friends has a saying, "What wires together fires together." In terms of magic, this means that your body, mind, and Spirit are wired together in certain ways, and under stress these three parts tend to respond in the same way all the time.

To see how this works just look for a stress indicator. This could be a fidget, a facial expression, the need to eat, fast talking, waving your hands, smoking a cigarette, or drinking a Coke. These are all responses that occur when you're under stress. Let's take one example - drinking a
Coke - and see how mind, body, and Spirit wire together. If you tend to drink Coke when you're under stress, here's the sequence of what might be happening:

• Mind: Has the thought "I can't do this."
• Body: Automatically reaches for a Coke with the right hand and takes a drink.
• Spirit: Checks out and leaves body.
• Result: Feelings of anger, depression, irritability

Mind's thought automatically causes the body to grab the Coke with the right hand and causes Spirit to leave. Every time you are under stress the same sequence "fires together" over and over again - and Spirit, the part of you that guides you through life toward your birth vision, is constantly absent. Since Mind is like a computer, it can't change its program. Only Spirit can do that. You end up with a broken record, with mind repeating "I can't do this" and body drinking lots of Coke. It's becomes a cycle that is almost impossible to snap out of unless you bring Spirit back into the equation.

So how do you rewire this strange sequence so you can transform your emotional responses? Just change one small part of the wiring. In the example above, you might notice when body reaches for the Coke with the right hand. Stop. Switch hands. Reach for the Coke with your left hand. This automatically causes Spirit to stay in body and be present - it forces you, Spirit, to be present. Only Spirit can make those kinds of changes. And when Spirit is present, you are able to handle the stressful situation differently.

In fact, just bringing Spirit into a stressful situation changes things - automatically. This is the alchemy at work. Suddenly, even if just for a moment, you feel lighter, less burdened, and even happy. Now if you pause in that moment and notice the difference, the change will become more permanent. You, all three parts, will develop a memory about this new feeling and a new set of wiring will be created. Now when you find yourself in a stressful situation, you'll have a choice. You can do the same old response of feeling depressed or angry (right hand reaching for the Coke) or you can change the game plan and reach for the Coke with the left hand.

Emotional alchemy doesn't mean you'll choose the happier path every time. It just gives you a choice. So if you want to expand the number of choices you have in your life, look at the situations where you get in trouble and figure out what's wiring and firing together. Then unwire and rewire just one piece of that equation and you'll have a new choice. Imagine what would happen if you did this in every area of your life. Hmmm ...!

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