The adage states; alchemy is about turning, “lead into gold.”
Lead and Gold are physical objects, love and fear are intangible and immaterial. We can see when lead turns to gold and we feel when our fear turns to love.
It has been long said that the trials and tribulations of everything that happens to us in life falls into one of two categories love or fear.
If it hurts we fear it and want it gone, when we love how it feels, we want more.
Nothing is more powerful than love, Nothing.
And if love is so powerful why is there so much violence, pain, disease, suffering, greed, control and torment on this planet? Obviously at some level fears’ are winning, but the battle is not over. To conquer fears we must do battle with our own inner demons first to prepare ourselves for the battles that await outside us.
This brings to mind a great bumper sticker: “I Wrestle With My Demons And, Sometimes We Snuggle.” Our demons express themselves through our fears. They can show up behaviorally as anxiety depression, bipolar disorder, PTSD or mental health conditions to name a few.
When there’s pain, stress and trauma and fear it is virtually impossible to make rational decisions. We cannot begin by just loving. It’s too scary and too much. In order to begin the process of loving our fear we have to take smaller bites. Here’s The Menu:
When we are in fear there are multiple sensations and feelings that can take us over like a tsunami and flood literally drowning us in an ocean of emotion or fear. One of the biggest secrets to getting out of fear is to name the primary feeling in the flood. We begin by finding the name of the most prominent feeling. Now that it has a name the others will subside and we can begin to focus on.
Our fears need our attention they need our compassion they need our love remember this is the part of yourself that hurts. As we begin to know and hold a space for these fears by allowing and accepting the sensations of how they feel in our physical body they begin to transform without effort. This is one of the highest states of self-love there is, love for your own pain.
When your pain no longer hurts, you feel invincible from within.
An alchemist is someone who transforms things for the better, and turning your fear into love certainly ranks right up there. In addition to all your gifts and talents now you’re an alchemist too!