What does it mean to alchemize your life?
Become the conscious architect of your transformation.
This article is Part 1 of a five-part series. To read Part 2, click here.
Most people are sleep-walking through life.
From the moment we are born we are conditioned into society.
We go to school, which hasn’t changed much since the days when school was designed to prepare kids for factory work (while their parents were at work in the factory).
Many of us go to college, where we spend loads of money and time on degrees that are becoming less and less relevant.
Then we go to work, where if we are lucky we find a job just mildly interesting enough to keep us from going absolutely crazy over the course of a career.
Then many of us retire, and we wonder, “What the hell just happened to me?”
Your life does not have to go like this.
You can rise above the norm and become a conscious architect of your reality.
This article is the first in a five-part series about alchemizing your life.
To alchemize your life means to transform your inner and outer world in a profound, intentional, and elevated way, much like ancient alchemists sought to turn base metals into gold. Not just physically, but spiritually.
In alchemy, even the darkest parts of your journey become the raw material for your highest evolution.
This is the first pillar in alchemizing your life: turning pain into purpose.
Take your past struggles, trauma, or setbacks, and transmute them into the strength, wisdom, and motivation required to raise your vibration.
Use what once held you back as fuel to move forward.
Most of us have experienced some form of struggle or trauma, some of us extreme forms of both.
You can let them define you and dwell on your past - or you can process them and integrate the lessons you’ve learned to make you stronger and more powerful.
When I was young I lived in a home where my family members would sometimes begin shouting or fighting seemingly out of the blue. My brother had a mental condition that caused him to break into screaming episodes with almost no warning. My dad would come home from work, tired and exhausted, and start complaining.
Even though I was never in physical danger, I was on guard in my waking hours. Because of this I learned to be hypervigilant as a protective mechanism.
Hypervigilance is a state of heightened awareness and alertness characterized by being constantly on guard for potential danger, even when there is little or no risk.
It took me years of self work and reflection, but over time I have learned to harness my hypervigilance and to use it to help me in my daily life.
At home, I can sense when my partner is upset or needs something, or if she’s happy and I can engage playfully with her.
In business, I can sense very early how the tone of a conversation or a negotiation is going, or if my team members are starting to get upset or uneasy about something. This helps me address issues before they snowball, or to strategize better.
There was a time when I would stress about being hypervigilant, but over time I have learned to harness my imperfections and alchemize them into something useful. By embracing my past trauma I have given it a new purpose in my conscious life.
You will almost certainly have struggles or trauma from your past. You may even still grapple with them today.
How have you harnessed them to empower yourself?
Take what pains that used to define you and make them work for you instead.
Don’t let them define your existence.
Transmute them into a conscious tool and watch your life change.
Click here to continue to Part 2.
If you enjoyed this read, the best compliment I could receive would be if you shared it with one person or restacked it.
Kris, I’m looking forward to reading this series as it unfolds! Your vulnerability shines through generously.
It’s surprising how similar your story is to my own and the timing of me also navigating it.
My hypervigilance, fueled by trauma, has undoubtedly resulted in strategic thinking for science experiments but also in sales. I see it as being open-minded to all possibilities and never failing to prepare. (We often frame this as preparing for the worst, but that’s not the whole story!)