This Spiritual Alchemy Thing
Right, so I've been seeing this term "Spiritual Alchemy" popping up everywhere lately. Blogs, quotes, even some weird ads. Honestly? Sounded like fancy nonsense to me. Buzzwords. But it kept bugging me. What was it really about? Figured I needed to try wrapping my head around it myself, the simple way. Not by reading heavy books, but by actually doing something.
I started basic. Like, super basic. Woke up one Monday morning, same old routine brewing coffee, feeling that usual Monday sluggishness. Instead of jumping straight into emails while gulping it down like medicine, I forced myself to just sit. Held the warm mug in my hands, stared out the window at the crappy parking lot view for five whole minutes. Focused on the warmth in my hands, the smell of the coffee, the stupid pigeons fighting over a fry. That was my step one: Shutting up the internal chatter for a bit. Slowing down the mental freight train. Felt weird. Unproductive. But also... quieter inside.
Tried that "just sitting and noticing" thing every morning for a week. Didn’t always manage it, slipped up a few times grabbing the phone instinctively. But when I did manage, something tiny shifted. Less frantic before the day started. Okay, maybe this awareness thing was step one in their alchemy? Not changing anything yet, just noticing what is right now? Like looking at the lumps of metal you have before trying to make something.
Next week, I decided to poke the bear a little. Remembered that stupid argument I had with my neighbor about the trash bins two days ago. Still felt that little knot of irritation whenever I thought about it. Usually I'd just grumble and push it away. That day, instead of burying it, I kinda leaned into the feeling. Where was the irritation sitting in my body? Chest felt tight? Okay, noted. What thoughts came up? "He’s so disrespectful!" "Why doesn’t anyone follow the rules!" Yep, there they are. Just observed them run their course without feeding them more angry stories. Didn't try to fix it. Just sat with the uncomfortable heat like I sat with the coffee smell. And weirdly, after maybe ten minutes of this uncomfortable noticing, the knot loosened. The irritation lost its sharp edge. It wasn't gone, but it felt... smaller. Less important. Like burning off some of the junk attached to the raw metal? Maybe? That felt like step two: Sitting with the junk feelings without running from them.
I kept at these little exercises. Noticing when impatience flared up in the grocery line. Sitting with boredom during a tedious work task instead of distracting myself. Even noticing the good stuff more consciously, like really tasting my lunch or feeling the sun on my face during a walk. Every time I caught myself reacting – stressed, excited, annoyed – I’d try to pause, even just for a breath, and notice what was happening inside. Felt clumsy at first. Like learning to juggle with bricks. But over weeks, a pattern started showing.
The "Simple" Understanding Clicked
Here's the practical, non-fancy takeaway brewing in my head after trying this:
- Step 1 (The Ore): First you gotta notice what you're working with. That just means paying attention to your thoughts and feelings as they happen, raw and messy. Like looking at the pile of scrap metal.
- Step 2 (The Heat): Then you sit with it. Especially the uncomfortable stuff. Don't try to fix it or shove it away. Just let it be there. Experience the heat of anger, the cold sting of fear, the weird jitter of excitement without adding more drama to it. This is the fire. Sounds painful, but it burns off the extra junk clinging to it.
- The Shift: When you stick through the heat of just sitting with the raw feeling without acting on it, something shifts. The feeling loses its control over you. It might calm down. It might even reveal something else underneath – maybe hurt instead of anger, vulnerability instead of irritation. Like melting the metal reveals its purer shape.
For me, right now, that’s Spiritual Alchemy boiled down: It’s about taking the messy stuff happening inside you every day – the stress, the joy, the arguments, the boredom – and learning to pay attention to it and sit with it without freaking out or reacting blindly. Doing that over and over somehow makes you feel less tossed around by your reactions. Feels less chaotic inside. Takes the basic material of your everyday junk feelings and, through that conscious sitting-with-it, kinda refines it? Gives you a bit more stability, less knee-jerk panic or anger. Still messy, definitely not perfect gold yet, but feels like moving from scrap metal towards something a bit more manageable. It’s a practice, not magic. Feels real now that I’ve tried messing with it myself.
