Welcome to Growth: The Alchemy of Being Begins
If you’re right at the beginning of your journey, feeling stuck and frustrated or just not quite sure where to start.. then this is for you… Welcome to growth!!
Everyone is starting from where they are, and that is unique to each of you, so not all of the below may be necessary – take what you need. I just hope it will give you pause for thought, the opportunity to assess where you are in each of these areas and your readiness for the journey ahead.
Body: Physical Readiness
“You can start anew at any given moment. Life is just the passage of time and it’s up to you to pass it as you please”. – Charlotte Eriksson
You need to check that you’re physically in a good place to start making changes. Soul and Mental work can take it’s toll, so we need to ensure we can physical handle it. That means checking in on three essential things.
The first one is the quality of your sleep. Fundamentally important, and as an insomniac who’s in the middle of writing a book about sleep, I assure you it is way more important that you think. It saved my life. I know a lot about sleep! And the vast majority of us (71% of Adults in the UK) have terrible sleep. Bad quality, insufficient quantity. I believe a lot of this is because we know precious little about what Sleep is for and what happens to us when we’re asleep. So please do check out my full rundown on Sleep by clicking the link below. But for everyone – this is your #number one you have to get yourself a good quality sleep habit!!
Number two, the state of your gut, By that I mean everything from bloating to bowel movements, how you feel after you’ve eaten, if you fart and burp. All those lovely things that we sort of talk about but don’t. Your gut is also fundamentally important in terms of turning your chemistry into action, and again from personal experience, when I almost died from a perforated bowel, the effects I felt weren’t really in my gut, but it was the fact that my gut wasn’t well enough to create the hormones that I needed for my thyroid or adrenals to operate or even for me to menstruate. Your gut’s really, really important, so there’s a whole section on gut health too. so that’s number two ensure you have a well functioning gut.
And then the third thing in the Body space is your energy levels. Do you peak during the afternoon and the evening? How is your energy? Not just your energy to be awake, but your energy to do stuff. How much spare capacity do you have on a daily basis to do the things you want to do, to add in new habits, to break old habits?
I’ve always used an analogy of saying every day you have a hundred units of energy to spend. So use them wisely. Just being alive – breathing, all those inner processes we take for granted and don’t really know anything about until they go wrong – that uses 30 of your 100 units. Then we have the energy to do the basics when we are awake, walking, talking, digesting food, reacting to events with emotions. All sub-conscious activities but still using energy – so that’s another 40 units.
Now we’ve got 30 units left to decide what we do with… Are you using those to exercise, to learn something new, reading, being creative? Are they being used up with chronic stress, with anxiety? Are you arguing them away or hiding them in non-activity to compensate for lack of sleep?
Understanding your unique energy pattern is important as it helps you judge how much energy you’ve got to play with, or where you can find some to invest into this journey. So over the next few days i want you to pay particular attention to how you’re choosing to spend those energy unit, and what you’re choosing to spend them on. That’s number three, know the energy you have for this journey and where it’s coming from
So those are my three physical things to consider. If any of them are not where you want/ need them to be then start by looking for modalities, resources or products here that will help these.
Mind – Mental and Emotional Readiness
“You will recognise your own path when you come upon it, because you will suddenly have all the energy and imagination you will ever need.” – Jerry Gillies
When it comes to mind, there are once again three important factors to look into. (I like things in threes).
First – easily the most impactful thing I ever did and the practice that I do every single day is gratitude.
The effect that gratitude has on your brain, on your neurology – the chemistry of your brain, on your stress levels, is quite phenomenal. I talk about in detail in the link below. I feel it’s such as positive effect I made it a modality in it’s own right in the Wellness Wiki So number one, get your mind into a state of gratitude.
Two, have a real “come to yourself” moment around the stresses of your life. Stress was one of the things that really nearly killed me. I’ve once again studied a lot about it as a result. And I think most of us don’t really understand how stress works. The fact that it’s accumulative, the fact that it doesn’t differentiate between physical stress, spiritual stress, emotional stress. That pollution, over-exercising, a hard day at the office or feeling lonely can all have the same chemical effect. So you need to understand more about stress and how your body and your mind are dealing with it. You need to be aware of your current stress levels and what your stress triggers are so you can take this journey at the pace that you are able to. So number two is to get to honest with your stress profile
Number three from a mind perspective is how you manage your emotions. What is it you do to get yourself into a good headspace? For me, it’s laughter, music and cooking. I have certain songs that when I sing them, everything else disappears. I make sure I laugh every day – a quick 5 mins of Michael McIntyre, during a lunch break – perfection – I’m set for the afternoon whatever it holds. Zoning out whilst i chop veg and create something delicious helps me centre myself. Mindfulness comes in many shapes and sizes but, how aware are you of what it takes you to get your head in the right space? Are you a meditator, does being in nature do it for you? Is the shower the place you go to get your head straight? Do you need to journal to get things out so they don’t fester inside? Getting re-acquainted with the tools and approaches you’ve already got in your toolkit and their effectiveness is a good starting point before you embark on curating a the version of you. So be mindful and spot and note what you do over the next week. Remind yourself of the tools you already have
Those are my three things for the mind. Gratitude, Stress Management, Emotional Control.
Soul – Spiritual Readiness
“It’s never too late to become who you want to be.” – F. Scott Fitzgerald
Then the last section obviously is soul.
If you’re comfortable that your physical body is in a stable state and that you are in a mental and emotional perspective of being able to consider these things, then from a spiritual or soul perspective, it’s time to start looking a little deeper, starting to understand what is it that you have kept with you that no longer serves you. Be that past experiences, from this life or past ones. Any trauma that is keeping you stuck. What belief patterns do you have that are not supporting the life you want to have? What within you do you need to release in order to have the life that you’re on this journey to get. The first one is to understand what you want to remove from your existing toolkit – to make room for new more purposeful, expansive and supportive ones.
If you already know a belief or a habit that you’d like to change then why not try this handy little exercise from Dr John DeMartini. It’s very simple and neurologically sound – but will really make you think and work for it. I’ve done it a couple of times and found it refreshingly simple but extraordinarily effective. Check it out here
The next thing to explore in the Soul space is intent and purpose. Spend some time getting really clear about what you believe the purpose of this exploration with The Alchemy of Being is. Consider doing some stream of consciousness writing or creating a vision board that brings to the front of your mind all the hopes, dreams and wishes that you want your newly curated toolkit to support you with. So two is get clarity on what you want from life, from here on out.
and the last one in the Soul space is to reflect on what gives yours soul joy… Joy is such a powerful emotion, and has such an amazing impact . So you need to look and learn what it is that brings you joy in your current life… your children, your partner, your job, your dog or cat or horse, sunsets, music, learning, cooking, gardening, a bubble bath with a G’n’T and reality TV (yes that last one is mine!)..
There are so many things it could be. The journey ahead will have challenges, the path is not straight a clear, there will be sharp bends and steep inclines that will push us to the edge. Knowing how to find your joy is critical to get you through them. So go in knowing what joy you already have in your toolkit. (and yes some of these may be the same as your Mind list).
So from a Soul space those three things are letting go, purpose and joy.
A little reflection, a few adjustments and you’ll ready to start what will be the most worthwhile journey you’ve ever made. You can of course address these in parallel, but it is important to start from a solid base.
Once you’re happy then it’s time to start exploring.
The Wellness Wiki is structured to give you insights into modalities, and to help you discern a quality practitioner with whom to explore it (if a practitioner is needed of course). We have over 200 modalities listed and each one has the same structure (read about this here).
The Resource Hub is setup to give you tangible things you can start interacting with and using right away. Be that podcasts to listen to, daily emails to subscribe to, apps to download. It also lists social media handles, music playlists, YouTube channels and downloads.
The Store is our curated set of recommendations that we believe will help you. These include the books we have read, the meditations we use and the accessories we add. It also covers energy and sound products (be that instruments or EMF blockers), sleep aids, supplements and hydration support. Against each one we’ve explain why we recommend it. Everything is either purchasable via our Amazon Affiliate store or direct to a Practitioner’s site.
Our Blog “Musings of the Quantum Quill” (available also via our Newsletter) provides additional insights into the realities of modalities, helps you get to know our practitioners and shares information about habits, rituals and practices we use that may resonate or inspire you.
So…. are you ready?
Let the Alchemy Begin…