I jumped at the opportunity when my daughter asked for some help with an English assignment last weekend. The topic was something that appealed - alchemy - the ancient esoteric art of turning lead into gold.
While alchemy may have its physical definition, it is also a metaphor for transformational change. As we discussed and explored the meaning of 'alchemy', we realized how many instances we could find in real life.
For example, when we discover an alternate perspective rather than imaging there is only one view.
A football coach helps his team learn invaluable lessons from a crushing defeat; lessons that could help them win their next game.
An advisor or coach helps a business 'failure' become the stepping stone for a bigger game in a different field.
A mother helps her child understand that even though it is raining outside, there are still plenty of fun things to do inside.

No doubt you could find countless examples of how you transform a 'bad' situation into something positive. We often do it without realizing we are 'modern-day alchemists'.

As I mentioned in my last two newsletters I have been working on turning 'baggage into luggage' and have coached several clients to go through the process. In essence, it is another form of alchemy.

Many years ago when I was a student of Transactional Analysis (T.A.) therapy, my mentor, John Barnaby, would ask us some compelling and often challenging questions about an event that had happened to us. We would recall an unpleasant situation and he would ask, 'So what did it mean to you that XXX happened?' When we responded, he would ask us to go deeper. Again, he enquired, 'And what did it mean that that happened?' He would repeat this question with our responses, until eventually; we arrived at a point of realization about the deeper meaning we had placed on the situation.

In other words, it was not the situation that was the real issue; it was the meaning we had attached to it. He was using psychological alchemy to help us transform the past event into something more useful.

All too often, we think we know the absolute truth about a situation, yet we commonly view it from a narrow perspective. It is the narrow perspective that does the damage. Alchemy transforms lead into gold, negative into positive, bad into useful.

His favourite question was, 'So, is that meaning (about the event) still useful for you?'
Usually it was not; otherwise, we would not still be suffering about it! He would follow with another question,' What then, is something useful you can take from this?' Alternatively, 'How has this shaped your life in a way that is useful …or could be useful?'
Again, there was the invitation to alchemy.

His intention was to assist us to make meanings that are more useful from the events that make up our past and present. Then we can take these into our future, and hopefully a wiser one. Alchemy at its best!