How to Alchemize Emotions & Create Your Best Art
Welcome back, my people! Today, we are diving into how to alchemize emotions and create your best art. I’m talking definitions and the best process to turn even our most painful and negative emotions into something positive and beautiful.
First, a brief update... this is the first official post of 2022! There's something about December / January that makes me want to redesign this website lol. So I dedicated the month of January to making some small but important changes to the platform and getting more ducks in a row on social media. If you don't follow me on Pinterest, what are you waiting for? I have the most organized, resourceful boards for writers and creatives of all kinds, as well as dope stories that either summarize or expand upon these longer blog posts in just a few swipes. Just like you love it here, you'll absolutely love it there. So, follow me on Pinterest!
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In The Benefits of Letting Go (for Your Creativity), we discussed the importance of letting negative emotions come and go. Not holding on to them longer than needed, simply taking what we are meant to receive from them and allowing ourselves to move on and heal with time. We briefly touched on the space between receiving and letting the emotions go, stating how we must allow ourselves to feel, and can even actively channel the emotions into something beneficial for us while they're here. This post will be all about that space.
Alchemy
the medieval forerunner of chemistry, based on the supposed transformation of matter. It was concerned particularly with attempts to convert base metals into gold or to find a universal elixir.
a seemingly magical process of transformation, creation, or combination.
Emotional Alchemy
According to an article on Chantry Health, emotional alchemy is a process whereby we can convert an emotion into something of greater value for us.
There is also a book by Tara Bennett-Goleman titled Emotional Alchemy: How the Mind Can Heal the Heart. It’s on my long list of books to read, and I’ve heard it’s life-changing. The author also distinguishes between the spiritual and scientific aspects of the practice, so it is a good read for anyone, regardless of their beliefs, desiring to learn more about transforming emotions into something more valuable and beneficial for us. This post may very well be an introduction to this book, so definitely check it out if you enjoy this article and want a more thorough deep-dive into the practice. Let me know your thoughts on it, too!
Emotional Alchemy: How the Mind Can Heal the Heart
How to Alchemize Emotions and Create Your Best Art
There are three major steps in the process of alchemizing your emotions:
Acknowledge & accept your emotions
Receive without reacting
Aim and execute your passion
Acknowledging & Accepting Your Emotions
In order to do anything with our emotions, we must allow ourselves to see and feel them. Accept that they are here and they are here for a reason. Sit with them and dig. Consider why you’re having this experience and what this experience is telling you. Is the cause in the present or deep in the past? Sometimes we encounter a present “trigger” that opens the door for hurtful and negative experiences to resurface. It may not be the trigger that has you activated, but actually what it has uncovered for you.
Give yourself grace as you explore this message and its meaning. Talk to someone if you need to. But, ultimately be gentle with and proud of yourself - because taking steps to acknowledge, feel, and dig into our emotions is tough. Yet, here you are, doing the d*mn thing for the good of yourself and an extension of yourself: your art.
Receive Without Reacting
Whether it is anger, shame, anxiety, whatever, upon receiving the emotion and the reason behind it, avoid any hasty decisions. From here, we want to ensure we do not allow emotions to control us. Through the thickness of what you’re feeling, you want to get grounded. Thoughts and visions may be cloudy as you deal with this space, experiencing this negative feeling for the time it’s meant to be here, so you want to clear your mind as best you can.
Journal, go for a jog, dance around the house, meditate. When we get our blood pumping and clear our minds, it further prevents reactions to our emotions we may regret and makes space for healthier decisions. The fog is cleared and we give ourselves a chance to regroup. We give ourselves the ability to make a conscious decision about what we want to do with this experience.
Related Post: Benefits of Taking a Break (& how to do so Effectively)
Aim and Execute Your Passion
Upon deciding how you want to channel that emotion, it’s now time to do just that. Prepare your project and set the intention to release this experience into your medium. The medium is your creative outlet - whether it be writing a story, poetry, painting, music, whatever. This final stage of alchemizing your emotions into something beautiful is setting the intention to do just that. Upon accepting and gaining deeper understanding of your emotions, you can remove the bulk of their weight from you and place it onto your project. Aim your feelings toward it, work the message into it, and exert the pain into your passion.
Your work will reflect these very real emotions you've given it. Your words will mean more, the placement of colors will mean more, your piece will reflect the embodiment of your heart at this very moment and your mind will execute that connection and the world will feel the depths of what you've created. This is how you alchemize emotions and create your best art.
Have you heard of the cognizant process of alchemizing your emotions? Have you ever noticed yourself channeling difficult emotions into your art? Did you notice a difference in the results of your work? I would love to know everyone's experience with this. Until next time!
aew
