Webster defines “alchemy” as, “an inexplicable or mysterious transmuting”.
In medieval lore, the foundation of alchemy was transmutation: to turn base metals into gold, the discovery of a universal cure for disease, unearthing the path to indefinitely prolonging life. In modern life, each of us has a human alchemy as well. We present it every day as we go about the world gathering what we need, giving what we can, and leaving our thumbprint behind.
As the arc of your life takes shape, you are given several assignments from learning to ensure your basic survival, to getting to know yourself, to living your life consciously. As you work on these assignments, you develop your human alchemy. There are three pieces to your your human alchemy: your intelligence, your heart, and your bravery. How you understand, deploy, and adjust them will define the arc of your life.
Your Intelligence
Here’s an in-your-face question: how smart are you? Give yourself a score on a scale of 1-10. But perhaps more importantly, how smart does society think you are? Since the beginning of civilization, societies have rewarded those with high intelligence their just deserts, but sometimes those who are making the rules and handing out the ribbons to the winners forget that just like ice cream and gum drops, intelligence comes in different flavors.
Measuring human intelligence started in the early 1900’s with tests designed to weed out children who were retarded so a decision could be made to keep them in school or send them to an asylum. After that came the idea of an “Intelligence Quotient” (I.Q.) which is a basically an algorithm that takes into account your age and how you score on standardized tests.
In 1995 Daniel Goleman gave us the book Emotional Intelligence which digs deeper into the intelligence component of your human alchemy. In it, Goleman lays out the four pillars of your “Emotional Intelligence” (E.I.): self-awareness, self-management, social awareness, and relationship management.
As an honorable mention let’s not forget common sense – a form of intelligence that’s not always common.
Your Heart
The second element of your human alchemy is your heart.
The alchemy of your heart manifests in a myriad of ways, and often in moments that juxtapose it against your choices. Consider these questions as you go about your day: when someone crosses you, is your reaction to retaliate or forgive? What is the balance of your arrogance and your humility? What do you use more to resolve your conflicts: mercy or punishment? Would you rather win the argument, or save the relationship?
There really is no right or wrong answer to these questions or to any question of the alchemy of your heart, but there always a judgement made by society. If you find yourself being judged as you express your heart, remember to consider the judges who are judging you because at the end of the day, the most important measure of your heart is simply being true to yourself.
And that leads us to the third and final element of your human alchemy: your bravery.
Your Bravery
It’s been said that life is a “journey” and implicit in that definition is the notion of change. Just as it is written in the definition of alchemy itself, a journey is a kind of transmutation beginning at a place called “from” and ending at a place called “to”.
Two things make a journey successful, the first is the navigation of obstacles. For must among us, the biggest obstacle is simply ourselves, but once we can navigate that, common obstacles we face on our journeys include victims and villains, politicians, pundits, pirates, bullies, vampires, and of course, the occasional scallywag. Successful journeying requires successful navigation of all of these obstacles.
The second requirement for a successful journey and the third element of your human alchemy is your bravery. Bravery is the blending of your intelligence and your heart that gives you the strength to face fear, danger, and the other difficulties of life.
The first two elements of your human alchemy – your intelligence and your heart contain strands of both the physical and emotional DNA you inherited from your parents. But bravery is different; bravery is a learned trait. Society provides big rewards to the bravest among us. When it comes to bravery, the math is simple: more is better.
There are three simple steps you can take to increase your bravery starting today. The first is to respect your fears. Your first mission is always to ensure your basic survival, and respecting your fears is often at the very center of decisions that will lead to you surviving or perishing. The second step to up your bravery game is to learn to get comfortable with being uncomfortable. Your bravery will only grow in the moments and places where you are the most vulnerable and at risk. Third, adopt a philosophy of “ready-fire-aim”. Preparation is important, but there’s never a perfect time for anything except birth and death. You’ve already been born and it’s just a matter of time until the other shoe drops. What are you waiting for?
When it comes to your human alchemy, the job you face each day is to find balance. To be smart enough to know when to stick and when to quit, to know how to listen to hear and not just respond, and to be open and trusting while also preserving your boundaries. With time, patience, and repetition, your skill set of balancing the elements of your human alchemy will improve. But when you find yourself in a difficult moment trying to balance your intelligence, heart, and bravery, remember the words of the great sage, spiritual guide, and prophet Goldilocks, “not too much, not too little, just right”.
Good luck and have a good week.
Joe Still
2024.03.17
Cite
“I think what I love most about the raw food thing is it’s real alchemy. It’s a really interesting science, and I think for a creative person, it’s a great way to eat.”
– Boy George