Misha slowly edged inside the classroom. It was the first day of their alchemy class, a new subject introduced this year. School had constructed a brand-new classroom, especially for this subject.
When she entered, her mouth hung open. She had never seen such an uncanny classroom in her life. Instead of walls that are usually made up of bricks, these were made of smooth birch tree wood, engraved with the symbols of alchemy. There were torches of fire, instead of regular tube lights. Was it the trick of the glow from fire or her imagination, she could see that those symbols on the walls were moving.
The tiny fire in the centre provided meagre light and the room stayed dark at large. There were no windows through which the daylight can pour in. All her classmates were sitting on the stone floor with their backs, touching the wall. There in the middle was their alchemy teacher wearing a brown gown and a black pointed hat.
As soon as Misha sat down, the Teacher explained in a raspy voice. “Alchemy is the magical process of transformation, creation, or combination. In this class, I will teach you about the alchemy of emotion i.e. you will transform one of your negative emotions into a positive one.” She looked around and pointed at Misha.
“Tell me one of the negative emotions that you want to transform? She rasped.
‘’I… I…. I don’t know,” Misha replied feebly.
“O.K. tell me one thing in your life that bothers you the most.” The teacher asked peering deep into her eyes.
After thinking for 2 minutes Misha replied “I don’t like when people say that I am dumb or that I am a slow learner. My teachers, parents, classmates everyone tells me that I am not smart.”
Nodding her head teacher asked, “Hmmm so how do you feel when they tell you that you are not smart?”
“I feel that why am I like this? Why is everyone so smart? And why am I so slow?” replied Misha in a small shaky voice.
“So, when you are belittled, you create the emotion of shame, you are ashamed of your learning capacity. Hmmm… do you want to transmute this emotion into a positive one through principles of emotional alchemy?’’ The teacher asked while clasping her hands and a meaningful look on her face.
Misha simply nodded her head.
Sweeping her eyes over the class, she ordered everyone to pick up one bowl each from the shelf on the wall behind her.
When each student picked up their bowl, they noticed that inside the bowl was a soft, dull grey lump of something.
Everyone sat down with perplexed expressions on their face. The teacher explained “That lump in the bowl is a metal called a lead. All of you put it in your mouth but don’t chew or swallow it.”
Everyone was reluctant but they obeyed nonetheless. The taste of lead felt sweet on their tongue.
“Now close your eyes and imagine the triggers that make you feel ashamed of yourself. It could be when someone belittles, criticise or judges you.”
She gave everyone 5 minutes to choose their triggers and then she continued.
“This time instead of you creating shame, imagine yourself creating love for yourself. Tell yourself that their words have no effect on me. I love and accept myself unconditionally. If there is some weakness in me, I will work on it. I thereby transform the emotion of shame into self-love.” she finished with a solemn smile on her face.
Everyone did exactly as she instructed. They felt that the sweet taste of lead had vanished and now the lump was tasteless.
“Open your eyes and put the lump back in the bowl.” She whispered.
To everyone’s surprise, some parts of the grey lump which was soft earlier had turned hard, and those hard parts were shining like gold.
Looking at the astounded look on her pupils’ faces she explained “This process is called transmutation of emotions. By training your mind to convert shame into self-love you converted this lump of lead into gold. Now keep this gold lump in your pocket and whenever someone tries to put you down, take it in your hand and convert shame into love. After you do it repeatedly your mind will automatically stop creating shame and you will only create the emotion of self-love. Also, you will notice that the more you do it, the harder and shinier the lump will become this is because the lead is soft at room temperature and gold is hard. Next time when you come for a class, I want your lead to be fully converted into gold. That’s it for today. You all can leave now.” She finished with a rasp.
Next, they had an English test. Their teacher Mrs Rodricks was the strictest teacher they had. During their half an hour period she instructed them to read a passage and answer the questions related to it. By the end of the class everyone had finished, except Misha, and the two answers that she had managed to write were incorrect.
While checking her test Mrs Rodrick’s scolded “I have never seen anyone so slow and dumb as you.’’ Saying that she threw her book on the floor. Tears were about to spill into her eyes, but then she remembered about the lump of lead. She picked up her book, went to the desk and, pulled out the lump fromher pocket, closed her fist around it. She looked across the teacher and told herself that ‘your words have no effect on me and I love and accept myself unconditionally.’ she opened her fist and noticed that the portion of gold in the lump had increased. A smile broke across her face.
In the evening she played with her friends in the building, they were playing Dum charades and all the kids were grouped into two teams. When it was Misha’s turn to act, the opposite team gave her some nonsense words in another language instead of a movie name. When Misha objected that it is not a movie they refused to budge and told her that ‘You are so dumb that you cannot understand and act such a simple movie.’ Instead of feeling bad, she came into her bedroom took out her stone and told herself ‘I don’t believe what my friends say about me. I love and accept myself unconditionally.’ The lump looked even more gold.
At dinner, her mother asked her to show her the test results. When she saw that Misha had failed. She was disappointed.
“How I wish you could be more like your elder sister; she always scores the highest marks and you always fail.”
Silently she put her stone in her palm and told herself that ‘I love and accept myself unconditionally and I will work on my learning capacity and improve.’ More than half of the lead was gold now.
Next week when they had their alchemy class their teacher asked them to show their lead lump. No one was completely able to convert the lead into gold, apart from Misha who showcased a bright and shining lump of gold. The teacher rasped “It’s impressive how quickly you transformed your shame into self-love. You are a quick learner.”
It was the best thing that she had ever heard in her life. It motivated her to improve her learning capacity and now she manages to pass her exams. The most important thing that she learnt is to love herself, and especially, when someone criticises her.
Train your brain to transmute negative emotions into positive ones by using positive affirmations, and soon you will have the power to overcome your weakness and maybe transform them into strength.
Teach your child the art of manifesting their desires by using gratitude, positive-affirmation and visualization through my book ‘OM LEARNS GRATITUDE AND OTHER GOOD VALUES.’
Help your kids to overcome the challenges in their life through my story ‘THE MAGIC LESSONS OF LIFE’
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The Magic Lessons of Life!