A lesson from The Natural History Museum

Recently I was at the Natural History Museum in London and I saw something that stuck with me. On a display there was a hard rock and next to it was a delicate pile of fine sand. Next to it was this statement “Matter does not disappear, it simply changes form.”

It stuck with me. Funny how some things do. Firstly, it felt really magical to see in such a binary way how matter could go from one extreme to another. In this case... heavy, dense and unyielding to light, fine and fluid. It felt like a powerful symbol for the way in which we transform.

When we are embarking on the process of transformation we often become aware of the hard rocks that exist in our belief systems. Seemingly impossible blocks that stand in our way that we want to overcome. Very real obstacles around and in front of us based on the world as we see it now, previous experiences gathered and past and current evidence we’ve collated.

These blocks can show up in many areas... our capacity to love and be loved, to feel enough, to generate wealth, to move forwards in pursuit of our dreams. These are amongst many many others that I am sure you could write an extensive list for.

And at some point it’s all we see.

Blocks.

Dead ends.

Resistance.

Impossibilities.

A long and exhaustive list of the things standing in our way. In the way of our dreams, our truest desires, changing our lives, changing the world.

And it got me thinking about my blocks, my hard rocks. The parts of my conditioning, experiences and stories that just felt too hard to shift at first.

The first thing for me was to get very clear on the blocks I saw and then secondly to trust that I had the power to change their matter.

And herein lies your power.

Rather then focusing on the sudden disappearance of these blocks, what if you viewed it differently. We know matter changes by losing or absorbing energy. So if we know this is the case, we know that we can apply this to our thoughts, beliefs, stories.

We become the alchemists.

We decide what stories, beliefs and actions get to lose energy and which gets to absorb it.

We decide which we fuel.

We can use the power of our words, thoughts, beliefs, actions to change the matter of these blocks. One day, action, word at a time.

If you find yourself focused on the blocks in front of you, I want you to focus less on their disappearance and more on the transforming of its current state to something else.

It’s in this process of transformation, of alchemy, of magic, that the beauty lies.

You are the magician.

Always remember that.