Suffer Gracefully: Alchemy & Angelina Jolie
There are some situations you just cannot change, but all of life's growth and suffering can be likened to the seven stages of alchemy: Calcination, Dissolution, Separation, Conjunction, Fermentation, Distillation, and Coagulation. Catherine MacCoun's "On Becoming an Alchemist" dives deeper into this analogy and is a wonderful and straightforward read on the topic.
We navigate these stages with varying awareness. Without awareness, suffering increases; with full awareness—rare but possible—we achieve mastery. This journey isn't linear; different aspects of us react differently to life's challenges.
And, everyone experiences hardship at one point or another. Even Angelina Jolie. And what’s her advice? "go right through it… feel it, go completely in it, don’t avoid it, feel everything and come out the other end." (There’s a tiktok on it for reference).
What she’s actually talking about are the stages of nervous system regulation. I’ll spare you the boring details, but TLDR: we in fact, have to give our bodies the space it needs to return to stasis. And, the only way to do that is to give it the intentional space to allow the energy of the trapped trauma to move through us.
This mirrors the Ayurvedic concept of "tapas". It is like being cooked. A gradual process of a fire burning away “impurities”.
Suffering reshapes our mental frameworks, painfully but potentially liberatingly.
Growth can be slow, like coal becoming a diamond, or sudden — a mental health crisis can prompt deep self-reflection and reevaluation of beliefs, often feeling uncomfortable and disorienting.
Wherever you are on your alchemical journey, I'm here to support you.
Disclaimer: As I grow, my views and opinions evolve. If anything written here hurts or harms you, reach out to let me know.