In the West, Alchemy is the root of modern Chemistry. It was focused on transforming something into gold. The hope was that the right combination existed to create this magical transformation. Naturally, we did not understand yet that gold was an element, and not something we could create. Yet the word alchemy still has that magical feel to it.

In Taoism, there were two kinds of alchemy. Inner alchemy and outer alchemy. This interest in changing things into gold would be outer alchemy, but the Taoist interest was closer to the search for the fountain of youth. The golden elixir that would lead to immortality and eternal health.

Inner alchemy is considered a separate concept and pursuit, but historically it’s also a linear progression from external alchemy. Moving from feeling like we cultivate health and immortality from the outside, to seeing it as being something we do within our bodies. 

Various aspects of cosmology, theories on sources of life force, and nutrition were all a part of this inner alchemy. The most studied aspect of inner alchemy is meditation, so much so that we cannot separate inner alchemy and meditation. 

In the West, this link may not be as obvious to most people, but science is backing up this transformational aspect of meditation more and more with each piece of research that comes out.

We literally reshape our brains with every thought we have. We change our body chemistry with each thought. We release neurotransmitters, which are natural chemicals, and they signal to our body what the brain wants it to do. There are electrical signals, hormones, and changes in our blood sugar, all triggered by the thoughts we have. 

The more we think the same thoughts, the easier they are to have the next time. Where our attention goes, the synapses in our brain fires to reinforce that pathway, and the energy flows. This is why it’s hard to change old patterns. Our brains have become really efficient at repeating them. We can make new and better patterns, and they’ll become easy, but we have to go through the steps of making that the pathway the easy route to follow.

How does one do that, you might ask. The answer is by cultivating deliberate thought. We allow our minds to careen like a train, with no one controlling where the train will go. Through meditation, we can begin to slow that train, we can make decisions about where our thoughts take us. Even more importantly, we can learn not to believe everything we think. More plainly put; just because we think it doesn’t mean it’s true.

You may have heard the phrase “change your thoughts, change your life”, now you know what that means. The thoughts we have control our lives, the stories we tell ourselves change everything. We can’t control everything that happens in the outside world, but we can learn to control how we respond to it. 

*typos and other errors provided for your entertainment.