Disclaimer right up front: I’m a fan of Anita Moorjani’s work, and being up front of my “conscious” bias is important to me…so that you have all of the contextual information needed to assess my own viewpoint. It’s called walking in someone else’s shoes or – in this case – wobbling in someone else’s skates. If you want more information about Moorjani’s work, please click here. Moorjani’s compelling TedTalk can be found here. Her books can be found in your local bookstore or through an on-line retailer.
I used to love skating as a young girl. We had a lot of hills in my neighborhood that would give me a bit of a challenge, and many tree droppings that could trip me up. I used to love skating until I fell down. Then, I hated skating. While tending to my various mental and physical injuries, the pain of the fall and assorted humiliation would fade from my conscious yet a part of the experience remained in my subconscious. Once the event was put into my subconscious, I would spot my skates in my closet, remember how much I loved skating, and would “saddle up” once again, willing to make the effort for the payoff was worth the risk.
Wash, rinse, repeat.
The cycle continued until I no longer enjoyed falling down as part of my skating effort, or I was unwilling to risk my physical and mental injuries caused by an accidental fall. Note I said I was unwilling to take the risk. Was this a conscious decision on my part? Nope. Just woke up one day and said, yep, I’m done with falling down. I began to see my falling down as extremely tiresome and, well, painful, and alchemized the desire to not fall down to result in my desire to stop roller skating. The scars of falling down, however, have lived in me for many decades. I have a fear of falling and – up until recently – a fear of humiliation or disappointing my parents. Skating, you ask? Yep. This fear doesn’t necessarily stem from skating but from how I handled the falls and resulting mental anxiety from the idea of falling. This became a personal filter for me, along with many other filters from living life.
In Moorjani’s new book called Sensitive is the New Strong: The Power of Empaths in an Increasingly Harsh World, 
she mentions the idea of filters in how we view our lives. “Although we can’t control what happened to us in childhood, as adults we still seem to carry that baggage with us, often without realizing it.” Moorjani continues: “We still view the world through that same old lens that no longer applies! We may thing we’re seeing the truth, but actually we’re viewing the world through our own filters.” (Page 124) I believe that these filters cause us to operate at a certain frequency or vibration – or an energy. The idea of energy has intrigued me for my entire life. (For years, I’ve pondered the question of what makes my heart continue to beat.) Those types of introspection were common for me. I also used to wonder how and why people see things so differently when we all see the same event. Isn’t that fascinating? Take being a witness to a crime. In obtaining the witness’ recollection of the crime or event, each witness will respond very differently, even down to the description of the individual. How does THAT happen? It really boils downs to what we pay attention to and how mentally attuned we are to the situation. If you know that you are in the middle of some event where you may need to recollection the activities of said event, you pay attention. Just like in school, when you know if have a test and haven’t studied, you may pay more attention. It is attention management that is really key in both of these situations, and, frankly, in how we live our lives.
Filters – as Moorjani calls them – are what I have referred to in my past writings as “lenses” with which we focus on what is important to us. (Moorjani used the term “lense,” too!) I believe that these filters impact our ability to pay attention, too. Moorjani states that “We’ve been conditioned to believe that our perception of external reality is the real world, and that our internal conditions are merely responding to what’s happening on the outside; whereas in actuality, it’s the other way around.” EXACTLY!! Then, if we have an filter that is unknown and, therefore, unexplored, and we operate within a construct of that filter, our viewpoint will be different. This is considered a type of unconscious bias towards one’s self. The idea of unconscious bias is very topical in conversations surrounding race and prejudice. (If you don’t understand what I mean by the term unconscious bias, please click the link. This link has a very good explanation.)
Our filters create an unconscious response that continues to perpetuate the filter, or we are creating our own stories. All the time. I don’t even listen when I’m in the middle of creating my own filtered story because I was operating in a world where my filter was my reality. In trying to always multi-task, I’m giving those filters a lot of room for expansion because I never set my attention on something long enough to even identify my personal filters. (Yuck!) Remember, too, that everyone has their own filters. This is why listening with an open heart (no judgment) is essential in communication. We cannot know what filters anyone else has yet we are at the benefit – or mercy – of their response.
Now, Dear Reader, you may wonder where the idea of alchemy comes into play in this discussion. Many times, we’ve heard the term “alchemy” and believe it applies to the Victorian era. 
In fact, the number one definition on the Merriam-Webster online dictionary defines the term “alchemy” as “…a medieval chemical science and speculative philosophy aiming to achieve the transmutation of the base metals into gold, the discovery of a universal cure for disease, and the discovery of a means of indefinitely prolonging life.” Pretty impressive if done, no? Like, can I take my brass napkin rings and transmute them into a gold necklace? (Wouldn’t THAT be something?) It is the second and third definitions to which I refer in my use of “alchemy.” Alchemy is “…a power or process that changes or transforms something in a mysterious or impressive way” or “an inexplicable or mysterious transmuting.” Transmuting is exactly what you think it is: to change or alter in form, appearance, or nature and especially to a higher form. Or, in other words, it is taking something base and creating greatness. That, Dear Reader, I believe is our life’s purpose: Taking something mundane or minor and creating greatness. Greatness, however, is a judgment and may not have the same definition for each of us as individuals. I like to term this as my own “personal alchemy” or how I made myself better than my base metal construction of yesterday.
If life is energy, and we’ve created the daily distractions out of a sense of confusion, how can we fix this? That doesn’t mean we quit our jobs and go on an adventure. Many times, our jobs bring those adventures to us, for our benefit, while we are working in the factory line, or in the office with cubicles, or outdoors. There are many ways to have an adventure. Right now, I have a tick bite on my leg that I’m watching and trying to decide if I need medical attention. I envision that it will give me an adventure, just like my cancer or other life events. Not all alchemy needs to be negative; the positive is also a learning experience. How do you alchemize your positive experiences? I believe it is my passion or greater intuition that creates the opportunity for alchemizing myself into gold. 
We are all gold just as we are but may not believe that because we’ve actually alchemized our living experiences through the brain’s filtration system and came out with the wrong answer. The idea of disappointing my parents is a filter that is realized by my skating but also comes through in very different ways, too. This single filter is huge and has impacted – or alchemized – my life experiences.
What is your filter, and how does it impact the alchemy of living? Learning this, Dear Reader, will teach you about your own personal energy, and how to live in a vibrational world with a greater sense of happiness. Peace.
The Wobble 