A few ways to deal with a "hot potato"

If you’ve never played the children’s game “hot potato” here’s how it works. In preschool teachers would place kids in a circle, set a timer and get the kids to pass a potato around in circles until the timer ran out. The objective was to pass the potato to the person next to you as quickly as you could to avoid having the potato in hand when the timer went off. If you caught the potato when the timer buzzed you would be eliminated from the game.

For the purpose of this lesson, the hot potato is going to be used synonymously with the idea of “bad vibes”.

Ok, so we’ve probably all been there. You’re going about your day feeling great, on a roll and suddenly someone crosses path and throws shit energy at you. This can come in the form of a passive aggressive comment, sly remark, gestures or even just bad energy. Suddenly you notice a shift in your own energy and start feel low. You look down and you find yourself holding a hot potato. AKA bad vibes.

You have a few options here on what to do with this hot potato.

Option A: The egos reaction

The egos way of dealing with a hot potato is it to turn around and point the finger saying “that person has got issues, what the hell is the matter with them” or even attempting to throw the potato back at the person getting yourself all fired up. This is a quick reaction and can be detrimental depending on the amount of energy you’ve added to the fire. Not only do you find yourself now feeling fired up you’re now also carrying another potato! Your reaction has created more of the same energy which you and the original culprit now carry around. The risk to this reaction is the ripple effect. We now have two people carrying more potatoes than they originally started with. You may now be feeling overwhelmed and agitated towards others around you. You may even attempt to release a potato onto someone else only realizing that you’re now attracting more potatoes and the potatoes you tossed to others are now also at risk of multiplying. EEK! STOP!

The other downside to this reaction is that this energy is now being solidified inside your body. It’s as if the only way to manage is to eat all the potatoes you’ve created. The issue with eating the hot potatoes is that they are now at risk of wreaking havoc on your physical body as the energy solidifies into your cells.

DON’T PANIC! You can still turn this around. First, you need to realize that this is a pattern. You must next want to change your ways of reaction. Without truly wanting to change you will continuously fall trap to this energy cycle. Once you’ve accepted and are now willing to change you will now try to become as present as you can so to avoid reacting to negative energies and stop creating more potatoes. If you’ve found yourself accidentally eating another hot potato you can find ways to move the energy out of your body. This is healing work and can be also referenced as shadow work. You can now start looking at your past, observing all the potatoes you’ve eaten and start to clear the energy out. This is a long term solution.

As you walk down this path to healing and you find yourself eating a potato you can use quicker solutions to transmuting the energy. A great way to do this is through physical exercise, journaling, talking to a therapist or using that energy in more productive ways and channeling it into work. This will certainly help you control your consumption of this energy.

Option B: Equanimity

An alternative approach to this ego reaction is to practice equanimity. This is non-reaction. This technique is like the saying “water running off a ducks back”. Basically you see the potato for what it is, a potato. You do not label the potato as good or bad but simply notice it and move on. No attachment whatsoever. Meditation and practices such as Vipassana are great tools that can be used on a regular basis to strengthen your ability to stay equanimous. As you start to embody this energy more and more you will notice yourself reacting things less and less. It’s magical.

Option C: Transmute the hot potato

The last approach that I will share is to transmute your hot potato and turn it into something better. FRENCH FRIES! (Now I realize that french fries don’t actually vibrate at a high frequency but they do taste awfully delicious..)

Essentially, you’re seeing the energy for what it is; not yours and running at a lower vibrational frequency. What you can do in that moment is to transmute that energy into something with a higher vibrational frequency. Love is the highest vibration of all.

Since you’ve been transmuting your own potatoes through shadow work and meditation you’re now in a position to be the bigger person.

The way to turn a potato into french fries is by bring love into the situation. Of course it’s best to do this on an energetic level. You don’t need to verbalize a thing. Simply think of this person with equanimity and send them love as they move on by.

This way you’re not taking on the energy but transforming the energy completely. I like to believe that when we do these simple and discrete acts of kindness we are perhaps allowing that person to drop a potato. If you have a hard time with this idea it helps to realize that everyone is doing what they can with what they have. Perhaps this person is currently lacking french fries/love and may spend a lot of time being hangry. Perhaps they haven’t been fed fries in a long time or haven’t ever really learnt how to make their own fries! Whatever the reasons may be I think it’s safe to say that sending them love won’t hurt anyone. This is the basics of alchemy. Transforming matter into something else.

I hope you’ve found this to be a fun and quirky lesson. Alchemy and energy work is something I am very passionate about and plan on sharing more lessons on the topic in the days to come.

Have a wonderful day guys and be sure to give yourself plenty of love and to share your french fries.

Lots of Love,

Renelle B