When I wrote my book Chasing Butterflies I realized something about the world we live in. We are all seeking and wanting more for ourselves and this process of self improvement is a beautiful disaster at times. The name Chasing Butterflies comes from the never-ending hunger to learn and grow. We may not always understand or be able to define the hunger, but it comes down to wanting change, to level up our lives and add great value and meaning. The butterfly is a beautiful and magical creature of nature, its beauty unmatched as it dances and floats above the flowers in summer.
What we forget when watching this creature at its most brilliant moments is what it took to get there. The butterfly lives in four stages; egg, larva(caterpillar), and chrysalis which develops in about 20 to 28 days. It then emerges out of the cocoon as a butterfly. In this part of the transformation the butterfly doesn’t even know it has wings at first. It waits for its wings to dry and prepare for flight, but it’s not until they begin to move that it knows what to do next. All of this work from a single egg and then it lives for another 14 days in its brilliant new form as a butterfly.
Butterflies are often considered a metaphor for the process of transformation for this reason. Just like the butterfly we begin with an idea which can be considered the egg, then we must birth the idea which is the first stage of creation. We become the caterpillar and we begin to create and develop the idea, it’s a bit of trial and error but we give it focus and dig into the vision. We may fail in this stage or feel like we are spinning our wheels and not gain much traction but if we keep going, we move into the next phase which is the cocoon. Here we go within and rest and allow ourselves to transmute what are experiences have been and allow the idea to evolve and become something greater. When we emerge from the cocoon, we have transformed the idea into something of our own creation and beauty. What was once an idea is now something more and with full hearted trust we test our ability and allow it to take flight.
Therefore, the butterfly is a great example of a dream or goal
we want to achieve. Imagine all the hurdles it faces, overcoming conditions that would stop the process at any moment. Yet the egg becomes the caterpillar and the caterpillar
becomes the butterfly.
The creation of a butterfly is not the first challenge we face however, it really comes down to the fact that we forget what it truly takes to become the butterfly. We want to simply think of an idea and poof have that envisioned outcome. When this doesn’t happen, we give up on our ideas and dreams. We can often feel
stuck and unsettled and so we reach and strive chasing the next thing that may make us feel complete. While we are chasing butterflies, we never give ourselves a true opportunity to slow down and enjoy life. We think we must jump from one great thing to another. In reality, we are throwing are energy around and depleting ourselves of finding fulfillment. The answer is in slowing down and enjoying every step of the process.
We all get stuck in a rut, but unfortunately, this can lead to becoming
stagnant in significant areas of our lives. Each one of us has dreams and goals for a better life. We often get lost in false outcomes and believe that the car, number on the scale, designer handbag, or higher education degree will give us the fulfillment we seek. Of course, you have most likely already discovered that this is not the case. In fact, once you achieve those things, you still find yourself seeking or what I call in my book chasing butterflies. Ironically, for some reason you are not spinning on a hilltop singing, “the hills are alive with the sound of music.” The reality, you find yourself discovering that now you have a whole lot of other problems and challenges, you realize that you brought you to this new accomplished version of you. Yep, our problems, emptiness, frustration, anger, sadness etc. all go with us unless we do something about it. Yes, we can hide it or cover it up for a time, but eventually, it peeks out its ugly head and shows up for us to deal with again and again. We need to give it up and call it what it is and the word we are looking for is LIE. Yep, we live a lie every time we tell ourselves that things will be better when…So let’s deal with it already.
Now that I have torn us away from the facade, are you ready to get real? I truly hope so, because no matter who you are, you are here reading this blog for an important reason. Maybe you want to take my 28 day challenge and read my book? Or maybe it's about the simple awareness that 'maybe you to have fallen into the trap of jumping from one fix to another and now its time to stop and access your actions.
To learn more about Joie Kya's services and work take a look around on this site.
To purchase the book Chasing Butterflies on Amazon click here
.png)
.png)
.png)
