Visualizing Transformation
By Ian Lawton
The visual of butterflies and change inspired me to write a visualization, which is included below. My hope is that it might guide anyone managing change, whether its personal change, relationship change or social change, to do so with intention and optimism. If you are feeling anxious or overwhelmed by change, take a cue from the butterfly. (Read on for the visualization)
Sit comfortably, with your feet firmly grounded. Visualize the earth beneath your feet. Feel the soul of the earth entering your body through the soles of your feet. All the strength and wisdom of the earth is filling your body from the feet up. Relax your body and face and soften your gaze. Use your palms to gently massage your face and head to remove any tension.
Move up and down your body with mindfulness. Let loving kindness flutter through your mind and body like butterfly kisses. Love and thank your thoughts and sensations as they come into your awareness. Breathe purposefully, counting to 5 on the in breath and 7 on the out breath. Let breath heal and revive you, like a summer breeze, refreshing and invigorating. In and out, in and out. Love and relief. Peace and calm. Grateful and focused. In and out.
Visualize a caterpillar, crawling close to the earth, slow and steady. It’s in no hurry, but definitely seems to be heading somewhere. It’s crawling up the branch of a tree. It stops as if it comes to a traffic light and just sits, on one small twig that rests on one slightly larger branch that hangs on a massive tree that reaches for caterpillar miles in both directions; deep into the earth and high into the air, down for sustenance and up for possibility. The caterpillar sets up camp, sitting and waiting.
At just the right time, the caterpillar surrounds itself with a golden thread of silk, working, wriggling, and wrapping itself in a natural cocoon like a mummy. It fastens itself to the twig like Velcro. Visualize the caterpillar inside the silk cocoon, resting in the warm darkness. The caterpillar doesn’t know exactly what is happening, but knows that it is all happening exactly is it should. It intuits an incredible creative intelligence at work, and knows that it is part of this intelligence.
Inside the cocoon, the caterpillar starts the transformation. It sheds another layer of skin, this one the last before the metamorphosis. Underneath this tough, protective shell, the new being is revealed, it’s beautiful essence.
Now that the caterpillar has prepared the cocoon, visualize yourself inside the cocoon. You are there, wrapped in all of your life experiences that led to this moment. Right now. You don’t know what will happen next, but you trust that it’s happening in the right time and way. You are prepared for new growth. You are in the middle of an amazing metamorphosis. Transformation involves shedding layers of your small self to reveal a larger and truer version of who you are.
Eventually, a thin slice of light cuts through the cocoon, splitting silk and warming your skin. A sudden surge of energy courses through your body, light filling your mind and body. The cocoon falls away from you at the same time as you break free. You can’t even tell which it is. It’s both. Change is happening around and within you AND you are participating in the change.
Even though you are letting go of the safety and protection of the warm cocoon, it’s ok. ITS OK. You are ready. The time is right. You are freer than you have ever felt before. Flapping life into all parts of your body, you take flight without even knowing how or why. It’s a natural expression of who you are. You are a butterfly, with rainbow radiance, taking flight. The world as it is, is your new home, the peace of the cocoon is now the way you feel inside. Your cocoon is your inner peace and there is nothing that overwhelms you. You are light and love. This is your true nature, the current incarnation in your constant becoming.
Gently bring your awareness to your here and now surroundings.
Just when you thought the world was ending, you became a butterfly and a whole new world of possibility began. Buckminster Fuller said, “There is nothing in a caterpillar that tells you it’s going to be a butterfly.” And yet here it is. Here you are. As you contemplate changes, small and large, no matter how anxious you feel, remember that there is a butterfly inside of you just waiting to soar.
Participate in change like a butterfly. One small change in your life spreads and impacts all parts of your life, and the lives of those around you. One person’s awakening, though it always begins within, also impacts others, fluttering kindness way beyond your knowledge. It’s the butterfly effect, the chrysalis of social change.
The universe is an open space, full of butterflies who add to the beauty and full of bumblebees who cross pollinate from one person to another and one group to another. It may seem random, but the order becomes clear in time. It seems slow, but the timing reveals itself as right. It may even seem destructive, like a loss or a death, but that’s only a necessary prelude to a beautiful new creation. You are becoming all you were intended to be. The world is becoming all it is destined to be.
Much love and encouragement to ALL. Viva la transformation.
Visit Ian Lawton: http://www.soulseeds.com/grapevine/