A man found a cocoon of a butterfly.

One day a small opening appeared, he sat and watched the butterfly for several hours as it struggled to force its body through that little hole.
  Then it seemed to stop making any progress. 
It appeared as if it had gotten as far as it could and it could go no farther.

So the man decided to help the butterfly, he took a pair of scissors and snipped off the remaining bit of the cocoon.
  The butterfly then emerged easily.  
But it had a swollen body and small, shriveled wings.

The man continued to watch the butterfly because he expected that, any moment, the wings would enlarge and expand to be able to support the body, which would contract in time. Neither happened!  
In fact, the butterfly spent the rest of its life crawling around with a swollen body and shriveled wings. It never was able to fly.

What the man in his kindness and haste did not understand was that the restricting cocoon and the struggle required for the butterfly to get through the tiny opening were nature’s way of forcing fluid from the body of the butterfly into its wings so that it would be ready for flight once it achieved its freedom from the cocoon.

Sometimes struggles are exactly what we need in our life.
  If we went through our life without any obstacles, it would cripple us. 
We would not be as strong as what we could have been.
  And we could never fly.  
When you are under pressure, remember that you are a stronger person after you have gone through it. ~ Author Unknown

The moral of this story is apparent:  Obstacles strengthen us.

Yet there is a part of this story that personally struck me as more important.

The moment the butterfly stopped. 

“It appeared as if it had gotten as far as it could and it could go no farther.”

Transformation requires moments of rest.

To rest isn’t to quit.

It simply means to surrender the struggle and give yourself the gift of doing nothing.

To catch your breath, close your eyes, nap, breathe, or stare out the window.

Honor the process.  Make space for space.  For space allows room for growth to happen.

There’s only so much that can be done in the present moment.  A quickening before what is meant to emerge at the moment only weakens you with overwhelm.

Once you’ve mustered up the energy to move forward, then go ahead and move forward.

To know when rest is needed and how to rest on a fluffy cloud:

• The many faces of transformation can show up as launching a brand spankin’ new product or service, grieving the death of a loved one, being on a 10-day juice fast, or moving to a new country.  You know you need to rest when you’re overwhelmed, angry, tired, grumpy, crying, irritated or just want to give up on the whole darn thing.
• Let yourself feel whatever you’re feeling. Honor it as part of the process, the letting go, the shedding and unraveling of old into new.
• Surrender to it all.  Let yourself be carried by the crazy emotions, thoughts, and feelings.  Once in its embrace, breathe into the discord, the pain or heartache.
• Here’s the moment of fluffy cloudness.  GIVE YOURSELF PERMISSION TO SET IT ASIDE.  I personally say out loud “Okay Spirit, I am giving all of this to you right now so I can just rest. I don’t want to think about it anymore, I don’t want to deal with it anymore.  So please do your magic thing with it, heal it, love it and hold it with grace and light until I am ready to take it back and move forward with it again.  Thank you, thank you, thank you!”
• Then go off and rest.  Rest in the knowing that Spirit has your back and you are never alone.  Use your intuition to guide you with restful activities that nourish your Soul.  You may want to sleep, play, doodle or eat a fat plum and let it’s juice drip down your chin.  Or like I did today, got my nails done… again, even though I just had them done a few days ago.

Grow forth Goddess.  And make sure you rest even before rest is truly needed.

If you’re experiencing some major transformation and need extra love and support.  I have only five private coaching spots available.  Together we ignite your intuition and creativity so you can live a life you absolutely love!  Sign up for a complimentary Express Your Soul Session at https://www.iloveintuition.com/express-soul-session.

Seeing you living in brilliance, joy and abundance. Namaste!

XO!