Same Old Baggage. Same Old Highways. Change Your Highways. Become the Butterfly.

21 Oct

Just a quick note before you read this article: I am not a psychologist, therapist, wildlife biologist, nor a neurologist, and I am talking about very technical concepts. Do your own research, and I am sure I will screw something up in the translation of how I think about these things and concepts. But there is too much proverbial gold in these analogies to NOT share them, so here are my thoughts, perspectives, and opinions. Should you need professional expertise on any of these topics, please find that expert source.

Also, fair warning—I hope you have had some coffee, as I am going to weave together some seemingly unrelated topics. This one really inspired so much when I posted the video on my YouTube channel Biofield Hacker that I decided to do a similar article.

Let's Start With the Butterfly

Let's start with thinking about the genesis of a butterfly. They go through four stages:

Egg
Caterpillar
Chrysalis
And then the emergence of the butterfly

We are going to focus on the latter three, and the thinking will become readily apparent in a minute.

The Caterpillar Stage: Growth

In the caterpillar stage, this is the stage of growth—gathering nourishment, learning, and building strength.

The Chrysalis Stage: Internal Transformation

During the chrysalis stage, the caterpillar's body undergoes profound internal changes, with some tissues breaking down and being reorganized as the butterfly develops.

They are passing through a messy, uncertain stage where the old version of form and being is falling away and the new one has not yet fully emerged.

It is an incredibly vulnerable period, where its vulnerability is protected by the chrysalis. The transformation is largely hidden from the outside—a transition and inward period when change may be happening that others cannot yet see.

The Butterfly Stage: Emergence

The final stage is the launch: the vibrant butterfly taking flight, completely transformed in both form and being, with a newfound ability to fly instead of walk, emerging into a new way of living.

Quite inspiring to visualize or see, right?

The lightness of being flying, the vivid colors, the beauty—take a minute to picture the light and beautiful energy that a butterfly brings to the world in flight.

Your Brain Has Highways

Okay, now follow me here. And if you need to refill your coffee before continuing, I would recommend that now is the time!

Now let's think about us as humans with the butterfly metaphor in mind. Just as the caterpillar transforms inside the chrysalis, we, too, can experience profound transformation from within.

Without getting TOO technical, our brains and hearts contain billions of nerve cells called neurons, which communicate with one another through synaptic connections. Every time we think a thought, experience an emotion, repeat a behavior, or communicate in a particular way, we activate those neuron networks.

I want you to think of these neural networks as highways.

The highways we travel most often become our brain and heart's familiar, well-practiced, daily pathways. If we repeatedly travel the highway of fear, anger, self-doubt, or automatic reactions, that well-worn highway becomes our default route without even thinking about it or questioning it.

It becomes habitual muscle memory.

But neuroplasticity gives us another possibility: we can intentionally choose to practice taking a different route.

Each time we practice a new thought, pause before reacting, regulate an emotion, choose a different behavior, or communicate with intention, we help strengthen alternative neural highways.

Initially, the new road may feel unfamiliar, slow, and uncomfortable. The old highway may still be easier to access because we have traveled it so many times and innately do it from muscle memory.

But with repetition, the new route can become more efficient, more familiar, and integrated into muscle memory instead.

Emotional Triggers: What Are You Making This Mean?

Here is what I mean: think about a person or experience that has recently happened that triggered you or brought great emotion up for you.

I can guarantee you that the emotion was based on your past lived experiences AND the anticipation of what COULD or MIGHT happen as a result of said occurrence, versus what was actually happening in the present moment.

Here is how you can start thinking about building a new neural highway:

Emotional activation.
Be curious and non-reactive.
Observe.
Filter the data from a non-emotional state: What am I making this mean?
Be selective about what highway you choose to tread.

In Short:

Old memory activated

↓

The brain becomes temporarily receptive to modification.

↓

Being present in the new experience and energy—the here and now—actually contradicts or updates the old emotional prediction of what might be.

↓

Memory is reconsolidated with altered associations of said experience.

↓

Repeated new experiences strengthen the new model.

All because you chose a new energy and were intentional about building a new highway.

This is how we begin to change our patterns—not by fighting every old thought or emotion, but by becoming aware of it and practicing a different response to it.

We can't control anything outside of us, but we can control ourselves and our reactions to it. Over time, we can develop greater mastery of our thoughts, emotional responses, behaviors, and communication. We learn to direct our attention, influence our reactions, and use our energy more intentionally.

The goal is not to demolish the old highways, but to build new ones and strengthen our ability to choose which road we travel that is better for us and enables us to be better, faster, and stronger.

Muscle memory. Well-worn tread. The more you follow it, the more tread you will have until it becomes second nature.

And the important pearl in that is intention. You have chosen to be intentional and proactive versus emotionally reactive. You have chosen your best and highest energy versus coming from a place of heavy, dense energies—from toxicity.

The Chrysalis Within: Transformation Others Cannot Yet See

Like the caterpillar in the chrysalis, the transformation may not be immediately visible to the outside world. But within, new connections are forming, old patterns are being challenged, and new possibilities are emerging.

And eventually, what once required enormous conscious effort can become a more natural way of living.

You are owning and directing the messengers (the neurons) to choose a different highway (the neural pathways), leveraging neuroplasticity (its connections and patterns of activity in response to experience, learning, and practice) with intentional and conscious choice (building your new and improved highway).

What we repeatedly practice can influence the brain and heart's patterns, and those patterns can influence how we experience and respond to life.

And that brings me back to our butterfly for today's field hack!

Just a disclaimer: this is a quick field hack. More in-depth resources can be found on biofieldhacker.io.

A Field Hack: Building a New Neural Highway

As we go through this reflection exercise, I want you to think about a person or experience in your life that has created emotional pain that has a great ripple effect on your life. As you go through this, start setting the intention to be thoughtful about choosing a new highway.

The Caterpillar Stage: Your Physical Body

The caterpillar stage (larva—your physical body) is probably the stage where you came in and found this video.

You have grown rapidly through life, shed your skin several times as your body has grown over time, and responded to the sum total of life's experiences as you have been walking through it and reacting to stimuli based on external happenings.

The Chrysalis Stage: Protecting Your Energy and Building a New Highway

You decide that it is time to build a new highway.

You are now in the pupa stage and should protect yourself and your energy with the chrysalis.

As I stated before about the butterfly, you are passing through a messy, uncertain stage where the old version of form and being is falling away and the new one has not yet fully emerged.

It is an incredibly vulnerable period, where your vulnerable form and energy need to be protected by the chrysalis. The transformation is largely hidden from the external world—a transition and inward period when change may be happening that others cannot yet see.

This is an intentional transition: an inward period for designing and laying the foundation for a new personal neural highway, where change is happening internally that others cannot yet see.

It is a period of profound change, not simply processing.

The caterpillar doesn't simply grow wings and change shape on the outside. Its internal anatomy is extensively remodeled during metamorphosis.

It is curated, intentional design and form on your terms, based on your own frameworks. It is not just simply cosmetic upgrades—it is a core transformation of self.

The Butterfly Stage: Launching Into a New Way of Living

And the final stage is the launch of the vibrant butterfly!

The butterfly emerges with soft, folded wings, pumps fluid into them, lets them expand and dry, then begins flying, feeding, and eventually birthing new life in the world.

It can respond to its environment, seek food and mates, and avoid threats as it has mastered its new form.

You are completely transformed in both form and being, with a newfound ability to fly instead of walk, emerging into a new way of living.

If it resonates, and you are disciplined about building your new highways to operate out of your best and highest energies, I am sure this will be one of those field hacks that you work on, walk away from, come back to, and continue practicing.

You aren't erasing the pain from the past. You are merely transforming the energy through being intentional about knowing:

"That happened to me, but my nervous system no longer has to respond as though it is happening now."

A Few Final Pearls

I will leave you with these closing thoughts in the hope that they inspire you to build new highways and unfold your vivacious butterfly.

Your brain is not a fixed recording of your past.
What it means to you can be hacked into lessons.
Pain and trauma aren't only a thought.
They can become a whole-body prediction system based on very heavy and toxic energies.
I believe that you can hack the brain and heart's patterns of activity and choose a new highway.
Repetition can physically change the neural connections and highways you choose.

Neuroplasticity gives us the capacity for change.

Producing neuroplastic changes in the brain's structure and function means changing the physical functioning of the neural networks that implement the mind—an enormous capacity for changing the relationships among existing neurons.

The brain and heart are constantly using previous experience to predict what is going to happen next. Those predictions influence attention, perception, emotion, physiology, and behavior. Repeated new experiences can modify those predictive models, reinforcing the new neural highway.

Happy Transformation!

I am cheering you on and look forward to seeing your vivid butterfly selves emerging for flight.

The world needs your unique beauty and best and highest energies!

For deeper programs to design your own personal & professional blueprint: biofieldhacker.io.

For coaching needs, please email me at globaldivinealchemy@gmail.com.

Shoutout to ChatGPT for grammar and content formatting mastery.

Global Divine Alchemy, LLC https://www.globaldivinealchemy.com