A Note to the One Still Healing: You’re Becoming

The butterfly doesn't simply heal its caterpillar body—it transforms completely into something new. This truth mirrors our own journey through trauma and healing, offering wisdom that transcends pretty metaphors to become actual survival strategies.

When trauma creates that distinct "before and after" in our lives, we often desperately try to return to who we were. But inside the messy middle—what scientists call the "imaginal disks" within a cocoon—lies the genetic code for complete metamorphosis. Your healing isn't about returning to your former self but allowing your future self to develop. That overwhelming void after trauma? It's not a permanent residence but the starting point of transformation.
In this episode, I share five lessons the butterfly leitmotif has taught me about life after trauma — lessons that are more than metaphors, they’re survival strategies. Together we’ll explore:

• How to allow your future self to develop even in the messy middle.
• Why embracing the unknown can open the path to healing.
• The sailor’s wisdom of “heaving to” and finding balance in life’s storms.
• What it means to pause and turn toward the light, no matter how small the flicker.
• How to soar toward flourishing, embracing joy, peace, and purpose.

Constant Listener, trauma will change you — but it doesn’t have to break you. Like the butterfly, you can rest, transform, and rise into a future more radiant than you imagined.

1. The Lion and the Butterfly: Strength Cradled in Transformation

2. When the Resting Place Becomes the Launching Pad

3. 5 Questions that Changed How I Heal Everyday

4. Turn your Worry into Wonder and Your Pain into Flight

Cheers to your healing. Love Ya'll. 💜

Chapters

• 0:00 Introduction to Letting Go
• 1:22 Allow Future Self to Develop
• 2:46 Embrace Journey Toward Unknown
• 3:46 Heave Through the Storm
• 4:49 Pause and Turn Toward Light
• 5:43 Soar Toward Flourishing
• 6:27 Closing Thoughts and Invitation

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:00

You're listening to One Degree to Victory, the space where stories, strategies and soul connect Together. We take one small step each week toward the life you know you're called to live. I'm your hostess, nalita Hollis, and today's story and conversation just might change your life. If I had to sum up my healing journey in two words, it would be this let go. But letting go is more than releasing the past and more than relinquishing control over things we never really had control over. It's also about charting a course toward a future you haven't yet seen. Also about charting a course toward a future you haven't yet seen. And it's about faith, faith in what lies beyond the horizon, trusting that your wings, though perhaps still forming, will carry you there when the time is right. Today, I want to share five things. This journey with the butterfly has taught me Lessons about tucking away, yielding through storms, turning toward the light and allowing my future self to flourish. These aren't just pretty metaphors or convenient analogies. They're survival strategies, roadmaps for anyone navigating the aftermath of trauma, anyone trying to find their way back to wholeness. Lesson one allow the future self to develop.

Speaker 1: 1:27

When we first experience trauma, we go through a myriad of emotions Shame, guilt, fear, anger. We just want it to get away and make everything all better, make life like it used to be Predictable, stable. Sure, for me that looks like shutting myself off from the world and going into overdrive. The definition of trauma is this an experience that fundamentally alters our sense of safety, trust and understanding of the world. A traumatic experience creates a distinct before and after, a threshold we can never uncross. The journey forward is not in returning to who we were, but learning to transform into who we need to become. Inside the cocoon that ooze that is the messy middle between one state of being and another, is what is called imaginal disks, the genetic code that contains the colors, patterns, shapes to transform the caterpillar into a butterfly. That's us in our messy middle to become. In the cocoon of the aftermath of trauma, we get to imagine who we'll become. We get to determine the kind of person we will be at our rebirth.

Speaker 1: 2:42

And, lesson two, embrace the journey toward the unknown destination. Constant listener, there is a destination for you. Even in the vast, seemingly endless void that trauma creates, you can reach the place of healing and wholeness. You are in that void, that emptiness that feels so overwhelming. This is your starting point, not a permanent residence. You have to hold on to faith when logic fails you and learn to trust yourself when confidence has been shattered. Develop the practice of introspection. Sit quietly with your thoughts, acknowledge your feelings without judgment and learn to distinguish between the voice of fear and the voice of wisdom. As you practice, you'll begin to sense where your spirit is leading you, following those gentle nudges and intuitive pools that guide you toward healing. Trust your inner compass. It knows the way when your mind cannot yet see the path clearly.

Speaker 1: 3:43

Lesson three heave through the storm. I love this one Constant listener. We like to think we are fully prepared, like we can handle whatever life throws our way, and sometimes we are prepared. Other times we are battered by the winds. I learned a new phrase, a new way of understanding and a new way of integrating my experiences. It's called the heave-to, a nautical term that defines a specific strategy sailors use to find balance and stability during a storm. The storms of life like the one raging outside right now while I'm trying to record this. The storms of life grief, loss, uncertainty and fear. They will inevitably come. But if we learn to heave, to find balance and stability, lean into wisdom and patience, we can navigate our storms and be rested for the moments when forward movement becomes possible again.

Speaker 1: 4:45

Lesson four pause and turn toward the light. Remember the butterfly on my hood? For 20 minutes she rode with me for a total of 16 stops. At each stop sign I expected her to fly away, but no, my Lola, she opened her wings. Constant listener turned toward the sun and revealed her beauty In our moments of stillness. Choose to face sources of light, whether it's joy, love, peace or gratitude. And another thing don't be in such a rush to get to where you think you need to go. That butterfly was my morning commute companion. Constant listener, be wisdom's companion. Wherever your journey takes you, find the light.

Speaker 1: 5:40

Lesson five soar toward flourishing. The butterfly's ultimate destination is the oil milled fur forest in central Mexico. It is a place to rest. They actually hibernate there, mate and flourish. Our journey has a similar purpose to find spaces where we can heal fully, celebrate our growth and meet our stronger, wiser and more radiant self. Letting go of fear, control and worry allows us to soar with intention, to join others in the fullness of life and to fully embrace the beauty of our own transformation.

Speaker 1: 6:21

Constant listener, beautiful soul, sister girl, I hope this week has been as transformational for you as it has been cathartic for me. If this is your first time here, welcome, and if you're returning, hello again. If you've missed any parts of this week's series, you'll find links to the episodes in order in the show notes. I love y'all. One degree to victory is about progression, not perfection, and that involves choosing a life that works for you now in this season and building from there. And, sister girl, it's going to take more than loving yourself. It's going to take vision for where you're going, hope to believe it's possible, action to make it real and love for your family to fuel every step. Take one degree forward this week and I'll see you in the next episode.