Are you in the goo?

Are you in the goo?

I am.

I think I’ve been in the goo for a while now — a year? More? — but I didn’t acknowledge it until just recently.

Wait, what am I talking about with this goo?

The goo is what I affectionately call the in-between-transition-metamorphosis phase.

It’s when the caterpillar turns into a cocoon, digests itself, and turns… well, into goo!

This goo phase… uff, it’s not for the faint of heart.

I’ve written before about how last year felt really difficult. I felt stuck. Things weren’t flowing — ideas, work stuff just felt like I was forcing something that wasn’t happening.

I began to feel really uncertain and shaky. And got super down on myself about why I feel like this and why does my work feel like this and oh, it’s probably all better for others who do similar things as me.

I hate writing this but I want to be honest. I absolutely fell down the comparison shoot in my goo.

If you’ve read this far and you’re nodding and you’ve been feeling this way, can I just say really loudly and lovingly:

I see you and you’re not alone. I’ve had soooooo many conversations with people recently who feel this way.

Maybe post-pandemic it’s inevitable that so many of us are in the goo. The pandemic forced a lot of inner reckoning about our work, relationships, desires, futures and perhaps the uncertainty and shifts we’re all feeling are part of that.

But I think it’s even more universal: Life is change. Life is transitions. Life is a series of caterpillar-goo-butterfly journeys we all go through.

I find it really powerful to name the phase I’m in. It grounds me, even while I’m feeling ungrounded.

Hi, I’m Nataly, and I’m in the goo.

(Try it right now. How did it feel?)

I also find it very powerful to see this as an essential part of my next unfolding and becoming. To recognize that the caterpillar cannot become a butterfly without going through the goo.

Not to be too morbid, but the caterpillar has to die as a caterpillar to emerge as something new, as the butterfly.

We have to die to some old parts of our lives, our businesses, our ideas of who we are in order to uncover and evolve different parts of ourselves. The parts that feel most aligned and alive for our next butterfly phase.

Here’s something absolutely brilliant I learned: In the goo (aka in the cocoon or chrysalis) the imaginal cells that will create the wings, eyes, and other parts of the butterfly are already there!!!

The foundation, the fabric, the core of your next phase of expansion and evolving and thriving is already here, in the goo. Even if you don’t feel that yet, it’s there.

The challenge is to be open to uncovering it. To not rush this phase because it feels so uncomfortable. To not try to run back to what was familiar but needs to stay behind.

Perhaps you, like me, are used to finding comfort in action, in the doing. I do and accomplish, therefore I am.

And I love action and doing. I don’t think we can learn or expand without action and doing.

But when you’re in the goo, you have to be careful that the actions you’re taking aren’t just to make you feel safe. That it’s not just you paddling furiously through uncertain waters without a sense of direction.

Spend a little more time marinating. Do things that help you get out of your routine and especially your head. Take more walks outside, play with watercolors, cook up more, make things with your hands. Connect to your whole being instead of just listening to your brain chatter.

Most of all, allow yourself to be. And dare I say, enjoy being there.

I realize how difficult this is for most of us and in our world that demands so much action. And I get that you have a ton of responsibilities and people and work that needs you.

But find some pockets of being and reflection and marination. Give yourself some mental space to be in the goo and not have it all figured out and enjoy the sense of unfolding and possibility.

When something feels aligned or inspired, awesome, do that thing and see how you feel.

Don’t rush through the goo. That’s my current daily self-reminder and I’m sharing it with you.

Your future butterfly depends on it.

Your fellow goo-er,

Nataly