From Caterpillar to Butterfly:

The Stages of Your Life Transformation

Understanding the role we play in life is a deeply personal journey—one that helps us find our place in our tribes, families, communities, and workplaces. In Creating Opulence, I explore this transformation through the metaphor of a butterfly’s life cycle. From the humble caterpillar to the emergence of vibrant wings, each stage invites us to reflect on our experiences, honor the paths that have drawn us in, and recognize how these moments shape who we are. It’s about acknowledging where life has been leading us and envisioning how we’ll soar with the wings we’ve created.

This past year has been my Chrysalis year—a time to retreat into my cocoon, reflect deeply on my life, and prepare for the future. It wasn’t the plan, but it was necessary to create a more sustainable path forward. For so long, I had a pattern of starting something new, and when it didn’t go as expected, I would quickly abandon it and move on to the next thing, rarely taking time to process my mistakes or learn how to improve. While this approach kept me moving, it left me feeling drained and spread too thin over the past decade. If I’m going to build something like Opulence—or even just a stable, fulfilling future of my own choosing—I realized I needed to take the time to process and integrate the lessons of my past.

This exercise that I've added into Creating Opulence is about reflecting on all the butterfly stages in your life, looking at it from a higher perspective, and then consciously choosing a path that incorporates all that you want to keep in your life, while letting go of all that wasn't serving you. This imagery is also used in the JEMM, Know Your Role, where participants embody their inner Tribe Member; the intention is to honour the role that they have played in the past, and to confidently fly into their future roles. I go through the 4 main stages:

Caterpillar - The caterpillar stage typically represents the early part of life, when your basic necessities—shelter, food, and care—are often provided for you. Your primary role is to learn, absorb, and grow. This is a time of exploration, where you gather information from your environment, experiences, relationships, and even the nourishment you consume.

Cocoon - The cocoon stage is about stepping back and isolating yourself for reflection, for however long feels right for you. It’s a time to process your experiences and understand what resonates with your authentic self. This phase can feel messy, but it’s also where you begin to prepare for true transformation.

Chrysalis - The chrysalis stage is the most transformative yet the most challenging. Here, the caterpillar dissolves into a dark, unrecognizable state of "goop." It’s not glamorous, but this is where the magic happens. The pieces of your old self are broken down, rearranged, and rebuilt into something entirely new. Much like a cocoon turning black before the butterfly emerges, this stage is about embracing the darkness as a prelude to light.

Butterfly - In the butterfly stage, the transformation is complete. The new body and wings have formed, but there’s still effort required to emerge from the cocoon. Breaking through takes strength, and even after freedom, the butterfly needs time to adjust to its wings before it can take flight. This stage symbolizes the freedom and beauty of living authentically and embracing your role with confidence.

I completed the exercise in the workbook I created, and as a practice in vulnerability, I’m sharing my filled-out sheet with all of you here. In doing so, I’m also declaring my intentions and the direction I hope to take through this work.

In the rest of this post, I’ll briefly share the journey I’ve outlined above. Feel free to continue reading if you’re interested — no worries if not! I also encourage you to reflect on your own life using the format from the worksheet above, along with the descriptions of each stage.

The JEMM 'Know Your Role' dives deeper into this process, with the intention of helping participants move through these stages and push through challenges in order to emerge into their butterfly phase. By working through this, one gains a clearer understanding of the role they are stepping into and embracing fully in their life.

My Caterpillar Stage

As I have mentioned in another post, my intention for last year was to travel, detox, get fit and finish writing projects, but as the year kept rolling, I realized to do so was to abandon everything I had here again. And although I still plan to do these travels, there are very important missions and messes I need to complete and clean up before I leave in order to get the most of my travelling.

Last year I reflected on everything I've done in the past, all the work experiences, all the friends, all the family time, all the passions I had and the dreams I followed. If you look at my resume, it really doesn't make sense. I went from jewelery, to credit granting, to starting my own business, to working in gymnastics, to the auto industry, to the fitness industry and finally to working in one of the best dance studios I've seen in Toronto. Though it seems like I've been all over the place, and I have, this array of experience has helped me understand all of these industries, has helped me communicate genuinely to people of all walks of life, and has helped me understand what I really want to do in life.

When I was younger, my dream was to become a doctor. From childhood until I was accepted into university, my focus was on med school. In high school, I excelled in sciences, particularly chemistry and biology, and I was originally accepted into university to study Life Sciences as a stepping stone toward that goal. But at the last minute, I changed my mind—I didn’t want to spend so many years in school. Instead, I decided to pursue computer science because it seemed like the "next big thing" at the time, and I was confident I could excel at anything.

I quickly realized I was wrong. I hated computer science and ended up wasting both my time and money trying to force it to work. Looking back, I wish I had taken the time to truly understand myself and what I wanted to contribute to this planet before making such a major decision. That experience has been a driving force behind the creation of JEMMs and Opulence Vision. These tools are designed to help young people avoid the kind of missteps I made, guiding them toward self-discovery and purpose so they can make more intentional choices about their futures.

Although I once felt like I had wasted so much time and money pursuing computer science, it ultimately led me to something unexpected: an English degree with a special focus on geography, environmental studies, and philosophy. During this time, I also explored psychedelics with my partner, which profoundly shifted my worldview. We would dream about our future, discuss how we could make a positive impact on the world, and imagine what our lives could look like.

It was during this period that I discovered my passion for sustainability, helping others, and building businesses. This path also led me back to school, where I pursued Holistic Nutrition, deepening my understanding of the human body and holistic wellness practices. I owe much of who I am today to my partner and our relationship. Though our journey took us on unexpected detours, and my life doesn’t look like what I had envisioned as a child, I now have a deep sense of purpose and passion—something that fuels everything I do today. All of this has come together to form Opulence Vision.

Since moving back to my hometown, I have only applied at and accepted job positions that I felt were aligned with what I wanted to do, and/or for people that I wanted to work for. I got into the car industry randomly because they happened to offer me a position when I was purchasing a new car. And although it wasn't ever in my plan to have been in the industry, I am so grateful that I was - I met some of the best, most hard working people in the automotive field, and in both dealerships that I worked, they created such a family environment, that I cried so much while saying goodbye to them. I left the industry because my soul kept screaming in my heart to continue on my path towards health and sustainability.

In 2019, I decided to look for new work, and got 4 different offers. The best offer I received was from a Lexus dealership, who immediately fell in love with me, and offered me the best job offer I have ever received in my life. I was interviewed by two of the sales managers and even the general manager, which wasn't typical for the position I was applying for. They offered me the most money I've seen for this position, my own beautiful office, a loaner vehicle, and wanted me to do film demonstrations and run live events. I thought I was going to take the position for sure - they interviewed me for 2 hours, trying to convince me why we were already family, and I truly felt the love. But while I was sitting in the general manager's office, who was a really great guy by the way, I noticed there were boomerangs hanging in the background. I asked him about them, and he said of the of the girls just came back from Australia and brought them back as a souvenir.

In that moment, I instantly remembered the wild fires that were happening in Australia - it was weighing on me heavily at that time. And in that moment, I knew the Universe was whispering me to follow my passion and dreams.

The next interview that I had was with a large Canadian fitness chain. I was interviewed by one of the most beautiful women I have ever met in person - both in and out. Going into the interview, I honestly didn't think I was going to take this job - although I was very much into health, I wasn't a big gym person at the time, and I knew they couldn't pay me as much as Lexus. But during that interview, I felt like I found a long-lost friend in this manager. Part of the interview was for her to take me through one of the circuits, and with that experience, we felt like we knew each other for ever. As I was leaving after the interview, she asked me if I wanted a hug, which I said "of course!", and then she excitedly told me I got the job. She is the reason why I decided to choose the gym out of all the other offers.

It took some time for me to adjust to a new industry, especially one as different from my comfort zone as the gym. However, I’m incredibly grateful for the experience. While I’ve always been more drawn to dance and yoga, working in the fitness industry has helped me discover a new appreciation for fitness as a whole. I learned valuable skills in consultative selling, worked on my own fitness goals, and gained the confidence to navigate the gym environment.

While the gym didn’t offer much financially, I took on a second job at one of the top dance studios in Toronto. I’ve been fortunate to receive opportunity after opportunity, with managers who saw potential in me and supported my growth. However, at one point, I found myself just going through the motions—juggling multiple roles without truly excelling in any one of them. When I contracted Covid in 2022, it was a wake-up call that exposed underlying health issues I had been ignoring. I realized I had been living unconsciously—eating takeout, not exercising, and not prioritizing the things I teach and promote, like dancing. That moment was the catalyst for me to embark on a journey to recover my health, strength, and overall well-being.

Incubating in the Crysalis

As I’ve mentioned before, last year was my time in the Chrysalis — a period where I had the opportunity to pause and reflect on my life thus far, gaining clarity on how to move forward. Even when I tried to secure jobs to cover my cat’s vet bills, I sensed that the Universe was guiding me to hold off on employment until I had fully processed the past, ensuring I wouldn’t fall into the same patterns again.

Last year was a time of deep reflection for me, not just about the recent years but my entire life—from elementary school to university, all the jobs I’ve held, the friends I’ve made, my family and extended family, and all the relationships I’ve had. I confronted traumas I’d been suppressing for a long time and came to realize how they’ve affected me physically throughout my life, even though I thought I had moved on.

Through the pain of watching my cat pass away over the course of the year, I pushed through and tackled one project at a time, preparing to launch everything I’ve worked on. This journey has brought me to create everything that I’ve put together so far.

I’ve worked on the JEMMs and this website, created an eBook and 5-week course called Natural Vitality, designed a 6-week course for women introducing sustainable fitness and nutrition, completed an outline for "Creating Opulence" along with a workbook, mapped out a 5-year plan (something I’ve never done before), and created a vision for my future that feels big but manageable with a reverse-engineered approach.

It feels like I’ve been building my wings, and now I’m in that moment where I’m struggling to break free from the cocoon—but I know the time is now. I’m so grateful for everyone who has inspired me along the way, whether we’ve met in person or not. Your presence has played a vital role in my process, and I deeply appreciate it.

May we all have the courage and strength to spread our wings and show the world how we can fly together!

Thanks for reading, fam, and thank you for being a part of this journey with me! 🥰💖

xoxox

One Love Always