A Simple Example of Breaking Through

Just a few days ago, I was sitting at a car wash when something caught my eye. A butterfly was trapped under the overhang. It kept flying upward, desperately trying to escape—but it was repeatedly hitting the ceiling of the awning. Every so often, it would land on a beam to rest, only to return to the same spot and try again.

I sat there watching, rooting for it. I wished I could help, but the awning was too high. As I observed, I thought about how much this mirrors what I see in people’s lives every day.

So many people want change. They push for it. They try harder and harder. Yet they remain stuck, frustrated, and exhausted—because they haven’t paused to view the situation from a new perspective.

For the butterfly, freedom required flying sideways instead of up. If it had stopped its frantic fluttering long enough to shift its perspective, it would have seen that the opening was simple: fly out under the awning.

It wasn’t truly trapped—it just needed to change direction.

And that’s exactly how it works for us—when we gain awareness and are willing to change the deeper patterns in our subconscious mind, we can create our next breakthrough.

However, many people unknowingly slip back into old patterns—like the butterfly stuck in a loop, repeating what it was programmed to do: flying upward toward the sky.

Why We Get Stuck in Patterns

The tricky part is that our own thoughts and emotions shape our reality. Just like the butterfly believed the only way out was up, we can become trapped in the patterns of our own minds.

For example, if someone feels that “all people are untrustworthy,” they’ll start noticing situations that reinforce that belief—and even attract more circumstances that confirm it. In psychology, this is called repetition compulsion. In spiritual teachings, it’s often referred to as the law of attraction. Different terms, same principle: patterns—whether in thought, behavior, or emotion—tend to reproduce themselves.

Unless we transform the pattern at its root, it will continue to reappear in new forms.