Butterfly Monday – February 9, 2026
Healing Station Zoom: 6:00 PM EST
Join Here: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/88324556318?pwd=QlNsT3lLWnc0alo3K09nN0JoaFNxQT09
I breathe, so they say I’m alive; I work, so they say I am living.
But somewhere between the clock and the grind, my soul feels like it’s missing.
This is not about denying pain or reality, but reclaiming life and refusing to let pain define our narrative. What if having a heartbeat isn’t the same as being alive? What if surviving isn’t the same as living? And what if joy isn’t naïve, but a birthright?
This Butterfly Monday, we continue the journey from Life Be Lifing to Life Be Becoming by exploring the difference between existing, performing, and truly being alive. Together, we’ll unpack how trauma scripts taught us to equate life with stress, why joy can feel unsafe, and how healing invites us into a deeper way of being, rooted in purpose, Love, and alignment. The problem with Life Be Living is not that life contains hardship, but that hardship becomes life’s identity. Stress is stressful, and depression is depressing. But when we repeatedly affirm that life itself is stress, we unknowingly create a self-fulfilling prophecy of perpetual exhaustion.
Life is biological. It is breath. It is a heartbeat. It is existence.
Living is social. It is following scripts, meeting expectations, performing roles, and hoping one day the Wizzo will reward us with rest, love, or belonging.
Being alive is spiritual. It is awakening divine gifts, growing wings, and flying without the restraints of trauma and commercial programming.
Healing invites a new orientation: Life Be Becoming, which allows us to hold pain without worshiping it, joy without punishment, and returns us to rhythm, rest, purpose, and presence.
To understand why “life be lifing” has become such a powerful and dangerous script, we must first pause to clarify what we mean by life, living, and being alive. These words are often used interchangeably, but they do not describe the same state.
Life is biological, a heartbeat, breath moving through lungs, and a miracle of the body sustaining itself. Life alone does not guarantee meaning, joy, or purpose. It simply means the body has not stopped. We may have a life because we were born. We may be living because our hearts beat, our lungs breathe, and we go through daily motions. However, Being Alive, truly and fully alive, is something entirely different. Being alive is a soul-awakening state where we remember who we are, why we came, and what sacred gift we were meant to give to the world. It is the moment we birth our butterfly, walk in our divine purpose, and embody joy not as a fleeting emotion but as a spiritual frequency within which we reside. However, for many of us, unresolved trauma has obstructed that path.
Living is a social experiment requiring us to learn the script and perform the role assigned to us by family, culture, trauma, systems, and the choices that we make. Living is following the Yellow Brick Road with the hope that, if we perform well enough, endure long enough, or sacrifice enough of ourselves, we will eventually meet the Wizzo and finally be granted wholeness. Living is busy, exhausting, and often mistaken for thriving. Being alive is something entirely different. Being alive is a spiritual awakening of divine gifts, the growing of our wings, and movement guided by divine purpose rather than fear. Being alive is flying beyond the restraints of commercial programming, traumatic scripts, and inherited expectations. Being alive is not about surviving the day, but inhabiting the moment.
The Markers of Being Alive
Those who are genuinely alive are devoted to the journey of healing and transformation. Being alive is not about being perfect, but being present. Being alive is understanding that no Wizzo is needed to be whole because we already were.
To be alive is to:
• Know that We are Who We Have Been Waiting For
• Walk in Divine Purpose.
• Become the Butterfly Effect
• Be the prayer we have been praying for
• Be the Phoenix Rising
• Thrive through alignment, not achievement.
• View pain as a portal, not a prison.
Life Be Lifing vs. Life Be Becoming
When people say “life be lifing,” they are not lying. They are describing an experience of stress, unpredictability, and pressure. But the danger is not in acknowledging difficulty; it is in allowing stress to define life itself. Yes, we all know that stress is stressful, grief is grieving, and pain is painful. We have all experienced different levels of pain, stress, and trauma, as well as episodes that led to those feelings. In some form, we have all been perpetrators and victims. However, life itself is not just stress.
We do not say:
• Joy be joying
• Love be loving
• Care be caring
Because those phrases describe functions or experiences, not identity. Yet life be lifing, by subtly framing life itself, is made synonymous with suffering. This is where language becomes destiny. When stress becomes the primary label for life, we unconsciously affirm a worldview in which:
• Pain is expected
• Joy is rare
• Rest feels irresponsible
• Healing feels unrealistic
• Hope feels naive
This may become a self-fulfilling prophecy through traumatic conditioning.
My Life, My Life, My Life…. In The Sunshine
I am not just a breath or a heartbeat,
Or the world tables where you have taken a seat.
Not another morning you had to survive,
But the sacred art of beginning to thrive.
I am the divine song you were meant to sing.
I’m already that butterfly but just discovering my wings.
I’m in tears that fall, then clear my sight,
I’m in joy, Love, Forgiveness, and light.
I rise when Love becomes our guide,
When fear is no longer our ride or die.
When purpose pulls us from our pain,
And makes our losses bloom again.
I’m not on the clock or any other grind,
I am the freedom when we unwind.
When shadows pass, and we forgive,
Discovering our divine and a new way to live.
So tell me now, and speak with grace.
That smiling spirit that lights up our face?
I’m not the heartbeat of life or the living to survive.
So who am I that was meant to thrive?
Trauma as the Wall Between Living and Being Alive
Past trauma does not just linger in memory; it takes up residence in our identity. It tells us that survival is enough, that hope is dangerous, and flying is for someone else. It convinces us that dreaming is foolish and resting is a weakness. When trauma is unresolved, we can live an entire lifetime without ever genuinely being alive. We crawl as caterpillars, never entering the cocoon, never setting our wings free to soar. Our divine gifts lie hidden beneath shame, fear, and grief. However, as we walk the Yellow Brick Road and surrender to the transformational cocoon, we begin to realize: Life was given to us, and living was taught to us. However, being alive is a choice we make when we believe in butterflies.
The Self-Fulfilling Prophecy of Pain
Words define and shape perception, and perception, in turn, shapes belief. Words convey conceptions and perspectives; they are not neutral. When we repeatedly affirm that life equals struggle, we may unknowingly participate in a self-fulfilling prophecy. We begin bracing for pain before it arrives. We interpret neutral moments through the lens of exhaustion and dismiss joy as temporary or suspect. In this way, the traumatic narrative recruits language as its accomplice. Life becomes something to endure rather than engage with; living becomes a performance rather than an expression; and being alive becomes an unfamiliar state we don’t trust. This is not because joy is unavailable, but because we never had a safe space to become vulnerable enough to recognize it.
Life Be Lifing as a Social Hospice
A hospice is a place where people are cared for and made to feel as comfortable as possible, with no intention of healing. The goal is to exist without the consciousness of pain, not vitality. When “life be lifing” becomes the dominant worldview, society itself becomes a social hospice.
In a social hospice:
• People are taught to manage pain, not resolve it
• Coping skills replace healing practices
• Burnout is normalized
• Joy is rationed
• Rest is sedation
• Hope is deferred
People are kept alive, but numb and not fully living. This is not a failure of individuals.
It is the consequence of a system that never taught us how to heal.
Reclaiming Being Alive
The journey of healing and transformation invites us to shift the script from life be lifing to life be becoming. Becoming does not deny hardship but reframes it.
Becoming says:
• I am more than my stress.
• I am more than my trauma.
• I am more than the role I learned to survive.
Becoming is the courage to believe that life can be expansive, meaningful, and joyful, even as we acknowledge pain. Being alive is not the absence of struggle but the presence of purpose. When we stop equating life with stress, we open the door to a deeper truth: Life is not here to break us but to reveal us. To be alive is to participate consciously in that revelation.
Challenging “life be lifing” is not to deny hardship. It is to reject the lie that suffering is the point and the purpose of our life energy on the planet. Life is not meant to be endured endlessly, but to be lived in accordance with divine purpose. Healing does not mean pretending pain did not happen, but refusing to let pain author our narrative and future. The journey of the heart calls us out of the social hospice and back into possibility. It invites us to question the script, release the role, and remember that joy is not an illusion.
Reimagine:
• Joy as a frequency.
• Love as a reality.
• That Healing is not naïve.
• That Transformation is not a fantasy.
• That what is unsustainable is a life where pain is the only truth we trust.
So the invitation stands:
What if life is not “be lifing”?
What if life is becoming?
And what if the moment we stop rehearsing survival is the moment we begin to live?
Excercise
Step 1: Reflect Individually
Write one sentence for each:
• Life, for me, feels like…
• Living, for me, looks like…
• Being alive, for me, might feel like…
Step 2: Identify the Script
Ask yourself:
• Where did I learn that stress equals life?
• Who benefits when I stay exhausted?
• What part of me longs for something deeper?
Step 3: Becoming Statement
Write one sentence beginning with:
“I am allowing myself to become…”
Share in pairs or small groups if comfortable.
Quiz: Where Am I on the Spectrum?
Rate each statement from 1 (Not true) to 5 (Very true)
- I equate being busy with being productive.
- I feel guilty resting.
- I believe stress is just part of life.
- I struggle to trust joy.
- I feel disconnected from my purpose.
- I often perform instead of express.
- I feel most alive when I’m creating or serving.
- I believe healing is an ongoing journey.
Reflection (not scoring):
Which questions reflect survival rather than becoming?
Which answers surprised you?
We are becoming the “Social Architects” who will design our healing and transformation. Let’s affirm and manifest our divine cocoons together. #WeAreTheButterflyEffect
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We Love More Dr.Bruce 