08/09/2026
It took me a while to understand this pesky little bug. Mostly because, YUCK!
But over the years, this powerful spirit ally has come & gone as a messenger providing exactly what I needed each time.
A cockroach survives by adapting. It hides. It moves quickly. It finds what it needs. It knows how to exist in environments that aren’t ideal.
So for me, Cockroach often shows up when there is a survival pattern that once served me well but now it’s causing problems in my life & it’s ready to transform.
These patterns, just like the Cockroach, are most likely trying REALLY hard to stay alive and can survive almost anything we throw at it.
It knows when we are trying to “kill it” so it does a fantastic job of dodging our efforts in order to protect us.
What has served me most when this happens is instead of asking, “How do I get rid of this?” I get curious about what it’s protecting.
The curiosity opens a connection and pathway straight to this protective part of us. Trying to get rid of it just makes it hide more.
Some great questions we can ask:
🪳What has this pattern been helping me survive?
🪳What part of me am I being invited to stop rejecting?
🪳What would new behaviors or actions might I be able to do to support this vulnerable part of myself?
🪳Where am I bracing for something that isn’t actually happening right now?
🪳What am I afraid would happen if I stopped doing this?
🪳What does this behavior protect me from feeling?
🪳What feeling am I avoiding by staying busy, controlling, fixing, pleasing, eating, withdrawing, overthinking, or performing?
🪳When did this pattern become necessary?
🪳Who did I have to become in order to get through that time?
🪳What did this pattern give me that I didn’t know how to give myself?
🪳What did it help me avoid?
🪳What did it help me obtain?
🪳What did it help me believe about myself?
🪳Is this still protecting me, or is it protecting me from a danger that has already passed?
Once we understand what we are protecting ourselves from we can begin feeling & releasing stored emotions, then shifting our beliefs & actions.
