“There is a voice that doesn’t use words. Listen.”
— Mevlana Jalal ad-Din Muhammad Rumi
The Prince’s Search for Something More
In the fairy tale, the prince scours the earth looking for a “true princess,” someone who will cure his loneliness and complete his story. But no matter how far he travels, he never finds what he’s looking for. Sound familiar? His search feels like the same restless pursuit so many of us are on—whether it’s happiness, success, purpose, or love. We chase it through degrees, jobs, promotions, cities, relationships, all with the quiet hope that the next thing will be the thing. But at some point, the journey circles back home. And then, something unexpected enters our lives—something we didn’t plan for, didn’t design, and maybe wouldn’t have even chosen.
The question is: can we see the potential in what appears before us, even if it doesn’t fit the vision we had? Can we accept the forces beyond our control, the disruptions to our carefully laid plans? Or do we reject them outright, thinking, this isn’t what I wanted?
The Princess Who Knew Something Was Wrong
While the prince’s story is about searching, the princess’s story is about sensing. The thing I keep coming back to is not her so-called “fragility” but her intuition. Her body told her something was wrong. She couldn’t sleep and she didn’t pretend otherwise.
This part sticks with me. Because how many of us ignore our own discomfort, ignore our bodies and go through day after day pretending we are fine, when we are not.
How often do we feel the small, persistent discomfort—the exhaustion, the unease, the nagging sense that something is off—but dismiss it? How often do we override the signals our body gives us, convincing ourselves we’re fine, when really, we are anything but?
The princess didn’t gaslight herself into believing she was comfortable. She didn’t silence herself to please the queen. Had she lied and said she slept just fine, she would have failed the test. Life is an endless series of trials and transitions, we are constantly presented with choices: do we listen to what our body, our intuition, what our gut is telling us, or do we push through and pretend everything is fine?
The Queen’s Skepticism: Two Women, Two Ways of Knowing
Then there is the queen. In many retellings, she is controlling, setting up elaborate tests to prove or disprove another woman’s worth. But I see something else here—caution, skepticism, a woman who doesn’t take things at face value. And I don’t blame her. If someone arrived at my door drenched from a storm, claiming to be something extraordinary, I’d be doubtful too.
So here we have two women, each protecting themselves in their own way. The princess trusts her own discomfort; the queen trusts her own scrutiny. Neither is blindly accepting. Neither is forcing themselves to say what others want to hear. And in a world that so often demands we perform, whether it’s pretending we’re fine when we’re not or accepting things as they are when we know they shouldn’t be, there’s something powerful in that.
What Is the “Pea” You’ve Been Ignoring?
The story has lingered in my mind because it’s asking me a question: What is the pea in my own life?
What is the small, persistent thing disrupting my rest, the thing I’ve convinced myself I should just ignore? What have I trained myself to tolerate, even as it wears me down?
And what if, instead of dismissing it, I acknowledged it? What if I stopped explaining it away and started listening?
Maybe this is what The Princess and the Pea has been trying to tell us all along—not about sensitivity, not about who is worthy, but about what happens when we stop pretending we are fine when we really are not. About what happens when we listen to the signals and signs our body is telling us, about what happens when we are honest and sincere about how we feel, first and foremost with ourselves and then with the people around us.
So my question to you is what is the pea under your mattress?
And are you finally ready to stop sleeping through it?
Until next time, take care of yourself and those around you.
In Partnership,
Nabeela
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