Small and unseen matters.
Have you ever noticed how sometimes it’s not the big things that keep us unsettled…but something small we keep trying to ignore?
I often think of the story The Princess and the Pea, a classic fairy tale written by Hans Christian Andersen as a reminder of this.
If you are not familiar, here is a short basic version of the story:
There is a prince who wants to marry a true princess, but no matter where or how far he travels, he has found no way to confirm who really is one. One stormy night, a young woman arrives disheveled and sopping wet at the castle claiming to be a princess. To test her, the queen places a single pea on the bed and stacks many mattresses on top of it.
In the morning, the girl says she slept terribly because something hard was in the bed. She’s exhausted and covered in bruises. The queen is excited as this proves she is a true princess—only someone with such refined sensitivity could feel a pea through so many layers. The prince happily marries her, and they live happily ever after, as most of the fairy tales describe.
I loved this story as a child, though I always wondered how a single pea could possibly be felt through all those mattresses. I still remember the illustration—the young woman climbing a ladder just to reach the top of that towering pile, preparing to sleep. It made no sense to me then, and honestly, I was more into the fact she was a princess. But what puzzled me as a child has become deeply familiar as an adult. I now understand how something so small—so easily dismissed—can become a very real source of discomfort when it’s ignored.
From my perspective, the young princess represents the authentic self—the part of us that is deeply attuned, intuitive, and honest. Her sensitivity to the pea isn’t a weakness; it’s awareness. She knows something is wrong even when it’s hidden beneath layers.
The pea itself symbolizes those subtle inner discomforts we often ignore/dismiss like emotions, misalignment with your inner truth, those quiet intuitive nudges or a belief that no longer fits.
Though small, the pea matters. What we try to bury, compartmentalize or overlook still affects our rest, peace, and well-being. The idea is that what people consider small and unseen can still matter greatly.
The mattresses stand for the layers we place over our true identity (authentic self, higher self, soul, whatever word resonates with you). These layers may look like coping mechanisms, past conditioning, spiritual bypassing or distractions and busyness to name a few.
We think these layers will protect us (in truth- most of us don’t even realize we are creating these layers)—but they can’t erase what the soul feels. No matter what we do, what’s true will still make itself felt. Sometimes it's loud and dramatic, and sometimes it is soft, subtle, and barely noticeable at all. But I can tell you that your body and heart notice before your mind does.
The queen’s test represents life, spirit, or inner wisdom gently revealing the truth. Like the pea hidden beneath layers of mattresses, we are often tested in many forms asking us to pay attention. That discomfort is the signal. Sometimes it shows up as tension, pain, shallow breathing, or a heaviness in the chest. Other times it arrives as quiet sadness, restlessness, or the sense that something no longer fits. However it appears, and there are many ways, your body and heart are not betraying you. They are responding to the pea beneath the surface—and if ignored, they tend to make themselves known more clearly until they are acknowledged.
What current discomfort is asking for your attention?
The invitation isn’t to toughen up, numb or add more layers.
It’s to gently ask:
What am I ignoring, dismissing or repressing?
Where am I placing layering to ease discomfort instead of listening?
Choose to listen, honour your truth, your soul, and what your heart and body have known all along. Be honest with yourself. And when you do this, your awareness increases, it begins that journey of becoming your true authentic self.