Your life is a Journey. And you are the Hero.
This image is from http://head-heart-health.com/8357/the-heroines-journey shows us additional aspects of the journey – true for many women.
(Image above posted with permission – on file)
I was familiar for some time with the “Hero’s Journey”, described by Joseph Campbell, when I realized that this journey is not just for some.
It is all of us. Your life is a Hero’s Journey.
When you look at the outline below, this is a typical path of transformation. When something big happens, an event that shakes our personal world… things can’t stay the same. We cannot stay the same.
So the search for answers and balance starts…
On the graphic below you will see a line dividing the underworld; the known and the unknown ( stages 4 to 9 )
Nearly every person I talk to is either on the edge of going to the underworld, or there already, or has returned.
Some are hesitating – they are in a stage of refusing the call to the Adventure.
On this Adventure – often not wanted and not planned – we face our fears and go thru the dark night of the soul. People usually start it because of a dissonance they can’t even explain. They say:
“I feel like I’m dying”
“My soul wants more”
“I don’t want to be here” (meaning living on earth)
“I feel this longing for Something … I don’t even know for what… but I know it will make me feel alive.”
And when they finally accept the call, they explain: “I did it because my spirit told me so.”
What does the journey look like?
It could be: leaving the relationship behind. Leaving the job, the town, and the religion behind. There is such a painful discord that staying where you are would mean betraying Your Essence. You can no longer match the inner life with the demands of daily life.
I believe we have many Hero’s Journeys in our lives. Maybe there is the big one and a few smaller ones. I see it in my own life.
If you feel like someone pulled a rug from under your feet, you feel like you lost your ground with nothing to hold on to – you may be on your hero’s journey.
If you feel like you can’t fall lower in life and everything that you knew about the world and yourself no longer applies – you may be on the hero’s journey.
If you try to push through a problematic relationship, holding tight to the very thing that hurts you – you may be about to start the hero’s journey.
And when you finally answer the call – more struggle awaits, but it will feel different. It will feel right.
Campbell says that in the end the Hero returns “home” with the Elixir.
What it means is that you found yourself. You know yourself and what you stand for so much better. You have rewritten your life’s story.
The Hero’s lessons bring hope to others. But “the others” need to accept the call of their own Adventure.
In the end what matters is that you came back Home – to Yourself.
Even though the process may take many months and even years, you may benefit from some structure in this self exploration. In my private 3 months program there is a space for all the feelings. https://positivelyrebellious.com/limiting-beliefs-transformation/
Update 2023: And this is a video I made that relates to such healing journeys