“In narratology and comparative mythology, the hero’s journey, also known as the monomyth, is the common template of stories that involve a hero who goes on an adventure, is victorious in a decisive crisis, and comes home changed or transformed.” – Wikipedia

“New York Times best-selling author Donald Miller shares the plan that led him to turn his life around.

There are four characters in every story: the victim, the villain, the hero, and the guide. These four characters live inside us. If we play the victim, we’re doomed to fail. If we play the villain, we will not create genuine bonds. But if we play the hero or guide, our lives will flourish. The hard part is being self-aware enough to know which character we are playing.

In his new book, Donald will use his own experiences to help you recognize if the character you are currently surfacing is helping you experience a life of meaning. He breaks down the transformational, yet practical, plan that took him from slowly giving up to rapidly gaining a new perspective of his own life’s beauty and meaning, igniting his motivation, passion, and productivity, so you can do the same.”

I mean, aren’t we all on our own hero journey? That’s life. It’s going through adventures and challenges, learning and growing through them, adapting and applying that growth and those lessons, then flourishing and thriving after. If we are lucky, we learn the first time. If we are more human, we can easily go through more than just one cycle and season of our hero journey. The outcome is truly up to us. So many go through this hero journey and continue to stay the victim or villain, or most likely we cycle through the characters depending on the situation and how we are handling it.

I haven’t read Donald Miller’s latest book yet – it’s on my list – but I have listened to many interviews with him on the subject. And I have been on my own journey of both hero and healing – as most of can relate to. It really started in my early twenties as a recognized that I had some anxiety, which increased exponentially after I had my first child. Thus began my journey in therapy to understand my anxiety and tools to cope with it. Within just a few years, I had two babies, an alcoholic husband and we were in marriage counseling. Thus began my journey in recovery of codependency, boundaries, and understanding addiction. My thirties were full of growth in knowledge, self-awareness, and spiritual, mental, and emotional growth.

By 40, I had three kids and I was separated after my husband relapsed after 7 years of sobriety and years of personal therapy, marriage counseling and recovery. Thus began the journey of addiction, divorce, deconstructing, death, and so much trauma in so many ways for so long.

Seven years later, I am still processing, unpacking and doing everything I can to feel, forgive, learn, grow, heal, and help as I keep moving forward. This has looked like a lot of therapy, different types of coaching, journaling, yoga, exercise, meditation, church, community and lot of changes in church and community throughout the process. It’s learning who I have been, my part, accountability, what I am truly responsible for, and who I want to be and continue to become. And that’s just all the spiritual, mental and emotional part.

I have learned that our bodies keep the score. That all of our unprocessed stress, trauma, and emotions are held in our bodies. Stress – just accumulated daily stress – is the biggest cause of illness. We are some stressed out people. If you have any additional stress or trauma on top of that, it could wreak havoc on our bodies. After going into adrenal fatigue from the stress and immediately following, perimenopause, I have added physical healing to my journey. This has included acupuncture, natural herbal tinctures, supplements, HRT, infrared sauna, cold plunge, reiki massage, and I have recently started somatic breathwork sessions. All of these steps and actions have helped my body through the healing process. I add on or move forward as I learn more, meet more people and listen to what my body is saying.

After a recent big setback (or breakthrough) I knew there was still more work to do. I signed up for a weeklong coaching retreat in June in Utah through a program my friend has done and works for. This is also when I added somatic breathwork sessions – which I can’t even tell you how powerful the first session was – physically and emotionally. I will keep you all posted on how that all goes.

We are all on a journey. We get to determine the outcome. I can promise that I am going to come out of this as my own hero and guide for others. Choose wisely. Join me.

The Hero (and healing) Journey

Timing Is Everything?

Ch-Ch-Ch-Changes?