When you answer your Soul’s call to embark on a Hero's Journey (derived from Joseph Campbell's The Hero With A Thousand Faces), you are bound to face your own dragons born of fear and unworthiness. You have anticipated them and fight them with love until the negative voices transform from a roar to a mere whisper.
A more formidable dragon is faced when dealing with others affected by your courageous leap into the unknown. How do you explain your Soul’s calling to loved ones, especially a child who is forced to come along for the ride?
The Hero's Journey is, at first glance, a selfish thing. It is where you make decisions based solely on your intuition, on your Soul’s desire. It is where you hope you will receive others’ support, but if not, you forge ahead anyway. If support is not granted, you very likely will face a backlash of resentment and anger. It’s one thing to deal with your own inner critic, but when it comes from your loved ones, this can be an even more bitter pill to swallow.
This bitter pill can lead to a crisis of faith: How could I do this to people that I love? How could I be so selfish? What am I doing here? I have no idea where this journey will end for me. Why am I forcing my loved ones to suffer through the uncertainty with me? What the hell am I doing?!
This can be an excessively challenging part of the journey because you can’t control other people. You can’t appease them through prayers or affirmations, in the same way you might appease your own dragons. This is where you must let go. You must find a way to face your loved ones’ dragons with compassion and love, despite how much they roar and breathe fire. You must find a way to remain steadfastly in your heart-center, where you know without question why you embarked on the Hero’s Journey in the first place.
We are spirits in human bodies. Our mission on earth is to live our lives based on love. Our only requirement in this life is to be true to ourselves. Those seem like two mutually exclusive ideas – living love, while being true to ourselves above all others. But they’re not. When we live true to ourselves – true to our Soul – everything we do must be borne of love. They are, in fact, one in the same.
Every person chose to be born on this earth and has their own set of Soul lessons to live. Every person chose their parents and partners and the challenges they would face because of those relationships. This allows us to pursue our Soul’s desire by embarking on the Hero’s Journey, without guilt for how our actions may hurt another. “To thy own self be true.” It must be stated again, however, that the Hero’s Journey must be borne through love. By embodying your Soul’s mission and purpose on this earth, you will contribute to the greater good of, not only your family and friends, but the planet, raising the vibration and sharing your love and courage with everyone you meet. So, although at first glance, the Hero’s Journey may seem solitary, in reality, it touches us all.
On the Hero’s Journey, we must be ready for these dragons and, as painful as they might be, love them into submission. We must stay focused on the reason that we decided to take this leap in the first place and maintain steadfast faith, courage, and perseverance despite all odds.
Journey on, fellow Heroes!
Sending you love and light on your journey,
Lara