Some of us are familiar with “The Hero’s Journey” that Joseph Campbell describes in his 1949 work The Hero with a Thousand Faces as a pattern of narrative describing the typical adventure of the hero archetype. Elizabeth Gilbert also described her own real-life adventure in Eat, Pray, Love as following this pattern Campbell defined. Gilbert, in a talk she gave at Oprah’s Live the Life You Want Weekend in Atlanta, Georgia in 2014, urged women and men alike to save money, even if its change in a coffee can as one woman she spoke of had done, toward their own soon-to-be life adventure with themselves as the Hero. I loved hearing her say this, for I had had my own real-life adventure after my divorce when within a few years I traveled to Kauai, Maui, the Island of Capri in Italy, and finally to Kripalu Center for Yoga & Health for yoga teacher training. There is something to being able to travel out of your comfort zone and give in to the flow of where the adventure might take you.
Gilbert shared stories she had heard from other women about how they saved enough money, sometimes over a lifetime, to finally take themselves on a trip. Some of these women went on this much anticipated adventure after raising kids alone with little resources or dealing with other hardships over many years. As I listened to her speak I imagined all the women out in the world, raising children or taking care of elderly parents, balancing work with care-taking or turning down opportunities to stay at home with kids, trying to make ends meet, with or without a spouse. I was overcome by the desire to share with all these women another alternative to waiting for the money to add up for that hero’s journey. One that would give them that great escape and sense of adventure without having to wait until the money was saved, without having to leave their own backyard. An alternative that would put them in this Hero’s role in the most important journey of all, the inward one. An alternative that could still take them out of their comfort zone and push boundaries they might not know were there or needed to be pushed, all without so much as leaving the house.
For anyone who has ever felt stuck in life in a seemingly monotonous daily routine, beaten down, no light at the end of the tunnel, or simply feeling like you are still waiting for life to begin, for anyone carrying around feelings and emotions from the past that you have no idea how to let go of, for anyone haunted by that great big question mark following the “what ifs” of life, this inward journey can be your great escape and can lead you to find your inner peace and guidance even while in the place you have to be now: your own home, your own back yard, your own daily life. And most importantly this inward journey will most likely lead you to the realization that you probably already are exactly where you want to be. And if you’re not, then this inward journey can help you find the guidance from within that will help you find peace wherever you are and eventually lead you to where you want to be.
Nothing ignites the inward journey like the ancient practice of yoga. My journey started in the living room in the house that I lived in with my ex-husband where I would roll a mat out and practice yoga while watching t.v. (yes, I practiced in front of the t.v. before I knew better). That’s where my hero’s journey began. That’s where I answered what Campbell describes as the “call to adventure” as I kept coming back to my mat for reasons I didn’t fully understand except that it made me feel more settled afterward. I didn’t realize it until years later, but yoga gave me the ability to face my own ego, an enemy I never even realized was the cause of all the emotions that were stirring inside of me: my deep-seated fear, anger, deep sadness, horrible jealousy, insecurity, and intense loneliness that I had bottled up and wrestled with for many years. Emotions that prevented me from truly enjoying the here and now. Yoga helped me find the courage to know that my relationship with my ex at the time wasn’t what I needed or wanted to live life the way I wanted to live it. After my divorce, my journey continued in an extra bedroom that I had turned into my yoga room. The catharsis continued as I practiced and released layer after layer of baggage that I was holding onto from childhood that I knew was there but until now, had no idea how to rid myself of.
On my mat, in that yoga room, I met what Campbell describes as the mentor of my journey when I was re-introduced to my higher self, what Christians call Holy Spirit. I faced my enemy, the ego, with all the patience, courage and guidance that my higher self afforded as this trapped, negative emotional energy resurfaced through each focused inhale and posture hold. With each focused exhale I brought this enemy to peace through the yogic practice of balance and equanimity. As the worst of these horrid emotions rose up before me in my mind, heart, and soul, as I sobbed for what many times seemed relentlessly, nothing less than God and my higher self enabled me to face it fully, feel it all fully.
I watched in amazement as the beast reared its ugly head, fought with all it had to drag me down into the familiar fear, guilt, and depression that had plagued me for so long. And then I experienced what Campbell describes as the “ordeal” as my allies allowed me to stay strong, stay with it, keep breathing, until the beast of the ego gave up and released into a wellspring of peace, love and forgiveness. This is when I realized that this peace, love and forgiveness made up the bulk of who I really am as a spiritual being. This is when I found myself, those two words that people describe as the end-all to a modern hero’s journey similar to what Campbell defined almost 70 years ago. And I did it without having to leave my house, without having to leave my yoga mat. My travels were icing on the cake, but the real work was done in that extra bedroom on Luling Street.
Campbell describes the second to last phase of the hero’s journey as the “resurrection”, when the hero is faced with death closer to home and experiences a re-birth. For me, this phase of my own journey came after I began reading concepts from the teachings of a modern sacred text called A Course in Miracles. These course concepts were the final thread I needed to make sense of what was happening within my yoga practice and ultimately within my soul. As I read this book and learned all about the ego, my enemy that I had already battled and (so I thought) won against through my yogic practice, the enemy rose up again and tried to take me out once more. I spent the next 2 years battling trying to find meaning in life again and wondering what it was all for.
I finally figured out how the ego was manipulating me once again, this time pulling out the biggest trick in its book. Both yoga and A Course in Miracles teach that we are already whole, perfect and eternal in our truest nature as Spirit. When I heard this concept I was still working with my own ego and it was pretty devastating to me from an ego point of view that this drive I always had inside to be better than others and more “special” than others was no longer necessary or meaningful on a spiritual level. It took two whole years to finally realize the ego was manipulating me yet again by making me feel that life was pointless and meaningless if I couldn’t compete for “specialness”. It was as if this feeling of “specialness” could no longer bring on the “ego high” that had usually accompanied it because I could now see through the facade. I could now see through to the immaturity of the ego and its petty wins no longer felt important.
With the help of the Holy Spirit, I allowed myself to mourn the loss of wanting and needing to be “special” and I let go of the ego’s power over me once and for all. Now I understood and basked in the truth that we are all, every last one of us, special as united in the same Spirit. The acceptance of this truth is what truly allows us to live life spiritually “awake” and therefore guided by Spirit rather than driven through life by the ego and all of the expectations it lays upon us.
The ego is still very much apparent in my life, but it can no longer drag me back down into depression or the never-ending ego search for meaning or individuated “specialness”. I have found the meaning in my life, in the very basic, everyday moments, whether alone or with others. I am tuned into my higher self, Holy Spirit, my higher guidance, and am fully aware of God’s presence surrounding me and surrounding everything else, within me and within everything else.
Now I have reached the final phase of the hero’s journey, what Campbell termed “return with elixir”, in which I now bear the treasure that has transformed my own life. The rest of my life will be spent sharing this elixir as I continue to share the ancient practice and teachings of yoga and the spiritual teachings of A Course in Miracles. I want others to know that they can walk this hero’s journey within their own vast heart and soul and come out filled with the meaning of their own precious life and the ability to be grateful for and fully enjoy every single moment of it: the good, the bad, and everything in between. I want to help others to find exactly what they want to be doing in life, whether it looks good to others or not, and know, without a doubt, that they will look back one day and have not a single regret. What more can we ask for?!
——–
Ginger Graf Dunaway holds a bachelor’s degree in psychology with a minor in human development from the University of Alabama. She is a nationally certified and licensed massage therapist and Kripalu certified yoga teacher. She is the author of Choose Spirit Now: Wake Up to an Exquisite Life and creator of http://ift.tt/1D3gKLl, your tool for Spiritual awakening. Today she lives happily with her husband, daughter, four dogs and three cats in beautiful southern Alabama.
The post How To Live ‘The Hero’s Journey’ Without Leaving Your Own Backyard! appeared first on Pick the Brain | Motivation and Self Improvement.
Everyone wants to feel happy and free, but sometimes we don’t realize that the things we’re doing are responsible for our disappointment.
There are 7 things you must stop doing from now on, so you can start living your best life ever…
We all encounter problems and bad days, but it is how we respond to our current situation that really matters.
Perhaps a trusted friend has betrayed you, a loved one has passed away, or your business has experienced a great loss.
In any of these situations, you could either accept the situation and move on – or you could resist it and deny the fact that it’s really happening to you.
The moment you resist, you suffer a great deal of stress and lose your inner sense of peace because you’re “fighting” against something beyond your control. And you’ll never win!
What you should do is “adjust” yourself to your current condition and learn the lessons from the experience (if any).
Do what you can to solve or reduce the problem. But if there’s nothing else you could do, just go with the flow and live to fight another day.
Don’t get so caught up with an incident from your past, nor be so concerned with what the future holds for you, that it “steals” the present moment from you.
Yes, learn from the lessons of the past. And yes, prepare and set goals for your future.
But live in the present moment and make the most of it!
If you’re talking to someone, talk to him like he’s the most valuable person in the world at that moment. If you’re playing with your kids, live their childhood and be “one” of them. Do stuff like they’re the most important things to accomplish at that time.
Fully immerse yourself and focus at what you’re doing in the present, and your life will become so much better every single day!
Your parents, relatives and friends may have the best intentions; but they will never know what truly makes you feel happy and fulfilled.
So if they said you should do or become something “for your own good” or because they only want “what’s best for you”, thank them for caring so much about you… but listen to your heart and do what it says. Only then will your life be filled with meaning and purpose.
Simplify your life. You only need to keep 2 types of things – those that you need and those that grow in value. Give away the rest of your stuff.
Don’t keep on accumulating (or worse, buying) things for the sake of using them “some day.” That “some day” may never come.
The less things you have to manage, the more in control you’ll feel and the less stressed you’ll be.
Many quotes acknowledge the power of persistence, but it’s not applicable in all cases. Why?
Because never giving up on something that doesn’t work is simply stupid! If you keep on doing the same thing, you will always get the same result.
So if it’s not working, stop doing it and think of another way. If it fails again, then try something else. Don’t stop changing and improving until you eventually get the result you’re looking for! Now that is true persistence.
Complaining will only bring more of what you’re whining about into your life. So stop complaining and start looking for the positive side in everything.
Even a negative event can be beneficial – you’ll learn valuable lessons from the experience and become stronger in character.
Appreciate every blessing (even the most minor ones you could think of) – the sunshine, the air you breathe, the food you eat, the people you love, etc.
Practice gratitude at every moment and you’ll soon find complaining a thing of the past.
You can judge the quality of a person’s life by the way he spends his time. Every second of your life is important, so use it wisely.
Read books and/or listen to audios for at least 30 minutes a day, on any topic of your choice, and you’d become an expert on that field in just a few years!
Do you often find yourself lining up in long queues? Use that time wisely by reading! If you feel uncomfortable doing it, download an e-book or audio on your mobile phone and read/listen while waiting.
Do you spend hours driving? Bring some audio CDs before you hit the road and listen while you drive. Transform your car into a learning machine!
Other meaningful ways to use your time include:
– Pursuing your passion
– Spending quality time and developing relationships with people
– Making a contribution to society
– Exploring different places, cultures, food, experiences, etc.
– Any other activities that you’d cherish and never regret doing when you’re on your deathbed
On the other hand, you should avoid doing (or limit your time on) these things:
– Watching TV
– Gossiping or talking about other people’s lives
– Playing video games
– Browsing Facebook for hours
– Any other things that you’d regret doing when you’re on your deathbed
If you’re currently feeling unhappy, unfulfilled, or even depressed… go through the 7 items above and see if any of them is causing it. I sincerely believe that anyone who stops doing these 7 things will begin to experience massive positive changes in their lives.
The post 7 Things You Must STOP Doing To Live Your Best Life Ever appeared first on Change your thoughts.
You don’t want an ordinary life. Working a job you hate, putting up with a passionless relationship and having to compromise your individuality is not for you. To paraphrase Theodore Roosevelt, you don’t want to be, ‘one of those cold and timid souls who live in the grey twilight that knows neither victory nor defeat.’
Instead, you want something extraordinary. You want excitement, inspiration and the chance to leave a positive mark on the world. You want to answer that immortal Steve Jobs quote – If today was my last day, would I want to do what I’m about to do? – in the affirmative.
And that’s great. You should be congratulated on your ambitions. The world needs unreasonable people like you to keep it moving forwards.
But how do you get there? How do you go from your present reality which, let’s face it, might appear light-years away from your musings, to this life of your dreams?
Luckily for you today, you stumbled upon this article. I’m going to guide you through the ultimate 3 point plan to rising above your present conditions into the life of your dreams. So it doesn’t matter whether it’s a boring job that saps you of your time and energy, poor health that robs you of the vitality needed to put your plans into action or a lack of connections and contacts that leaves you feeling clueless about where to start, there IS a way out of ANY negative circumstance.
The proceeding plan will show you how.
The problem with the three negative circumstances listed above is that they rob you of energy. The dreams in your mind may be golden but when your daily environment is depressing, physically painful or seems helpless, a huge disconnect occurs.
This is why it is SO IMPORTANT to develop the ability to detach from your circumstances and focus on your energy. You can’t remain at the same level of thinking and feeling as your present environment. To advance, you always need to be one vibrational level above. To do this, you must detach your mind (i.e. not focus on/let go of) from all the petty arguments at work, minor and major injustices against you, aches and pains in your body, all the things you lack and perceived obstacles standing in your way.
This, in itself, is a monumental mental discipline. However, once you have mastered it you’ll be free to, in the words of Master Yoda, ‘feel The Force’. What I mean by this is that you must find time to focus on the magnificence of your dream. Ask yourself this question.
What’s going to feel so great about living the life I want to live?
Capture the energy of this answer and focus on it as much as possible. Do this consistently, and your drive will be stronger, the strength of your immune system will increase, your ability to convince other people of your ideas will improve and your life will begin to move forwards.
Overcoming your negative circumstances and living the life you want is largely a game of belief. Everybody has the potential to do it, but many remain trapped because they can’t believe in a life better than their day to day environment.
To rise above your present circumstances you need to KNOW that it’s possible. In other words, you need proof. You need concrete examples of the fact that you can positively move your life forwards despite the negative circumstances you face. This is why I instruct anybody I coach to record ALL the positive results they achieve. If they get a new client, win an important match, gain a promotion or receive a compliment about their work or personality then they have to make note of it in a designated ‘results’ diary.
The power of this practise is compound. A month’s worth of positive results doesn’t do a lot but a years’ worth of achievements sends a message to the subconscious. ‘I CAN DO THIS,’ is what you start to believe. After all, you’ve got the proof right there in your diary.
Then, it just becomes a case of repeating a formula. Raise your energy, record your results and, as your life begins to improve, you’ll be left with the belief that NO circumstance has the power to halt your progress. After all, if you can overcome one set of difficult circumstances then why not another?
I want to give you an example. I want to show you that no negative circumstance, in of itself, has the power to prevent you from moving your life forwards. To do this, I need to find a person who endured the most harrowing of conditions yet still managed to emerge triumphant.
Enter Victor Frankl.
Perhaps you are aware of Frankl through his best-selling book, Man’s Search for Meaning, which stands as a testament to the ideal that man is not made by his conditions. However, if you’re not familiar with Frankl, then here’s his story.
Frankl was imprisoned in a Nazi concentration camp in 1942. A doctor and psychologist before the war, he found himself thrown into an environment where suffering and death were an everyday occurrence. A starvation diet combined with hard physical labour, unhygienic conditions, frequent exposure to sub-zero temperatures, sleep deprivation and beatings at the hands of guards comprised the daily environment Frankl lived in for 3 years. Every single member of his immediate family died, as did countless numbers of his fellow detainees. Faced with such conditions, Frankl estimated his own chance of survival as 1 in 20.
Despite these terrible circumstances, though, Frankl did survive. Not only that, he thrived. He went on to write a 9 million copy selling book, speak around the world and have his own approach to therapy – logo therapy – become a universally recognised form of treatment.
How was this possible?
According to Frankl the secret to overcoming any negative circumstance is to create a meaning for your life. There are 3 ways of doing this.
Creating a meaning through one, or all, of these channels means that you wake up every day with a sense of purpose. In effect, you are on a mission. Irrespective of what you’re going through, you know what you are moving towards. With such a mentality and approach, when the opportunity to improve your day to day life finally emerges, you’ll seize it with both hands.
The post The Ultimate 3 Point Plan to Overcoming ANY Negative Circumstances appeared first on Pick the Brain | Motivation and Self Improvement.
Sig Nordal 