Something that strikes me about those of us on a healing journey is how, despite the vast differences that exist, our healing journeys tend to follow a similar path.

This is particularly true when we decide to exit off of the "conventional healing path" so to speak, and get on to the path less traveled.

Let me explain by using an image:

This is the path of the Hero's Journey, a phrase/ idea coined by Joseph Campbell. It is the path that essentially every Hero follows in epic tales (think Luke Skywalker in Star Wars, Dorothy in The Wizard of Oz, Simba in The Lion King, Nemo in Finding Nemo, and of course, Frodo in The Lord of the Rings). 

What do these characters all have in common?

If you follow the Hero's Journey in a clockwise fashion, you can see that all of these fictional characters moved through predictable steps in their quest to complete their mission.

What I love about the Hero's Journey is that it maps out the Healing Journey as well.

At some point, we face a Call to Adventure —although in the Healing Journey, it is not exactly exciting. Typically what this looks like is a need or desire to break away from conventional healing methodologies that have varied (or expired) in their helpfulness, and begin to explore other options.

What you'll notice about this call to adventure is that it requires crossing a Threshold—which in the Healing Journey is when we begin to move into territory that is unfamiliar and therefore likely somewhat scary for us.

In an obvious way, this means working with practitioners with whom we are unfamiliar, or trying modalities we've never tried before... but on a deeper level, it often means changing our perspectives and paradigms on health and illness  in order to engage in our healing process differently.

You know the Einstein quote... the definition of insanity?

I apply that to healing as well. We cannot keep trying the same thing/ staying with the same kinds of providers/ trying the same modalities etc. if we expect/ want/ desire different results.

And in my world, this also means we cannot continue to engage in the same beliefs around our health and healing capacity—and what is REALLY causing our illness—if we want different results.

That is to say, if we continue to believe that our illness is the enemy and must be stopped/ suppressed/ removed at all cost, we are going to continue to find ourselves coming up empty and not ever quite achieving the results we want.

You'll see that moving down the righthand side of the Hero's Journey are the words challenges and temptations .

For the Healing Journey, this translates most simply to fear .

As we move more and more deeply into the unknown realm of shifting our paradigm, shifting our relationship with our bodies, opening ourselves up to hope for healing and a different outcome, and trying new things... fear begins to rear its ugly head.

And? 

This is totally normal and expected.

Our nervous systems are wired to keep us safe, and the unknown is anything but safe! Therefore, the further we get from what is familiar, the more activated we are going to feel. 

As Mary Morrissey smartly writes in her book Brave Thinking:

Fear will accompany my journey, but it is not my guide.

I think this is such an important mantra to keep in mind, because if we are not careful, fear absolutely becomes the guide of the journey. Fear is essentially the default guide that will take over without mindful attention to what is happening. 

And again, this fear is amplified when we believe that illness is against us and does not serve a greater, meaningful purpose.

If you've been following my work for a while, you know that I believe deeply that illness is sacred. It is a big, uncomfortable barricade in the road that says, You have to stop and reassess. You are out of alignment.

If we allow illness to be the guide rather than fear, we are able to get to the Abyss: the bottom of the circle, the most critical part of the Healing and Hero's Journey: where transformation takes place.

Suddenly, we see things with new eyes. We embody ourselves in a different way. We show up in the world more mindfully, more aligned, more ourselves. We finish the journey by coming back up to the surface, and yet we are not who we used to be.

And this is the point: when we are healing, we cannot "go back" to who we used to be, what we used to do, once transformation has taken place.

We cannot think the same thoughts.

We cannot have the same beliefs about ourselves.

We cannot engage in the same behaviors.

Sometimes, we cannot have the same relationships or jobs, or live in the same place.

The reason for this? All of these old behaviors and thoughts are the conditions in which illness arose in the first place.

Again, the point of illness is to get us to tune in: How are you living your life right now that is now resonant with your highest self? What programming are you running that you picked up in childhood, or from traumatic experiences, harmful relationships, and more that are not truly you?

Truly, who is your illness inviting you to become?

Illness is a sacred invitation to not reinvent ourselves, but reclaim ourselves. We only have to be wiling to answer that call to adventure and go through the challenges that arise in order to discover who that person is.

Until next time <3