ANCIENT PRACTICE SOLVES MODERN DILEMMA

Photo by Sz Katarzyna on Pexels

"Our visions are essential to create that which has never been, and we must each learn to use all of who we are to achieve those visions.” —Audre Lorde

A CONTEMPORARY PARADOX

My presentation had touched a chord, prompting insightful comments from the audience. People spoke up to say that they wanted to take good care of themselves and create healthiness. Some said that they had tried many approaches, some of which had helped and others which were a waste of time. No one had found effective ways to create and sustain the levels of health, vitality, and confidence they’d envisioned. Although the audience members had used many good health-related strategies, their success was limited because—unbeknownst to them—their efforts were directed more toward staving
off illness and decline than toward cultivating healthiness and vitality.

There’s a reason for this. In our modern environment, health media, the health industry, and food suppliers constantly promote illness-related messages and health-depleting goods. Consequently, when health becomes associated with illness and decline, a paradox results—one that reflects the consciousness of illness mindset that many of us have developed.

TRANSFORMING OUR MINDSET TO HEALTHINESS

The fact that we have the potential to generate vigor, health, and vitality is rarely mentioned in mainstream promotions. Yet focusing our attention on the idea that healthiness and vitality are within our reach helps us expand and balance our perceptions. With this new consciousness of healthiness mindset, the methods for creating greater healthiness are much easier to recognize and adopt.

Finding an effective way to transform our mindset from one focused on illness to one focused on healthiness also creates a modern-day dilemma. How can we do this? Fortunately, a solution may lie in an ancient, universal pattern known as the hero’s journey—one also known for its capacity to transform consciousness. Hero’s journeys always begin with answering a call to adventure. Heeding the call and embarking on the journey may be one of the more effective ways to resolve this dilemma.

According to author and scholar Joseph Campbell, all mythological journeys “...deal with transformations of consciousness of one kind or another. You have been thinking one way. You now have to think a different way.” He goes on to say, “The hero’s journey can be understood metaphorically as a model for the living of life, which itself is a series of initiations.”

In other words, we are all heroes, and the hero’s journey has utility for everyone.

THE HERO’S JOURNEY

The essence of the journey is that the hero (person or group) accepts the call to adventure, leaves their ordinary world, and travels through a special, unfamiliar world. With guidance and help from mentors and allies, the hero overcomes challenges, conquers villains, and gains power and strength. The journey’s experiences are often symbolic of change and rebirth, and ultimately they transform the hero’s consciousness. The journey requires effort and sacrifice, can be pursued as a full or part-time endeavor, and can take months, years, or a lifetime to finish. A final ordeal completes the hero’s
transformation, and the hero returns with new perspectives and powers for navigating life as well as for helping others and society. 

Campbell described twelve stages of the journey which can be found in heroic tales across every culture. The stages begin with a call to adventure and end with the hero returning to the ordinary world transformed, enlightened, and empowered. A condensed version of the journey’s stages is illustrated in the diagram below.

THE JOURNEY OF A MODERN HERO

If this sounds familiar, it’s probably because, directly or indirectly, we’ve all taken hero’s journeys—for example, when we parent adolescents, open a restaurant, lead a community initiative, train for a 5K, or write a book. We often witness hero’s journeys whenever we read a memoir or watch a movie.

Hero’s journeys can be accidental or intentional. An individual’s journey to a consciousness of healthiness might include: responding to a yearning for greater health (the call); engaging in new topics and activities (special world); hiring a health coach (meeting the guide); challenging health’s status quo, mastering new health-building skills, and persevering (challenges and revelations); adopting new thinking patterns (transformation); and enjoying more healthiness and inspiring others (resolution and
return). Answering the call toward healthiness and undertaking the hero’s journey thus becomes a powerful practice for solving a modern dilemma.

A CONSCIOUSNESS OF HEALTHINESS IS WITHIN OUR REACH

With determination and focus we can marshal resources and ingenuity to fashion and travel on our own healthiness-focused hero’s journey. Or we can join with like-minded heroes in the special-world community of the High Health Network where insightful mentors, meaningful challenges, and a proven path to transformation are readily available and easy to access.

If you or your company want a revolutionary approach for solving modern, health-related dilemmas, contact us to find out how.

Joyce M. Young, MD, MPH
Managing Director, Advanced Wellness Systems
Lead Expert for the High Health Network

 Photo by Clem Onojeghuo on Pexels

Your colleagues at Advanced Wellness Systems