How the Hero’s Journey can help you become a warrior of conscious change

Step one: Understanding collective trauma and grief.

Step three: Preparing for battle

Step four: Enlightened engagement with the opposition (you are here)

You don’t have to be on the front lines to make a difference.

Some days it may feel like you are living in a world on fire. You see it everyday, protests in the streets, the impact of quarantine at home, the pandemic around the world, civil unrest, conflicting information. You feel a call to show up, to help the world become a better place, to see the people you love thrive and no longer live in pain, hurt and fear. You believe in equality, justice, unconditional love and rights for all.

You feel the current state of the world intensely and profoundly. You witness the struggle of injustice, discrimination, colonization, instiititual and systemic racism. You long to get out and create change. Yet, your consciousness won’t let you. You carry the responsibility of the pandemic on your shoulders. You struggle with how to actively support and not jeopardize the cause, moreover others’ wellbeing.

You have been doing the work. You understand the impact and effects of collective trauma and grief. You have redefined and embraced selfishness. You have created healthy boundaries that support you and your mission. You are ready for battle.

You have the power to create change, even when you cannot march in the streets.

Truth 1:Change starts with you.

You witness people marching, protesting and gathering to create change and you long to be with them. Yes, there is power in numbers. However, the deep worldly change that you seek, no, demand, happens when we as individuals change forcing the collective to change.

As a therapist, who works with deep feeling empaths and millennials, I witness the profound struggle daily. The pain that the state of the world creates. The powerlessness and sense of hopelessness. The world’s problems seem too big to tackle.

You doubt yourself: How can one person affect global, systemic and institutional change? You sell yourself short. The world is full of examples of one person creating change that started with them. People like Greta, Maggie Doyne (build a women’s/children's home and school in Nepal), Freweini Mebrahtu (works to remove the stigma of menstruation), Staci Alsono (created a shelter that allows pets) and Woody Faircloth (rebuilds RV for housing for fire victims) just to name a few.

You see the beauty the world can be and feel powerless in where the world is.

Truth 2: You can only change you.

When you know yourself, you are able to show up and share your journey, your beliefs, your gifts. You start by creating the change you want to see in yourself.

You are on the Hero’s Journey

Every hero takes the Hero’s Journey. You, my friend, are on this journey. Joseph Campbell created the hero’s journey to explain how we grow as people. The stories and movies we love follow the hero’s journey. You are the hero, just like Luke Skywalker, Ren, Katniss, Nero, Frodo, Wonder Woman, the Avengers, X-Men, and so on.

It might be hard to imagine that you are as pivotal to the story as Katniss was to the Hunger games, but you are.

The phases of the hero

1. The call

They like you, heard the call. You may have ignored it at first. Hoped things would improve on their own, hoped that each incident was isolated, did your best not to generalize. And yet, injustices kept happening, the world seems to be polarized and you can no longer ignore the call. When you answer the call, the universe seems to step in and send you a helper, a mentor, a fairy godmother, a teacher. Here is where you decide to step up, to do something. Be an advocate for change.

2. Crossing the threshold

You cross the first threshold, you can no longer accept the status quo, the world that you know. You have decided to be an agent of change. You have taken the brave step to the new you, moreover a new world. You are leaving behind what you know, starting a new adventure. Here is where you enter the belly of the whale. This is where you decide to make your voice heard.

3. Hardships

From this point forward you will face tests and prepare for your journey ahead. You read, you research, you find yourself faced against those who oppose you. You struggle to find your words and feel enraged at those who continue to perpetrate harm against others. As your consciousness expands, you meet people who understand, support and inspire you. You feel a sense of synchronicity.

4. The abyss

Just when life seems to be falling into place, you feel as if you have your feet beneath you. Something happens that rocks your sense of self. Your ability to believe in yourself. You have entered the abyss. You meet people who remind you of your power, your abilities, who believe in you. You find yourself tempted by the way things were, the life you knew, and the promise of an easier way. Perhaps here you find yourself drawn to those on fringes or even just ignoring the issues that seem too much. And despite the pull to the darkside or call to go back, you have found hope, you see a new way, a different way.

5. Transformation

When people ask you to hold your voice, you don’t. When people argue with you, you are able to stand in your power. You are a conscious warrior.

6. Final Death and Rebirth

The last little bit of you clings to what was. To the past. That part of you that wants to go back. Yet, you have come this far. You are armed with new perspectives and confidence. You make the conscious choice to show up. You are reborn into the new, wiser, aware you.

7. Challenges to the Return

Here you face your final challenge. When you see injustice you no longer hide your head in the sand, you are able to confront what you see. You have stepped into your power, your voice, your abilities. You are enlightened with new perspectives.

8. Your return

You are now the master of two worlds. Your old world and your new world. You have made peace with who you are. You have traveled far and emerged anew.

You are a conscious social change warrior.

You can be anywhere on the hero’s journey. I suspect if you are reading this you are entering the abyss, about to step up and emerge a new you. Know that when you complete your journey you will be confident in your power, voice and self. You will truly be ready for battle from an aware conscious place that honors you.

You are ready to show up, authentically and consciously. Creating change that starts with you and spreads to the collective.

Now that you have traversed the hero’s journey. What will you do? How will you show up?

4 ways to be boots on the ground

(you don’t have to be on the front lines of the protests to make a real difference).

How to show up and influence collective change

You are Katniss, Padme, Ren, Wonder Woman.

Befriend and use technology.

Post support on your social media. Share your story, who or what is inspiring you. Share others’ stories. Share your alliance. Repost posts you like, that move you, inspire you, and speak to your cause. Comment on posts. Start a conversation. Start a blog or vlog. Facebook, Twitter, Tiktok, youtube, and IG are your weapons.

Start a book club or host a viewing party with friends or virtually.

Read books and watch shows/documentaries that make an impact, educate, and start a conversation. Share what you’ve learned and how you felt.

Need ideas?

Inclusive Therapists has a list of books to get you started.

Resmaa Menakem has a list of websites to check out to further your mission.

21 Day Racial Equality Challenge

Do a web search for the best documentaries

Do a web search for the best books on the topic you are passionate about championing

2. Get creative.

If you aren’t feeling up to being on the front lines or able to hold space and listen.

What are you good at? What are your talents? How can you use your talents to support the cause?

You can:

help organize an event
clean out your pantry and donate food
donate money
post on social media.
paint a mural and share on social media
write a blog or post and share
share posts and blogs and articles that inspire and impact you
start a vlog
put signs in your yard
support local businesses that are owned by BIPOC
read a book. watch a documentary. education is a powerful weapon

3. Join causes that support what you support.

What are you passionate about? BLM? The environment? Animals? Civil Rights? Refugees? Human Rights?

Start by making a list and pick your top 3. Next, do some research. Do a web search. Ask friends and family. Search social media. Next make a list of ways you can support, volunteering, donating, posting on your social media, attending meetings or protests, reposting.

4. Get uncomfortable.

This is for the white allies out there.

Support businesses owned by those of a different race or ethnicity.

Know your neighborhood and community.
Get out into your community. In the midst of the pandemic, use your digital resources- apps such as Black Nation. You can google black-owned, indigenous-owned businesses near me.

Get to know the community members that are a different race or ethnicity from you. Use social media to mind those people who are different than you. Many communities have websites, Facebook pages, check those out. Pick someone in the group, send a friend request, and get to know them. This isn’t asking them about the current state of events. This is knowing them as people, what do they like, dislike, love, enjoy, do for work, where did they grow up?

This can all be done virtually, so you don’t feel like you are compromising yourself or others. However, if you feel comfortable, visit those businesses, gathering places in person.

You are here because you are a changemaker.

You see the big picture of society and the planet. You have the tools to create a better world, one step at a time.

As you step forward, remember your mantra, “What I do matters.”

Don’t miss out on working with your trauma.

4 ways to be boots on the ground when you can’t be on the front lines of a protest