The term ‘the heroine’s journey’ evolved from the original work of author Joseph Campbell. He extensively researched the structure of stories and myths from around the world and over time and found a common architecture. One that mirrors our own life experience of transformation.
The Hero’s (or Heroine’s) journey reads like a three act play: –
Act 1 – Setting the scene. Who you were at the beginning of your journey. What was unfulfilled in your life? What did you most desire? How were you coping or not coping with the situation?
Act 2 – Here we reach the centre of your story. We are keen to know the answer to the following questions. What is the crisis, change, struggle or challenge you face? How did you respond? What actions did you take?
Act 3 – Coming to the other side of the experience – still with its own challenges but facing them differently with the insight you have gained. Questions like these are asked and answered. Is there a transformation? Who are you now?
Photo by Gabriela Braga on Unsplash
‘Change brings challenges and stories show us how to face and overcome these. They inspire and instruct us’
Alison Wearing (Memoir writer)
While Joseph Campbell’s focus was on the masculine struggle in stories Psychotherapist and student of Campbell’s, Maureen Murdock, highlighted the feminine journey. A similarly structured sequence with its own unique aspects.
- A young girl grows up surrounded by stories that make her believe she exists in a perfect world. She sees herself as an equal while also believing the men in her life will take care of her. (Cue our childhood fairy tales). She is eager to please and relatively naïve about life’s realities.
- Real life experience reshapes her beliefs. She finds herself in situations where she feels unprotected, hurt or possibly abused by others. As a woman she lacks a position of power or authority. Her people pleasing is taken advantage of and others push her boundaries leading to disappointment with her life and her place in it.
- Feeling hopeless is tempting but instead she tries to do something to address the status quo. Others tell her she can’t do it. She wonders what others will think yet is motivated to change the whole direction of her life. She leaves the safety and security of what she knows and her ‘home’. She looks outwardly for tools and people to guide her journey.
- Now she is in the eye of the storm. She is living in survival mode. She fears letting go and expressing herself. There is a keen sense of abandonment and not knowing whether to trust her intuition.
- She makes small steps forward. There is some progress but also experiences of failure. Each time she picks herself up she realises she has learnt more about herself. Her courage, independence and self-compassion keep her moving forward.
- Things get worse and she feels a sense of failure and defeat. A sense of hope seems far away.
- She reaches for the feminine quality of connection allowing others to give her a hand. She embraces the support and understanding of others and sees her own feminity in a more positive light.
- She is now stronger and more aware. She sees the world differently. Her qualities of courage and wisdom come to the fore. She is more confident of her place in life and faces her own fears with self-compassion.
- She returns to the world as it exists with a new clarity. Seeing the world for what it is rather than the idealized one she once believed in. She has changed but so too have those around her who have witnessed her journey. Some will stay firmly by her side while others are no longer part of her life. She now has a new toolkit of coping strategies and the rewards of her journey stay within her.
- Her own heroine journey becomes an inspiration. She may advocate for the struggles her journey entailed, supporting and equipping others who experience similar situations. It may lead to deeper meaning and life purpose as she shares her own story of transformation and change.
Take a look back over your own life. There are probably times you can identify when you have been on your own heroine’s journey. Change is always happening in small increments. Often silently in the background shifting the dynamics in our life circumstances and relationships. The term ‘stuck’ often arises when we feel unable to move forward. What we are feeling at that time is an invitation to take this transformational opportunity.