Life has no meaning. Each of us has a significance, and we give life to it. It is a waste to ask the question when you are the answer. Joseph Campbell was influenced by Carl Jung's analytical psychology, and his extensive work in comparative mythology and religion covers many aspects of the human experience. In his most well-known work, The Hero with a Thousand Faces, published in 1949, Campbell describes the journey of the archetypal hero or monomyth shared worldwide, with the hero being someone who serves and sacrifices. He writes: A hero ventures from the everyday world into a region of supernatural wonder: fabulous forces are there encountered and a decisive victory is won: the hero comes back from this mysterious adventure with the power to bestow blessings on his fellow man. The hero's journey is not just a mythological story but is deeply rooted in the human condition. It tells the story of a person facing a difficult life problem and their journey to solve it through personal transformation. Sometimes, the change is intentional (new relationships, marriage, a new job, etc.), and the hero is motivated to attempt and endure the process of change. Other times, the change is unintentional (trauma, injury, relationship breakup, etc.), leaving the hero in shock. The hero's journey provides a template for all changes, intentional and unintentional. Patients who understood the hero's journey as a means to reconceptualize their disorder as a hero's quest, rather

External stress, they changed their attitude from passive to active, helping them become the author of their own lives. This has been clinically proven in a wide range of issues such as anxiety, depression, trauma, addiction, post-traumatic stress disorder, and psychosis. The therapist's role is to guide and support personal change, acting as a mentor. It allows clients to become hero-clients, helping them recognize where they are in their own process of change, how to navigate their treatment journey, and create their own story of change. In many hero myths, the hero's weakness is balanced by the appearance of strong guardian figures. A central hero of Greek mythology is Achilles, the greatest of all Greek warriors. As a child, he was guided by the wise centaur Chiron, tutor of gods and heroes, who instructed him in the arts of medicine, music, riding, and hunting. These divine figures are indeed symbolic representatives of the entire psyche, the broader and more comprehensive identity that provides the strength lacking in the personal ego. Their special role suggests that the essential function of the heroic myth is the development of the individual's ego consciousness, awareness of their own strengths and weaknesses, in a way that equips them for the challenging tasks that life presents. The significant problem in life is a situation where the hero's existing knowledge and skills are no longer effective.

In order to find a solution, the hero must leave his known and familiar world and venture into the unknown. The important problems in life force us to change; however, many of us are reluctant to do so because we do not want to sacrifice our comfort. Ignoring these issues creates unconscious obstacles that lead to a state of impoverishment in our personality and inhibit the growth of the good qualities that lie dormant in our psyche, causing our shadow to become darker and denser. We lose control of our lives and become puppets of existence. As the stoic philosopher Seneca writes: Fate leads the willing and drags along the reluctant. It's as if one continues to live but is dragged by chains or swims against the river currents. This is a characteristic attitude of the neurotic, an artificial barrier invented by oneself that causes internal conflict to avoid facing difficult life choices. Campbell tells us that heroic myths provide individuals with inspiration for aspiration. Myths have the ability to connect the everyday with the eternal, to give meaning to the mundane. In The Hero with a Thousand Faces, Campbell identified that a hero's journey occurs in three sequential phases: separation, initiation, and return. These are further divided into 17 sub-stages. However, we will use the most popular and modern adaptation by Christopher Vogler, detailed in his work The Writer's Journey, which is inspired by Campbell.

It proposes a twelve-stage hero's journey. The first stage of the hero's journey is the Ordinary World, referring to family life: the daily routine, stress, and joys of work, family, and social connections. A common feature is an increasing awareness that something is not quite right, that somehow life is missing. For example, an employee may be aware that their enjoyment of work has been decreasing over time, but the demands of their daily life or concerns about finding an alternative job lead them to an increasingly stressful situation, so they cling to their ordinary world. The separation phase of the hero's journey begins with the second stage, the Call to Adventure, which interrupts the hero's ordinary world comfort and presents a mission they must undertake. Unintentional calls may include the discovery of infidelity, the death of a loved one, a diagnosis of an illness, etc., while intentional calls include seeking a new career, moving cities, the arrival of a first child, etc. The Call to Adventure separates the person from aspects of their previous life and causes anxiety. Many are overwhelmed and believe their problem is beyond their capabilities, leading them to the third stage, Refusal. This is a very common and important stage that communicates the risks involved in the journey ahead. However, staying in the Refusal stage will lead to a deterioration in life and the.

One finds oneself with little or no motivation, highlighting the ineffectiveness of one's own coping strategies. This unfamiliar situation causes stress as one cannot deal with the problem of life. At this crucial turning point, the hero desperately needs guidance, leading to the fourth stage: Meeting the Mentor. The mentor is the archetype of the wise old man. Their function is to assist the Hero in their progress until they realize that personal change is necessary to resolve their problem, providing practical training, wise advice, or self-confidence to overcome initial fears, enabling them to move from inaction to action. These mentoring figures do not necessarily have to be physical; they can also be your favorite philosopher, a public figure, a family member, or anyone else you admire as your ideal self. When the hero commits to change, we enter the second phase of the hero's journey: initiation and the fifth stage: Crossing the First Threshold. The Hero now leaves the safe haven of the Ordinary World and enters the Special World, an unknown place where one faces their dragon, their worst fear, event, person, situation, or long-avoided memory. As the trials become more challenging, the hero hones their skills and gains experience. However, as the trials increase in complexity, the demands placed on the hero lead to higher levels of

Anxiety, and it is likely that their first encounter with the dragon will fail. Without help, they may consider giving up. In the sixth stage: Tests, Allies, and Enemies, the hero explores the special world and encounters tests and enemies. Here, they must seek allies, friendly forces that support the attempts at change and reduce the hero's isolation. A common barrier here is the fear of asking for help, of being seen as less capable, or possibly being rejected. Ironically, vulnerability becomes a key skill in resilience, rather than a sign of weakness. The seventh stage is the Approach to the Inner Cave, where one must make their final preparations before descending into the unknown. When the hero is ready, they face the eighth stage: The Supreme Test. It is the greatest challenge so far, the moment when everything seems lost for the hero, many feel they are back to square one. Fortunately, allies have witnessed this major setback and are present to help the hero. Over a period of time, repeated confrontation with the dragon leads to a growing understanding that what was once believed to be impossible is now possible. After facing the unknown and defeating the dragon, the hero experiences a psychological death and rebirth. The death of an old aspect of oneself and the birth of a new and more capable self. The Hero gains knowledge by receiving this as their Reward.

Ninth stage). But the journey is not over yet. Now begins the third phase: The Return. In the tenth stage: The way back, the hero must keep his reward and return to the ordinary world, but on the way, he will face more enemies and dragons. However, the hero knows that there is no turning back and is motivated to move forward. In the eleventh stage: The Resurrection, the tired hero must experience a second psychological death, experiencing a resurrection with the attributes of his ordinary self, in addition to the new perceptions of the journey and the characters he has met along the path of life. He moves from dependence to responsibility, from silence to finding his voice. The hero has increased his resilience and has learned to regulate fear, sadness, and other emotions that arise when acting. He is now purified from the land of the dead and can return home, leading him to the twelfth and final stage: Return with the Elixir. The elixir is the ultimate reward obtained in the hero's journey. It is something that the Hero can share with others, or something with the power to heal: wisdom, love, or simply the experience of surviving the Special World. The hero returns to his ordinary world with a new self, after facing terrible dangers and possibly death, but now looks forward to the beginning of a new life. This is not just a one-time linear path, but indeed a lifelong cyclical process.

Time and time again, you are called to the realm of adventure, you are called to new horizons. Every time, there is the same issue, do I dare? And then, if you dare, the dangers are there, and so is the help, and the fulfillment or the failure. This awareness of seeing life as a hero's journey allows the chaos and challenges of life to have both a sequence and a purpose. It provides us with a beautiful framework to face life's problems. An unwanted event can be seen as a call to adventure, life's difficult events as facing one's own dragon. When one completes these, they receive a reward, transforming into a new self, with an elixir to share the experience of the Special World with others. The hero's journey is: The quest to find the inner thing that you basically are. One of the phrases that Campbell repeats most often is Follow your bliss: If you follow your bliss, you put yourself on a kind of track that has been there all the while, waiting for you, and the life you ought to be living is the one you are living. When you can see that, you begin to meet people who are in your field of bliss, and they open doors for you. I say, follow your bliss and don't be afraid, and doors will open where you didn't know they were going to be. Following our bliss is not just doing what one likes to do and certainly not what

Surrendering completely to it, and the rest will follow. People say that what we are all looking for is a sense of life. I don't think that's what we are really looking for. I think what we are looking for is an experience of being alive, so that our life experiences on the purely physical plane resonate with our innermost being and reality, so that we truly feel the ecstasy of being alive. This feeling of ecstasy or happiness is associated with the hero's journey that we face daily in this life. He writes: The experience of eternity here and now is the function of life. Eternity is not a later time. Eternity is not even much time. Eternity has nothing to do with time. Eternity is that dimension of here and now that every thought in temporal terms cuts off... the experience of eternity here and now, in all things, whether considered good or bad. Heaven is not the place to have the experience; here is the place to have the experience. When you realize that eternity is here now, that it is within your possibility to experience the eternity of your own truth and being, then you grasp the following: That which you are was never born and will never die. I hope you have enjoyed this video. You can support the channel on Patreon or by liking, commenting, or sharing the content. Thank you for your attention ^_^

The Hero's Journey - Experiencing Death and Rebirth

In Pursuit of Meaning.

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