If you’ve ever heard yourself say, “This is the story of my life,” you probably have exactly a story—a fable, a fairy tale, even a novel—to capture it, help you understand it, and perhaps retell it.
For example, if your life story is one of always carrying the weight of the world, you will repeat the story of Atlas. If you are often disappointed by your pride or ambition, you are living the myth of Icarus, who flew too close to the sun and fell to the ground. If you’ve overcome tremendous obstacles in your life, you’re living the story of the Phoenix. You send Pandora when your curiosity gets you into trouble, Sisyphus when your efforts are futile and endless, Narcissus when you are too selfish, Superman when you think you are invincible, Ahab when you yourself disappear. angerand Jonah, when you are constantly running from the call.
Odysseus is not the only story of Ulysses The Wizard of Oz only dorothy They are accounts someone they struggle to find their way home. Bilbo Baggins is one who is forced to leave the familiar for a greater cause. Exit is about any type of release from captivity.
Relating myths and legends to modern life
No matter what themes predominate in your life (trying to change the world, finding purpose or power, finding love, finding yourself, healing wounds) and no matter what qualities predominate. personality (independence, competitiveness, empathy, fearstubbornness, enthusiasm, narcissism), you can find fascinating parallels in the world of myths and legends and the characters who make these stories human – as well as insights, inspiration and cautionary tales.
Myths are not, as most people think, synonymous with lies and fanciful exaggerations, such as “The Myth of the Middle Class” or “Ten Myths about Parents“, although they are a bit like fiction in the sense that both contain stories that are not true, but they are true. They are not literally true, but they are psychologically true. They haven’t really happened, but they happen all the time.
They are also the stories we are prepared to encounter childhoodwhen they read children’s stories to us – pre-school fairy tales. And both begin with “Once upon a time” meaning not just a time that once was, but this time now and all time in the future.
How Classic Stories Parallel Everyday Struggles
In our modern reactions, battlefields can be very simple. They don’t take place in the Land of Oz or a mysterious island in the Aegean, and they don’t pit the hero or heroine against dragons or cyclops or hordes of flying monkeys. Instead, they take place in your home or office, your relationship with your loved ones, your relationship careeryour stubborn teenagersyour health And the results are capable of making or breaking you as the trials of Ulysses, Luke Skywalker, Dorothy and Goldilocks.
These stories are at the heart of human behavior, rooted in deep truths, universal themes, and patterns for ages, including your own. They are called archetypal truths – eternally repeating truths. And whether they are Norse stories, Siberian shamanic tales, Greek epics, or biblical tales, they are the most fascinating of all stories. convert: from sleep to waking, stupidity to wisdomwounding into wholeness, from being lost to finding one’s way. And like dreams and body signs, they offer tips, directions, and solutions. They don’t just diagnose; appoint
How to use mythology to inspire personal change
Whether you’re looking for change in your life and advice on how to achieve it, you might want to consider identifying the “story of your life” – or at least the dominant themes in your life and personality – and the stories that record it.
For example, if you want to wake up somehow, and not always throughout life, you can find inspiration and lessons for such a crusade in the stories about King Arthur. to sleep Beauty or the Grail King, because everyone speaks to the archetypal idea that when the king sleeps, those around him sleep and the kingdom sleeps. When the queen sleeps, so do those around her, and the kingdom sleeps. But when the king and queen wake up, so do those around them, and the kingdom begins to blossom.
This idea is deeply embedded in the mythologies, psychologies, philosophies, and religions of the world, and the point is this: when you wake up, you will help the kingdom. Your own business is the work of the world, it does Start in your own backyard and take small steps are big picture
Rewrite your life as a hero’s journey
For a deeper dive, you might even consider retelling your life story as myth or myth. If you choose the most enduring type of myth in the catalog—what mythologist Joseph Campbell called the “hero’s journey”—you cast yourself as the hero or heroine, and your earthly struggles as plot twists in an epic adventure.
The changes you seek become the goal of your quest, the obstacles to test your endurance and stabilityfriends and mentors become your allies and sponsors, and you can see the Big Picture of your life from the pressbox on Mount Olympus, where the gods are sipping mints and watching The Game.
Before sitting down for a writing session, consider the following components of a typical character’s journey:
* Hero / heroine: Are you a king or queen, a prince or princess, a space traveler, a monk, a prisoner, a farmer’s daughter, a fisherman, a wild animal or a house cat?
* Simple world: Where you start the journey – your familiar surroundings, circumstances, attitudes and beliefs.
* Invitation to travel: Suddenly there is a knock on the door – or a dream, a inner voicedisease – and you will face a journey that will determine the change you are looking for.
* Call rejection: The first step in answering a call is usually done by You feel afraid of the unknown, stop looking, play small and distract yourself. This is where you identify your hesitation or avoidance, your fear of seeking.
* Allies: Anyone or anything that attracts you with fear and then proceeds to encourage, provoke, teach, test, train and protect you; that brings a sense of it confidence to your trip.
* Obstacles: Anything that disturbs or tests you on your journey, from within or without. They can be demons and dragons, wizards and soldiers, but don’t necessarily confuse them with enemies. They can be allies in disguise, just as failures often lead to breakthroughs.
* Excellent test: The hero’s journey usually involves facing your greatest fear. Whether you’re inside the Death Star or an evil wizard’s castle, you’re bound to experience a moment of physical or mental breakdown here.
* Return: Returning from your journey to the ordinary world, you share with others the blessings of your quest—the status quo, a new story, a higher order of activity, reconciliation, treasure.
* Final exam: Relapse often creates a final check to see if you’ve really changed or if you’re just high on some kind of workshop; a last chance for the forces of darkness to strike at the victorious hero, as the evil Saruman did at the end of Frodo The Lord of the Rings.
To better understand which myth or legend you turn to in your life story, remember what the poet Stanley Kunitz said about these stories: “Old legends, old gods, old heroes never die. They just lie in the back of our minds, waiting to be called upon.”
