Walking the Hero’s Journey — Field-Reading – Week 27
Some weeks carry a particular energy that seems to weave itself into everything we experience. This has been one of those weeks. Without planning it, almost every conversation I have had, every person I have met, every reflection that has arisen within me, and every piece of work I have created has somehow circled back to one simple theme:
The Hero’s Journey. It almost feels as though life itself has been asking us to stop for a moment and look more deeply at the path we are walking. This week also carries dates that have shaped my own life more profoundly than almost any others.
On the first of July we celebrated my daughter’s birthday. On the second of July it was eleven years since my son Aleksander left this life. And on the fourth of July he would have celebrated his thirty-third birthday.
Every year these days invite me into reflection. They invite me to remember not only Aleksander, but also the journey that his life and his death opened within me. They remind me that every human life contains transitions that change us forever, and that the Hero’s Journey is not simply a beautiful story told in books or films. It is something we live, often without realizing it.
One of the things I have observed throughout the week is how many people are walking incredibly difficult paths. Some are carrying illness, some are carrying grief. Others are exhausted by work, relationships, financial pressures, or simply trying to keep life together. Again and again I meet people who are doing everything they know how to do. They work harder, push more and try to solve every problem through effort alone.
Yet despite all that doing, the resistance remains. Maybe that is because the Hero’s Journey is rarely asking us to do more. More often, it is asking us to see more. Resistance is not always standing in our way. Sometimes resistance is showing us the very place where life is inviting us to change direction, soften our grip, question old beliefs, or discover a part of ourselves we have not yet been willing to meet.
Our belief about transformation is often that life changes because we force it to. Yet some of the deepest changes occur when we stop trying to control every outcome and begin listening to what life has been trying to teach us all along. This week I found myself thinking about our black cat.
When she first came to stay with me in Lyngen, her nervous system lived almost entirely in survival. Fight, flight and hypervigilance. Every sound was a potential threat. Every movement required protection. She was carrying a body that had learned, in her first years, that the world was not a safe place. During the two months she stayed with me at Jægervatnet, something remarkable happened. She slowly discovered another possibility.
Little by little her body began to soften. She became calmer, more trusting and less reactive. She started playing more, resting more, and relating differently both to us and to her surroundings. Watching her transformation reminded me how rarely lasting change happens through pressure. Real transformation usually begins when the nervous system experiences enough safety to choose a new way of being.
Humans are not so different. Many of us are trying to create a beautiful future while our bodies are still responding to a past that taught us to survive rather than to live. That, too, is part of the Hero’s Journey. It is not simply about changing our circumstances. It is about allowing our entire way of meeting life to change.
Over the past weeks I have also created several resources that all seem to point toward this same understanding. This week I recorded the webinar “When Life Begins to Speak to You,” where I explore the Hero’s Journey as a universal human path and invite people to recognize the deeper meaning behind the events unfolding in their own lives.
This week’s Divine Design Podcast, “The Journey That Almost Destroyed Me,” is one of my most personal conversation this year. In it I share my own Hero’s Journey, the collapse that changed everything, the years of searching, the losses, the discoveries, and the gradual realization that what once appeared to be destruction was also preparing me for an entirely different life.
And this week I have also created a new quiz: “Which Phase of the Hero’s Journey Are You In?” The greatest gifts we can receive is not necessarily an answer, it may simply be to understand where we are. When we understand the phase we are walking through, we stop believing that something is wrong with us. We begin to see that perhaps we are exactly where transformation begins.
Looking back over these eleven years since Aleksander died, I can honestly say that I would never have chosen the path that unfolded. No parent would, and yet I can also say that love has continued to teach me. Grief has continued to deepen me. Life has continued to invite me into greater compassion.
The Hero’s Journey has shown me that the deepest transformations are rarely born from comfort. They are born from our willingness to remain present with life, even when life asks questions we never wanted to answer. This is the invitation of this week.
To ask what your journey is trying to awaken within you. Because every Hero’s Journey begins with a call. Every Hero’s Journey passes through resistance. Every Hero’s Journey asks us to leave something behind. And every Hero’s Journey, if we are willing to keep walking, slowly reveals that what once felt like the end was quietly becoming the beginning.
Continue the Journey
If this week’s Field-Reading resonates with you, I invite you to continue exploring the Hero’s Journey through a collection of free resources created to help you better understand where you are on your own path.
Simply enter your name and email, and you will receive immediate access to:
✨ The free webinar – When Life Begins to Speak to You
A 35-minute journey into the Hero’s Journey, Weltschmerz, and what it means when your body, your relationships, and your life begin speaking louder than you can ignore.
🧠The Hero’s Journey Reflection Quiz
Which Phase of the Hero’s Journey Are You In? Discover where you may be on your own journey and gain a deeper understanding of the transformation you are currently living.
📖 Free Reading – Receive the first seven chapters of my book:
WELTSCHMERZ — The Hidden Weight We All Carry — And How It Takes Lives
An exploration of the hidden emotional burden so many people carry without having words for it, and why understanding Weltschmerz can completely change the way we understand mental health, suffering, and the Hero’s Journey.
I hope these resources offer you encouragement, understanding, and perhaps a new perspective on the journey you are walking.