The Ego and the Hero’s Journey

“The ultimate dragon is within you, it is your ego clamping you down.”---- Joseph Campbell

Establishing a healthy Ego is the prerequisite for taking the Hero’s Journey safely. The developed Ego helps us meet our needs for survival, satisfaction, safety, love and belongingness. It also contributes to our self-esteem, self-actualization and even transcendence. It balances our individual needs with the needs of others and in that way contributes to the survival and development of the individual, the family, the community, the nation and the species.

Ego is born when we begin to learn that what we do can affect what happens to us. No matter how old, wise or mature we become, each of us has a vulnerable little child within us who still bears the scars of our formative years. The Ego’s first task is to protect that inner child.

The Ego’s next task, and it’s basic function is to mediate our relationship with the outside world. It is the experience of some hardship or difficulty that is critical to the development of Ego strength. The period of preparation for our Hero’s Journey often seems hard, but that is because we don’t yet possess the skills that can make life easier.

Preparation for the journey requires each of us to be socialized adequately to be effective in the society we live in, and then to separate from the collective view of the world enough to assert independent values, opinions and desires. It then demands that we use this capacity for autonomy and independence, not for selfish ends, even though we want to seek our own good, but for the good of the whole as well.

Awaken the Hero Within |IBGR | Donna Kunde & Londina Cruz

1. “The hero of yesterday becomes the tyrant of tomorrow, unless he crucifies himself today.”― Joseph Campbell
2. In episodes 9-11 we explored the shadow sides of the 12 Archetypes and in episode 11 we got a closer look at extreme negative shadow sides in the form of addictions, compulsions and even shadow possession where we take either the positive or negative traits of the Archetype to extremes. 
3. If we are possessed by any of the Archetypes, the way to free ourselves of shadow possession is to awaken our heroic potential. Each of us has a hero within us but we are not always aware of that reality. 
4. The natural way to activate our inner potential is to shine the light on it. When we begin to see that we have a hero within us, the hero naturally wakes up! The same thing happens with our Archetypes. 
5. You can literally ask the Archetype to come into your life, or you may prefer to act. For example, to awaken the Caregiver, give to others without thought of return. To activate the Sage, study and work to improve your thinking skills. Finally, while awakening all 12 Archetypes leads to a whole and rich life, it is not realistic to think they will all be equally active.

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“Sometimes you just have to calm down a little bit and let the system work itself”. -BlakeGriffin Many professionals cause worry, insecurity and tension by trying to respond emotionally to something that doesn’t exist except in our imaginations. Doing nothing is the proper response to an unreal problem! Carry these thoughts with you as your “Calm Professional” first aid kit: Inner disturbance (the opposite of tranquility) is almost always caused by over-response. Practice not responding and put some distance between yourself and the disturbing stimuli. Cure old habits of over-response, triggers and conditioned reflexes by delaying the automatic, habitual response. Counting to 10 is a great place to start. Relaxation is nature’s own tranquilizer. It is also a “non-response.” Learn physical relaxation by incorporating it into your daily routine. Use the “quiet room in your mind” technique both as a daily practice to tone down nervous responses and to clear your emotional mechanism of “carry-over” emotions that would not help the next situation. Stop scaring yourself with your own mental pictures! Respond emotionally only to what is actually here and now … and ignore the rest.

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E23 Success is Found In the Present Moment |IBGR | Donna Kunde & Londina Cruz

“Only the frantic of fear can harm you. Your calm and centered self knows exactly what to do.”― Bryant McGill. If we want to be grounded we need to give all our attention to the present moment. When we worry about the future we swing the pendulum to one side. When we fret about the past the pendulum swings to the other side. When we give all our attention to the present moment we are grounded Plan on what you want for the future, prepare for it, but don’t worry about how you will react tomorrow or even five minutes from now. Your Creative Mechanism will respond and react appropriately in the “now” if you pay attention to what is happening now. Your Creative Mechanism can’t react successfully to what may happen. It can only respond best to what is happening right now. Practice becoming consciously aware of your present environment. If we don’t do this consciously, we continue to react automatically to some past experience.

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“No one can make you feel inferior without your consent.– Eleanor Roosevelt At least 95% of people have their lives darkened by feelings of inferiority to some extent and to many more these feelings of inferiority are a serious handicap to success and happiness. Feelings of inferiority originate from our conclusions regarding facts and our evaluation of experiences … not from the actual facts or experiences. Because we think and believe and assume we should be a certain way we feel miserable and conclude there is something wrong with us. Then the next logical conclusion is to reason that we are not good enough. All this happens because we have allowed ourselves to be hypnotized by the idea that “I should be like everyone else”. This can lead a person with an inferiority complex to overcompensate by striving for superiority.

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“Convictions are more dangerous enemies of truth than lies”. —Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche Every human being is hypnotized by ideas they have accepted from others and by ideas they have repeated to themselves or convinced themselves are true. Hypnotic suggestions can remove the ability of an athlete to lift a pencil or surpass what strength they thought they had. Hypnosis is not adding or subtracting anything from these people. It is the suggestion of a negative idea that either causes them to defeat themselves or exceed what they thought was possible for them to do. You are fully resourced. Everything you need for your success is within you, regardless of how many past failures you have had. You have the power to do things you never dreamed possible. This power becomes available to you as soon as you change your beliefs around them.

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E8 Two Types of Success Mechanisms and How to Make Them Work For You |IBGR | Donna Kunde & Londina Cruz “Success comes from knowing that you did your best to become the best that you are capable of becoming.” —John Wooden Your brain finds answers to problems in one of two ways. The first way is to know that the answer exists and scan the environment, rejecting one answer after another, until the object is found. This type is similar to an interceptor missile or autopilot on a plane. The second way happens when the answer is not known and our objective is to discover or locate it. We must assume the answer exists somewhere if we have been given the question. It is our job to find the answer using one of the two types of Success Mechanisms. Many people make the mistake of interfering with their success mechanism by demanding to know “how” before the goal is clearly established. The “how” only comes after you have formed a clear mental picture of the goal you want to create.

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E7 How Your Success Mechanism Works |IBGR | Donna Kunde & Londina Cruz “Your mind knows only some things. Your inner voice, your instinct, knows everything. If you listen to what you know instinctively, it will always lead you down the right path.” Henry Winkler Your brain and nervous system work much like a computer and when they are working together towards a goal, they become what is known as a “Success Mechanism.” Learn to trust your Success Mechanism and allow it to do its work. Don’t jam it up by becoming too concerned or too anxious whether or not it will work. You have to “let it work” instead of trying to “make it work.” Your success mechanism will continue to gather information even if it is in the form of mistakes and temporary failures. All servo-mechanisms achieve their goals by negative feedback and ‘recalculating.”

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