There are two different paths that we can take.
We can live in avoidant life,
Or we can lead a heroic life.
An avoidant life is one of repression and avoidance.
We hide out from the world and move away from what we don't want.
The avoidant life is one where we are not simply staying away from the things that may hurt us or that we may not enjoy.
Deeper than that,
We are ran by those things.
Instead of facing the stuff that scares us,
That makes us uncomfortable,
That bothers us,
That triggers us,
Instead of going towards this and into it to see what lessons and growth and healing it has for us,
We avoid it.
We look in the opposite direction and move away from what makes us uncomfortable.
We are out of relationship with the things that trigger us,
That make us feel uncomfortable,
That we are afraid of,
That we don't want to deal with or look at.
Because we are not in proper relationship with them,
They have a power over us.
Everything that we avoid in our life holds the key to the very thing that we want.
Joseph Campbell says,
The cave you fear to enter holds the treasure you seek.
And in mythology and in the hero's journey,
We see that this is true.
So what is the shift from this?
The other path I mentioned in the beginning of this was the heroic life.
In contrast to the avoidant life,
The heroic life is one that instead of moving away from the things that bother them,
Moving away from what feels uncomfortable or scary,
The hero moves towards it and move into it.
The heroic life is one in which rather than being ran by this uncomfortable feeling,
This fear,
This uncertainty,
We thrust ourselves into the unknown.
We launch ourselves into the abyss.
We venture into the dark,
Shadowy cave.
We fight the dragons.
We embark on the journey.
We go out into the world where there is danger and discomfort.
The avoided life is not a life of joy and an absence of pain.
The avoidant life is one of suffering.
The heroic life may be a life filled with discomfort and failure and struggle and challenges and things that you don't like.
But that's what life is.
Trying to avoid all of that stuff will only lead to suffering.
My invitation is to abandon the avoidant life,
To stop avoiding all of the things that you think make you uncomfortable,
That you think you fear,
That you think that you should not have in your life.
And instead,
Choose to live the heroic life.
The heroic life is one that moves towards it.
It moves consciousness forward.
It leads.
It blazes the trail.
It slays the dragon.
That can be your life.
This is the calling to move into life.
All of it.
