Master Key Experience Week 17 HJ: Double-Checking the Hero’s Journey Recipe

Last week was Week 17 in the Master Key Experience. This week, interestingly, is being called Week 17 HJ. That’s because four months in we’re taking a bit of extra time to make sure we each have all we need for the challenges that are ahead in the Hero’s Journey. I’m double-checking the helmet of my thinking, assessing how much “cement”/false-thinking from my past I still need to chip off to lighten the load. I’m checking the protective armor of the interlocking habits I’ve woven and re-weaving over the weak spots. I’m making sure I’ll have enough of the the purest water of positive thinking along. I’m taking time to check over each recipe and choose the right ingredients to take along for the soul nourishment crucial to my sacred quest. I’m checking with my Guides and others on their own Hero’s Journey for tips and wisdom.

It’s a journey humankind has chronicled from the beginning of time. The illustration below is a summary of Joseph Campbell’s work in comparative mythology and comparative religion, showing that no matter the race, the area of the world, or the time in history, the Hero’s Journey has these components. I’m in the middle of it. I am determined to successfully complete it.

This internal Journey up till now has been far from easy. Already I have had to work through deep and paralyzing fears as well as an immense lack of self-confidence. I have struggled mightily with the time commitment I made to find ways to incorporate the Journey into an already super busy life–and struggled with my personal shame and my discouragement at not being able to do assignments perfectly. I knew it was necessary to majorly shake up my life to re-set my subconscious, but the shake up was uncomfortable and even harsh. My vision of my Definite Major Purpose was so fuzzy that the effort to see clearly was exhausting and often discouraging when week after week nothing I tried brought it into clear focus.

I understand that about 200 people who started with us have dropped out of the MKE over these 18 weeks for some or all of these reasons. I don’t want to be one of them.

So this week I took the opportunity given to re-focus, make course corrections, and get more organized. As I head into the next part of the Journey, this map is in front of me at all times:

DMP. Now that it’s clear and precise in 400 words, I read my Definite Major Purpose at least 3 times a day with immense enthusiasm, knowing that linking emotion to thought is the key to success. To take advantage of the best times for the mind to absorb, I hold the last hour of the day sacred to include this and other reading and mindwork. This has meant letting go of my cherished habit of falling asleep listening to an audiobook–a huge adjustment. In the morning, I listen to myself on an audio I did of my DMP over my favorite sound in the world–the ocean. I then re-listen to recorded MKE Lessons as I begin my day with water, nutrition, stretching, walking in nature, and morning spiritual practices. This has meant giving up my news junkie habit of checking the news from 5 different news outlets from first thing in the morning to last thing at night. Giving myself fertile quiet, I am daily growing into Future Shirley’s Hero shoes, reading the press release I’ve created about her unique contributions, and joining my thoughts and voice to hers.

PMA. A Postive Mental Attitude is true refreshment for the spirit. I am now an observer of my thinking, gently noticing why my mind goes in directions it does, and doing better and better as time goes on. After months of striving not to express an opinion (unless I’m an expert in the topic), I see what a more peaceful world we’d live in if everyone did that! My daily reading of Og Mandino’s positivity shores me up.

POA. I have my Plan of Action. With the Guides, I’ve built this day by day, week by week, incorporating all the kinds of learning so that the plan sticks. It has color and shapes and archetypal images like a compass, a key, and a magnifying glass. It has daily index cards of service and celebration, movie images with a movie poster, a movie trailer, and a press release. It has multiple contrasting and complimentary ways to combine all this in mind gym exercises and physical action. It has practicing and observing virtues around me in the Franklin Makeover. It has a weekly strategy session, a weekly TO DO list, and weekly readings. It has studying and incorporating specific applicable Laws of the Mind: Law of Substitution, Law of Relaxation, Law of Practice, Law of Forgiveness, Law of Dual Thought, Law of Subconscious, and Law of Growth.

MMA. I had an active imagination as a child and became an earnest seeker as a teen. As a young adult I delved into sacred readings as a Catholic nun. In my middle years I discovered Joseph Campbell’s work and voraciously read Og Mandino, Napoleon Hill and too many more to mention. In recent years I worked hard to incorporate into my life humanity’s breakthroughs in psychology, social sciences, and neurology. But I did not get as far in all those decades as I have in four months with my new Master Mind Alliance! How unique we each are, and the same truths filtering through others so different from me has amplified my experiences a thousand-fold. This is what I have been missing all my life–this community of wise ones on the same Hero’s Journey who generously share their wisdom and experiences and questions without hype or pretense. Their personal support, unflagging encouragement, and sharp challenge makes the map glow!

So! I’m ready to move forward!

The question isn’t if we will weather this unknown; but how we will weather this unknown together. So on this meaningful morn, we mourn and we mend. Like light we can’t be broken even when we bend.

…In this chaos we will discover clarity. In suffering we must find solidarity. For it’s our grief that gives us our gratitude, shows us how to find hope if we ever lose it.

So ensure that this ache wasn’t endured in vain; do not ignore the pain. Give it purpose. Use it.

…We’ll observe how the burdens braved by humankind are also the moments that make us humans kind. Let every dawn find us courageous, brought closer, heeding the light before the fight is over. When this ends, we’ll smile sweetly, finally seeing in testing times, we became the best of beings.

America’s inaugural youth poet laureate Amanda Gorman,
THE MIRACLE OF MORNING, April of 2020.