Last week I took you through what a personal belief crisis looked like in our lives (as opposed to someone who’s fictional). Today I want to move that a step further.
In stories the hero most often has deep trauma from something that happened in their past. Often this occurred in their childhood.
I want to state that its not the trauma exposure that makes a hero - but the healing from that exposure. Traumatized people who don’t heal aren’t hopeless - but they often are reacting instead of trying to restore themselves.
Heroes have to heal. They have to move from helpless to heroic.
They have move from being a victim to being empowered.
This isn’t saying that you shouldn’t say what happened. There’s a place for that. There’s a time for sharing what you’ve been through. And sharing your story should always create healing, empathy and courage for those around you.
But to use a phrase from last week, you can’t camp in the ruins. Ruins should not be your basecamp for climbing the mountains of stories that take up society.
When people climb mountains the basecamp is where they start from and return to. You want your basecamp to be a safe place for rest, healing and security.
If your emotional basecamp is the ruins of your life, you are not going to be strong enough to climb up the mountain. You are always going to be scared of what’s in front of you. And its going to look more intimidating and terrifying than the actual task of climbing and succeeding.
Its not that everything needs to be perfectly healed… but you do need enough determination to take on whatever climb is next for you.
So what makes a hero?
How do ordinary people become heroes?
More on that next week.
But here’s an old link with a sneak peak: https://chronicwriter.substack.com/p/nechema-tecs-character-traits-of