There’s a story in all of us, the kind Joseph Campbell wrote about in books like, “A Hero with a Thousand Faces”, and “The Power of Myth”. We are each filled with archetypes and epic journeys of the soul.

“I wonder what your myth is,” I think to myself as I watch strangers hurrying around airports, sipping coffee in cafes, or coming and going through doorways. Are you a gladiator? Do you have hues of Judas in you? Could you be the love of someone’s life?

Carl Jung said, “Until you make the unconscious conscious, it will control your life and you will call it fate.”

Sometimes, we embrace a role/s so wholeheartedly, we forget it is a role. We become method actors. We fall for the costumes, the sets, and the setting.

We introduce ourselves with pre-written scripts, like “I’m American,” or ”I am 44 years old,” or “I am a working mama,”, and fully believe that is all we are. We inhabit the role in the very pores of our skin. And the longer we’re at it, the more pitch perfect & embedded our costume of an American, 44-year-old, working mama becomes. Eventually, we take it on as our identity and life.

But what would it be like to switch it up once in awhile? To veer off the script? Would it change the play? Would it affect the other characters? What would it take to express different words, lines, or emotions – the ones that our soul truly speaks?

Maybe it would mean not acting quite so 44-ish, or giving ourselves a different set of motivations. It could also mean leaving behind phrases like: “I am not so good at taking care of myself,” or “I don’t know how to …… ” and instead, speaking confidently.

What would your life look like if statements such as: “I love my body. I just love how it looks and feels right now,” or “I can’t wait to give away more money – doing that lights me up,” became the norm? Or you gave yourself the freedom to do something totally utterly extravagant and out of character.

How would it feel? Unfamiliar? Exciting?

Are there any areas in your life that you would love to rescript, or change costumes in? What motivation do you need to lay down your role, and speak as your true self at home, with your family, or at work?

Photo credit: realvj.com

It takes guts to live this life fully awake, but I can promise you: the rewards make the journey so completely worthwhile. We can change our ideas. We can create a new life for ourselves, word by word, action by action, and deed by deed. We can open ourselves to possibility, and fill our hearts to the brim with joyful surprises, adventures and soulfulness.

Now let’s do it!