Yoga and the Hero’s Journey
How to Be the Hero of Your Own Yoga Story
Written by Hannah Moran, Yoga Teacher and Director of Marketing and Operations
If you didn’t already know this about me, I’m a bit of a TTRPG nerd (that’s tabletop role-playing games, for you non-nerds out there). In my free time, my friends and I play games involving dice-rolling and collaborative storytelling. We role-play as heroes in a made-up fantasy world, overcoming obstacles and saving lives, together as a team.
I was reflecting on my experiences playing TTRPGs the other day, and a thought occurred to me… The journey of a Yogi through their life-long yoga practice has some striking similarities to what a hero experiences in any traditional heroic tale!
In reality, the yoga practice itself is an incredibly personal one. Individuals experience yoga differently, as our bodies and minds operate under unique circumstances from one another. When we zoom out and look at the overall journey of practicing yoga throughout our lives, we may recognize certain similarities and shared experiences.
With that, let’s dive into the “Yoga Journey” as it compares to the widely recognized “Hero’s Journey,” effectively comparing the “Yogi” to a “Hero” :)
What Is The Hero’s Journey?
The Hero’s Journey is a universal narrative concept recognized and used by many storytellers. It reflects a generalization of the different phases that a hero/protagonist experiences throughout a story.
Joseph Campbell popularized the phrase “hero’s journey” in his 1949 book The Hero with a Thousand Faces. His assessment of the journey is divided into 17 sections (if you’d like to nerd out about it, which I strongly support, you can learn more in this article by Master Class). Since then, the phrase has taken on all kinds of evolutions and interpretations, but the heart of it remains the same. In this blog we will focus on just seven primary phases:
The ordinary world.
The call to adventure.
Refusal of the call.
The mentor.
Crossing the threshold.
The ordeal.
The return.
In short, The Hero’s Journey involves a call to adventure, overcoming challenges and obstacles, and returning home changed or transformed in some way.
Yoga and the Hero’s Journey
There are many places to begin a yoga journey: at home, in a studio, at the park, at your gym, on a webcam, etc. For the sake of this exercise, we will use the yoga studio construct as the setting for our hypothetical comparison:
1. The ordinary world. This is our life before we started practicing yoga. It’s dull, we have aches and pains, and we’re woefully out of shape. We might even be in some kind of emotional or mental distress, be that anxiety, depression, trauma, etc.
2. The call to adventure. Your friend invites you to your first yoga class! You start considering what life would be like if you practiced yoga regularly. Less stress, better overall health, hmm… It sounds like a good idea, but…
3. Refusal of the call. Nine times out of ten, we decline the invitation. Unfortunately, before we know any better, we’re often intimidated by the time commitment of joining a yoga studio, and/or the unfamiliar environment of a studio. As such, many of us pass on that initial invitation.
4. The mentor. If your friend knows what’s good for you, they continue to invite you to come out and try a yoga class with them. Perhaps they send you some short yoga sequences to try out at home. Maybe they’re a member at a local studio or a yoga teacher themselves. Either way, your mentorship begins here with the support of your friends, family and teachers, before you even step into your first yoga class.
5. Crossing the threshold. Finally, we take the leap and attend our first class in a studio environment. It’s scary, it’s exciting, it’s uncharted territory… And we have no idea what’s going to happen next… But we try a couple more, and suddenly, we’re hooked! We feel better, inside and out, and we are grateful to our “mentor” figure for pushing us to try it!
6. The ordeal. Now comes the trials and tribulations... As many of us experience, it’s not always easy to maintain a consistent yoga practice. Life gets in the way sometimes, providing all kinds of obstacles for us to overcome. Whether it’s because of a major life event or a simple case of the lazies, your practice WILL ebb and flow. You won’t feel strong 24/7/365. There will be days when it’s hard to get out of bed, let alone get to a 90-minute hot yoga class. This phase is when most people fall off the wagon, understandably so.
7. The return. Ah, the return! At one point or another, many of us experience the glorious homecoming to our yoga studio and community. We find ourselves once again feeling less aches and pains, using a positive physical outlet to de-stress, and simply feeling healthier overall. Homecomings like these are priceless to us, and it’s what makes our community of Yogis feel like a community of Heroes :)
Be the Hero of Your Yoga Story
While each person’s yoga practice is unique, our shared experiences in the bigger picture of the yoga journey span across backgrounds, generations, and all walks of life. We are more alike than we are different, and we are all heroes in our own right.
Remember: You are the hero of your own yoga story. Never give up on yourself.
What unique obstacles and experiences have you experienced along your yoga journey? Tell us in the comments below!
See you on the mat, Yoga Heroes 🦸
- Hannah
