What do you think when you read this?  The first time I heard this, I was on The Hero’s Journey as a participant during a week for women in the high and wild mountains of west Virginia.

  • Sasquatch may be real. Or may be a deer. Or maybe it really doesn’t matter- but screaming with your friends in the middle of the night and sleeping in the same tent is fun
  • Food loving prepared by the hands of another taken outside after a day of adventure, connection, soul searching, sun on your shoulders tastes really, really good.
  • People are good. And kind.  And mean well.
  • Flip flops are nice in the shower
  • Flashlights obscure night vision. And it’s safe in the dark.  Standing behind the light makes it harder to see.
  • Night sounds- crickets, wind rustling the grass and humming a lullaby in the pines above my tent, the distant sounds of women laughing- these are a few of my favorite sounds
  • The intensity of cold water- this has always been a deal breaker for me. Upon further investigation, cold water is invigorating. Exciting. Unusual, and makes me feel incredibly alive.
  • Crying in front of others- this has felt shameful and weak a good portion of my life. It was something I was chronically apologizing for. Too bad, because as a sensitive woman, I cry easily, and as such have spent a lot of time apologizing.  I’ve learned that there is nothing better than a person to sit with me while I cry, waiting for it to pass.  A person who hands me a tissue- not in the way of trying to get me to dry it up so we can move on to something more comfortable, but a person who has cried enough tears of her own to understand that my tears will indeed stop in time.
  • Being held while in an intense emotion.  Sometimes the holding was a group quietly listening while I talked, other times it was the soft, gentle sweet embrace of another woman as I cried, sometimes the thundering applause as I(or another) leapt for her freedom and voice.
  • Holding others- Feeling how careful I have been for so much of my life to not “bother” someone who is feeling something intense, and how incredible it feels to place a hand on someone’s shoulder and let them know I am there with them.

I cite these examples because for so long, I have experienced many as unpleasant or uncomfortable.   When the reality is, a little bit of breath, a bit of stretch through my body and so much of what previously deemed uncomfortable becomes quite exciting, exhilarating, comforting and connected.

“What you don’t experience positively, you will experience negatively”

Click here for more information on the “Hero’s Journey Foundation“.