Where Ancient Wisdom Teachings Unmask Modern Parenting Mythology
Where Ancient Wisdom Teachings Unmask Modern Parenting Mythology
Both a grief cycle and a hero's journey share a similar structure of stages, encompassing departure, trials, and return, though with different contexts and emotional tones. The hero's journey, as outlined by Joseph Campbell, follows a character who leaves their ordinary world for an adventure, faces challenges, and ultimately returns transformed. Similarly, grief can be seen as a journey where individuals experience a loss, navigate its emotional landscape, and eventually integrate the experience into their lives, finding a new sense of self and purpose.
Both models describe deep personal transformation. The Grief Cycle helps understand the emotional stages of processing loss, while the Parenting Hero’s Journey frames the upheaval and growth of becoming a parent as a mythic transformation. They overlap in themes like resistance, suffering, surrender, and eventual growth—but where grief often ends in acceptance, the parenting journey may repeat cyclically, with each new phase (toddler, teen, empty nest) initiating a new call to adventure.
By Lisa Reagan
1. Denial / The Call to Adventure (or Refusal)
Read The Dangers of Refusing the Call of the Hero's Journey in Parenthood
By John Breeding, PhD
Read The Quest for Wisdom: The Elixir of Innersight
By Kelly Wendorf
2. Anger / Emotional Ordeal
Read Inner Child, Inner Wisdom Unmasking The Mythology Of The Modern, Uber Parent
By Robin Grille
3. Bargaining / Surrender & Seeking Support
Read The Baby is in the Shadow: How Going Back to Heal Our Earliest Life Trauma Can Help Us Go Forward
By Kate White
Read Transcendent Mentoring of This and Future Generations
By Michael Mendizza
4. Depression / Dark Night & Transformation
Read Parenthood as a Rite of Passage
By Ellie Taylor
Read Parenting in the Shadows of the Soul: Reclaiming the Hidden Treasure
By Meryn Callendar
5. Acceptance / Elixir & Integration
Read Mindful Parenting: The Spiritual Essence of Attachment
By Barbara Nicholson and Lysa Parker
Read The Well-Rested Parent: Surrendering to the Call, Chucking Perfect and Awakening Your Vital Force
By Karen Brody
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Note: The Heroic Grief Cycle, Heroic Grief Journey, Parenting as a Hero's Journey, and any variation on these themes are the copyrighted, intellectual property of Kindred World and their creator, Lisa Reagan.
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