‘The Interesting Journey of Becoming our Own Savior…’

Countless movies show us a scenario in which a hero suddenly shows up to save us from darkness. It implies that we are in essence helpless victims of our destiny. No wonder we – individually and collectively – all have a certain need to be ‘rescued’.

But the current transformative time our planet is moving through points us in a new direction: we are being called to starting thinking more for ourselves and to actively participate in our own healing and development rather than waiting around for someone else to save the day or a situation to magically improve.
In other words: ‘We are the ones we’ve been waiting for’.

Since this requires a level of emotional responsibility, not everyone on earth will be inclined to explore this path. We’ve all had years of training when it comes to pushing away our problems, pretending it’s all ok when it isn’t, or overthinking every little detail that happens to us.
So even though we don’t want that particular job anymore, or we want more fulfilling relationships or better health, it’s very understandable that it’s often more comfortable to keep doing what we’ve always done, because it feels so familiar…

Stepping out of our comfort zone requires a curiosity and a willingness to acknowledge and befriend both the light and the shadow aspects within ourselves. This is a journey of ‘Learning and Discovering’, and not so much looking for the ‘The Magic Pill that Fixes Everything Overnight’. It also entails wanting to learn how to celebrate our successes along the way as well as deeply appreciating and enjoying them, and no longer being focused on the many things we still need to work on. (In my experience as a practitioner, I’ve come to understand that this is the Nr 1 predictor of how much someone is going to benefit long-term from the ‘Inner Work’ they’ve been doing.)

A common misconception is that when we start practicing - and getting better - at ‘saving ourselves’ we’re not allowed to get any outside assistance. Quite the contrary: relying on ourselves more – in healthy ways - can take away a lot of the pressure we put on ourselves and on others. Focusing on improvement without the heavy load of expectations - both positive and negative ones - usually attracts the kind of help from others that is energizing (vs draining), longer lasting (vs short-lived), and more joyful (vs obligating).

I’d love to see more movies or TV-shows portraying new types of role models. Characters that dare to dream, yet aren’t afraid of becoming their own ‘savior’…
But until then, let’s fill in the gap ourselves ;-)…

© Els De Schaepmeester - For more info on how to work with me: www.thehouseofhealing.info