You are the hero of your own narrative, with the power to shape your destiny. You are literally super[wo]man.

Let me tell you why

so that you may understand how to transform your pain into your power and teach you how to defeat your villains and literally live your best life.

As with any great superhero story, it starts with your origin story.

This story aka your childhood, shapes how you will think, what you will do, the struggles that you will have. You blindly follow what you have been taught because of your innocence.

Then something wakes up your soul and you are called forward to something bigger.

Likely you denied this calling over and over again. Maybe that’s where you are right now.

If that’s true, this is one of the most exciting parts of your journey. Once you face your fear and take that step forward, your life will be forever changed. I hope these words inspire you to take your next step forward.

Once you say yes to your adventure, you’re met with trials and villains. These are all the painful things in your life that weigh you down. Another word a psychologist might use to describe the villains of your superhero journey is trauma. Big or small, trauma is trauma. And it hurts like hell.

What is your relationship to the villains in your story? The trauma you’ve suffered? Are you still harboring judgment, criticism, or maybe even hate towards these people or situations in your life?

Let me illuminate a hard truth. The only person you hurt by harboring judgment and hate, is yourself. For the world is your mirror, if you recall from the rules for being human.

So I’d like you to take a moment and reflect on your hero’s journey thus far, the situations that made you who you are today. Outline the pain points of your life - the trials you’ve had to overcome as life tests you over, and over, and over again.

I’d like to pose a reframe to you that will ultimately bring more peace into your life around the painful situations you’ve experienced.

Trauma hurts and until you learn how to change your relationship with trauma, trauma can rule your life and cause you to act in ways or think things that are harmful to yourself and others. Aka - turn you into the villain of your own story.

Let me remind you that you have the inner power to transform the narrative. Change your story. Be the hero. I dare you.

Humanity is called up in our collective hero journeys to transform our traumas and choose grace when we are actively hurting, get help when we need it, and forgive those who wrong us.

This reflection is occurring to me after a special day to honor a great man in history - Martin Luther King Jr. He knew how to handle villains better than anyone. He chose peace. He chose forgiveness. He was wise enough to recognize that violence begets violence. He knew that by hurting others, you hurt yourself. He knew the way through is love.

It is love that fuels the hero. And until you can face your villains and love them, you will be trapped in a cage of your own making.

There will come a time when you are presented with opportunities to step into the battlefield and heal the traumas from your past that actively rule your present and transform them so they no longer affect your future. When that happens, the people and scenarios you call villains will shed their costumes and you’ll see the humanity there. The pain they harbor, also. You’ll develop compassion for it. And you’ll know the truth.

That you can love this villain, even though it hurt you. This is unconditional love. And it is a bright epoch of the journey.

The more unconditional love you grow into, the easier life gets and the villains lose their power over you.

The more joy you have.

The more harmonious your relationships.

The healthier your physical, mental, and spiritual bodies become.

Such is the power of love. And it is available to all of us.

You simply have to answer the calling and put on your super suit.