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As you make your way past Tagum City—a town about an hour north of Davao City in Mindanao, and the place where Save the Children has decided to base its Bopha/Pablo typhoon response operations—the destruction slowly increases with each kilometre you travel.  Up through the Compostela Valley there are pockets of destruction—in some areas almost no structure has a roof and many wood and bamboo structures have been completely destroyed; other areas are relatively untouched.  

This paled in comparison to the almost total devastation of the coastal areas of Boston, Cateel and Baganga in Davao Oriental Province.  The once lush, green forested areas that back the beautiful coastline are now almost completely barren—coconut trees lie as they fell like giant sticks littering the sides of the hills.

In Baganga Municipality, where Typhoon Bopha/Pablo made landfall, the destruction is all encompassing and extensive.  Local authorities there have registered 156 deaths from the Typhoon with 85 people still missing.  Authorities were quick to point out, however, that this figure could potentially go up as it has been hard to access many of the far flung barangays or villages.  Like in other Municipalities, local child protection councils had been formed before the typhoon, but most are not very functional and given the scale of the destruction and the focus on meeting the basic survival needs of people, child protection has not been a key focus of relief operations.  I had made the appeal two days earlier at an OCHA led workshop on Humanitarian Action Plan (HAP) revisions that it was time that we considered child protection as a lifesaving sector. This is one of Save the Children’s key advocacy messages and in line with the newly launched Child Protection in Emergency Minimum Standards.

In Baganga, I was told by a Municipality worker that roughly 25% of children were out of school before the typhoon.  “These children were primarily engaged in coconut harvesting and fishing work,” she said.  “Now that the coconut trees have been destroyed, we worry that even more teenagers will not return to school and will migrate to other areas to look for work and other opportunities. They will be extremely vulnerable.”

10 bunkhouses—ten families can be housed in one bunkhouse—are planned and/or are already partially completed for the Municipality, yet we heard concerns from locals that these shelters offered little in the way of privacy for women and children.  “There were some cases of sexual and gender based violence against women before the Typhoon,” a Municipality authority stated, “so we are concerned about the safety of women and girls.  Shelter is a pressing need, but more inputs are needed from women, girls and children before construction of these bunkhouses.”

Children in all three Municipalities that I spoke with, while in many ways displaying a great sense of resiliency, appeared in many ways to be having difficulty processing the aftermath of the emergency.  Universally, all children I spoke with said that when it stormed, or was windy or rained that it made them feel scared.  Adults and parents corroborated this.  Adults also commented that while children continue to find some time playing with friends, they rarely talked and that their play was somehow lethargic and emotionless.  Many children I spoke with were scared that they might not be able to return to school (despite plans for schools to reopen soon) or that they might not be able to ever meet friends that had left the area. Others feared that their families’ loss of livelihoods options might mean they would have to drop out of school and migrate with their family in search of work and income.

In Baganga, Municipality authorities commented that while parents in the area were generally well meaning they lacked extensive knowledge of positive caregiving for their children—this worried her in that as the recovery period wore on, adults may become more stressed and frustrated themselves and might “take out” these frustrations on their children.  “Parents here need information on how to care for their children better both after an emergency and in normal circumstances,” she said.

In order to address this, Save the Children has established and/or is in the process of establishing Child Friendly Spaces (CFS) as a safe space for children to come together and take part in structured activities which helps them gain a greater sense of normalcy and builds on innate resiliency.  Moreover, the CFS gives parents/adults time to begin to rebuild their own lives while not having to worry about the safety and care of their children.  The CFS is an environment in which parents can also receive positive caregiving and parenting inputs from Save the Children and partner organisations trained in positive discipline and caregiving.  10 CFS’ are planned for Compostela Valley and 5 for Cateel with plans afoot to raise additional funding for psychosocial and other child protection programming in additional communities in Davao Oriental.  In each community, Save the Children will help to organise and establish a Child Protection Committee or Group, which can help with monitoring protection issues and can link their efforts with Municipality and other authorities.

Children caught up in crisis events need information. They need to know what has happened and why, in order to rebuild understandings about the world and themselves. Save the Children encourages caregivers to talk to children about what has happened and stands committed to work with parents, partners, duty bearers and children themselves on ensuring the protection of all children—it is a lifesaving matter. 

“The world now has a very clear choice. We can choose to address the twin issues of population and consumption… Or we can choose to do nothing and to drift into a downward vortex of economic, socio-political and environmental ills, leading to a more unequal and inhospitable future.” Sir John Sulston, Royal Society Fellow on the Society’s recent report.

Overconsumption in rich countries and grinding poverty in much of the world are a threat to social stability and environmental sustainability. Britain’s Royal Society spent the past two years studying this, and their report (download the report here) is well worth a look.

Key recommendations include:

1. The international community must bring the 1.3 billion people living on less than $1.25 per day out of absolute poverty, and reduce the inequality that persists in the world today.
2. The most developed and the emerging economies must stabilise and then reduce material consumption levels.
3. Reproductive health and voluntary family planning programmes urgently require political leadership and financial commitment, both nationally and internationally.
4. Population and the environment should not be considered as two separate issues.

If you can’t face the full report, the BBC summary is nice!

The LA Times is running a long over-due op-ed here on how misleading administrative costs are as a measure of charitable effectiveness. It won’t be news to anyone who works in the non-profit sector, but I’m always disappointed at how little push-back there has been from the sector on this metric. It’s high time we started being more assertive about what we want to be held accountable for.

I don't blog on louder than swahili any longer.

Please, visit me on my newest blog here.

Crossing my fingers and hoping this works . . .

Extra Extra is no longer being updated. May I suggest you take a look at Solo Kinshasa?

Continuing on from my previous NLP and Bandler post, you must be more interested to learn some other Neuro-Linguistic Programming exercises. (Visit the previous post to learn more about the fundamental NLP concept of submodalities.)

The following 4 NLP exercises are also excerpted from Bandler’s “Getting the Life You Want.” The great thing about Bandler’s book is that he provides the NLP exercises in an easy-to-read manner. They’re easily accessible and organised well.

These 4 exercises stood out for me and I want to remember them, and by recording them here, these exercises may help you too!

Getting Through Exams

1. Before you study, organize your study so you make it similar to the kinds of circumstances you’ll face in the exams.
2. Remember a time you felt confident, excited, and superbly focused. See what you saw, hear what you heard, and feel how you felt. Amplify the feeling.
3. As you study take time to look at particular notes you have and practice hallucinating them in different locations around the room. Do so until you can see them anywhere you put them by imaging them vividly.
4. When you go into the exam, bring about the same state of confidence, excitement, and superb focus again and spin the feeling.
5. Begin to answer each question but imagine being back in your room and hallucinate the answers in front of you in the same way.
6. See yourself vividly and notice the way you are smiling, breathing, standing, and moving. Move in that way.

Getting to Study

1. Imagine something you are really motivated to do and create the feeling and spin it inside you to intensify it.
2. Imagine yourself studying and doing really well in the exams.
3. Spin the feeling of motivation faster and faster as you think about studying and doing exams.
4. Think about not having enough time to study and spin the urgency.
5. Think about studying again and doing well in the exams as you spin the urgency and feeling of motivation faster and faster.

Motivate Yourself with Words

1. Think of something you find yourself easily motivated to do.
2. Notice the tone and rhythm of your inner voice that you use when you talk to yourself about these activities.
3. Become aware of the different words that work best to motivate you out of the following choices:
   • I WISH
   • I WANT
   • I NEED
   • I HAVE TO
   • I’VE GOT TO
   • I MUST
   • I SHOULD
   • I CAN
   • I AM DOING
4. You will notice that some of these words work better for you than others and motivate you more than the others. Use the words and the tone and rhythm of the words and voice that motivates you. (Check out my other NLP post for more about auditory and other submodalities)

How to Make More Money Exercise

1. Build a belief in yourself being wealthy.
2. You can do this by going back to the inventory where you found the sub modalities of a strong belief. Take the thought of you becoming successfully wealthy in the near future and move it off and back up into the sub modalities of the strong belief Do this a number of times.
3. Focus on making your money based upon what you know rather than something you don’t know much about.
4. Learn everything you need to know about whatever business or opportunity you are looking at. Research in depth so you are absolutely clear on everything.
5. Find a mentor who has already succeeded in the business you are in and ask them all the questions you have about how to make it work.
6. Always ask how you can be more valuable to the world and prepare to work more effectively than ever before.

These 4 NLP exercises are found in Bandler’s book, and be sure to check it out to find out more about NLP and more ways to achieve peak performance in your life and work.

Do you have any other NLP exercises that you know or use in your life and work? Share with us your ideas below.

Related posts:

1. Neuro linguistic programming (NLP) exercises by Richard Bandler to help you achieve peak performance in life
2. The ultimate success formula

Technology in our modern world has developed so much in the last 100 years. You can see this in the technological advancements in computers and communication and transport.

Just as there have been great leaps in progress in technology in these areas, we have also seen advancements in the technology of your mind and body.

Neuro-linguistic programming (or NLP for short) came about when Richard Bandler and John Grinder went on a mission to find out what works when using our minds to achieve what we want. They noticed that much of previous reserach on psychology focused too much on the problems and explaining how the mind works or how mental challenges (like fear or anxiety or limitations) come about. However, the discipline of psychology often lacked clear steps for people to take control of their own minds. It lacked a coherent way for people to use their brains in a systematic way that could work for them to get the life they deserved.

Bandler and Grinder then did research on psychologists and clinical psychiatrists who were actually achieving results with their patients. They particularly followed much of the work of the American psychiatrist Milton Erickson. Overall, they discovered that there are certain ways that you can use your mind and language in order to program yourself and your habits to achieve anything you want.

NLP’s purpose is really to “find ways to help people have better, fuller and richer lives.” Originally, NLP was catered to address psychological problems like phobias, depression, habit disorder, psychosomatic illnesses, learning disorders. However, in more recent times, NLP has been promoted as a “science of excellence”. It has led to a greater impact in management training, life coaching and even for peak performance in sports.

NLP exercises to help you get the life you want

NLP does sound like it has great potential. But do it’s techniques really work?

A number of psychology academics have criticised NLP for a lack of theoretical evidence. However, NLP practitioners argue that NLP focuses less on scientific theory, and more on real-world application.

Of course, when it comes to theories and academics, there are always debates. (Think even about nutrition and food and diet debates). I agree that it can get really annoying.

Therefore, the best way to find out if NLP works, is to test them yourself. (Just like any sort of diet). What works best is what works for you.

Since Bandler is one of the founders of NLP, I therefore decided to get a hold of his book, “Getting the Life You Want.” The exercises below are excerpted from his book. They are the ones that stood out for me and felt would be great to share with you.

Even if NLP doesn’t work out for you, the best thing about thinking about NLP is the process of self-analysis. You being to question your actions. You being to see the patterns in your behaviour. Through this self-reflection, and looking at yourself from outside yourself, you then have the power to change yourself.

What are your submodalities?

In NLP, it is suggested that whenever you feel a certain way, you are actually representing the situation in a certain way. You represent whatever happens to you using various submodalities.

One major way of taking control of your emotional state so that you get yourself in a peak state, is to understand your submodalities. When you examine yourself and how you represent and perceive the past or present or future, you will recognise that there are specific things you do in your brain.

If you notice the patterns in how you think and represent, you can then take control of yourself. For example, you can then notice what goes on in your head when you feel fear. You can also notice what goes on when you feel confident and unstoppable. When you notice these patterns, you are then in a position to be able to use your brain and your thoughts in a way that you choose.

Here is a list of submodalities that Bandler outlines:

Visual Submodalities:

• Number of images
• Moving/Still
• Size
• Shape
• Color/Black and white
• Focused/Unfocused
• Bright/Dim
• Location in space
• Bordered/Borderless
• Flat/3D
• Associated/Disassociated
• Close/Distant

Auditory Submodalities:

• Volume
• Pitch
• Timbre (mood of sound)
• Tempo
• Tonality
• Duration
• Rhythm
• Direction of voice
• Harmony

Kinesthetic Submodalities:

• Location in body
• Tactile sensations
• Temperature
• Pulse rate
• Breathing rate
• Pressure
• Weight
• Intensity
• Movement/Direction

Olfactory/Gustatory Submodalities:

• Sweet
• Sour
• Bitter
• Aroma
• Fragrance
• Pungency (strength of smell)

It will help you to know which submodalities are working in your mind and body when you represent your feelings and experience. Submodalities are fundamental in NLP, and they are featured in many NLP exercises, to get you into peak performance for your life and work. Check out the following exercises below that Bandler features in his own book.

How to Feel Wonderful Exercise

1. Think of a time you felt wonderful.
2. Close your eyes and imagine that time in vivid detail. See the image clearly, hear the sounds loudly, remember the feelings as they were then.
3. Imagine yourself stepping into that experience and imagine being in that memory as if it’s happening now. See what you’d see, hear what you’d hear, feel how good you’d feel. Make the colors stronger and brighter if that helps. Notice how you were breathing back then, and breathe that way now.
4. Pay attention to the wonderful feeling in your body and get a sense of where the feeling starts, where it goes, and the direction it moves in. Imagine taking control over the feeling and spinning it faster and
   faster and stronger and stronger through your body as the feelings increase.
5. Think of a time in the future where you could use these good feelings. Spin these feelings throughout your body as you think about the future and the things you are doing over the next few weeks. Don’t be too surprised if you find yourself feeling really good for absolutely no reason.

Changing Bad Feelings Exercise

1. Think about somebody who annoys you, intimidates you, or irritates you. Make an image of him/her and see him look at you in whatever way he looks at you when he is annoying you. Hear him say whatever it is he says and notice the bad feeling that happens in your body.
2. Take this image and make it black and white. Move it far off into the distance. Make it much smaller, oneeighth its size. Place a clown’s nose on his face.
3. Hear him say whatever it is he says, but hear him say it in Mickey Mouse’s, Donald Duck’s, or Sylvester the Cat’s voice.
4. Notice how you feel differently. Then distract yourelf for a few moments and think of him again. You will still be feeling differently about him.

Related posts:

1. You are a human “BE”ing. Not a human “DO”ing.
2. The ultimate success formula
3. 4 main excuses people use to stop them from thinking BIG

One of the most important conversational skills initially in any language is to know how to greet people. Arabic greetings can be elaborate and prolonged, but some all-purpose expressions will get you by:

The following notes come from Wightwick’s and Gaaafar’s “Mastering Arabic“, which I am using now.

Remember: These greetings are mainly in modern standard arabic. Different arabic-speaking countries may have specific greetings according to their colloquial dialect.

Greetings

• أهلا (ahlan) Hello
• أهلا بك (ahlan bik/biki) Hello to you (talking to a male/female)
• صباح الخير (sabah al-kkayr) Good morning
• صباح النور (sabah an-nur) Good morning (reply)
• مساء الخير (masa’ al-khayr) Good evening/afternoon
• مساء النور (masa’ an-nur) Good evening/afternoon (reply)
• مع السالمة (maaعs-salama) Goodbye

Tip: The reply to a greeting often varies from the original, although it is also acceptable to use the original phrase in reply.

Related posts:

1. أنا ماثيو البارتو “I am Matthew Alberto” – in Arabic!
2. اللغة العربية الفصحى What is the difference between Modern Standard Arabic (MSA) and the Spoken Colloquial Arabic dialects?
3. طفل Baby steps for Arabic words and sentences

It would be useful for you to know that the Arabic content for this website, is specifically targeted for learning Modern Standard Arabic. The articles so far and the in the future, will be mainly geared towards MSA. Only after I’ve got a strong grasp of MSA, will the articles move onto other spoken colloquial dialects (perhaps Egyptian or Levantine).

Nowadays, though, I’ve been going through Wightwick’s and Gaafar’s textbook “Mastering Arabic.” It’s a great, and easy-to-follow text that teachs you how to learn Modern Standard Arabic (MSA).

What is the difference between Modern Standard Arabic (MSA) and the Spoken Colloquial Arabic dialects?

Note that MSA is the more formal arabic that is understood by all arabic-speaking people. Each arab country speaks their own variant of colloquial arabic. For example, locals in Egypt speak a colloquial Egyptian Arabic, while locals in Iraq speak a different kind of colloquial Iraqi Arabic. This sort of distinction may be difficult to grasp at first. While speaking arabic may differ from place to place, MSA is used for writing, and the written arabic is more universal and commonly understood amongst all Arab countries. MSA is mainly derived from classical arabic, which is found in the Quran. MSA is a kind-of modern version of classical Qur’anic arabic. MSA is also used for formal functions as well as arabic TV and radio news, and the use of MSA for these purposes is consistent throughout the Arab countries.

For a clearer understanding of what Modern Standard Arabic is, click here.

If you are beginning your journey on learning Arabic it is important for you to decide which type you are going to actively study: whether the Modern Standard Arabic or the spoken-colloquial arabic that is specific to each of the arab countries. It took me a while to fully grasp that the Arabic language overall is a phenomenon of diglossia, which means that Arabic speakers generally read and write in Modern Standard Arabic, however, Arabic speakers converse with one another using their local colloquial variant of Arabic (e.g Egyptian or Levantine or Sudanese or Iraqi Arabic). MSA can also be spoken (and it is generally understood by all Arabic speakers, particularly the educated), but MSA is usually more formal occasions or public addresses or for TV news.

Why is it useful for you to know the difference between MSA and the colloquial arabic language?

• It’s useful because when you are learning arabic, you should decide right from the start which kind of arabic you are going for.
• Knowing the difference is significant because you must find arabic resources that are specific to your variant. I found this out the hard way. For instance, I got myself a copy of the PDQ Arabic FAST course. I assumed that it would be in MSA. Only later did I find out, when I already began learning from the course, that it was specifically for colloquial Egyptian arabic.
• Knowing the difference between the arabic variants, and understanding that the Arabic language is a diglossia, can save you time and money in the end!
• You want to know which form of arabic is appropriate for your situation and context: Formal and situations and reading and writing call for MSA; Speaking to local Jordanian people means that you are better off speaking Jordanian Arabic or Levantine Arabic (not MSA).

If you are wanting to travel to a specific Arabic-speaking country, and you want to speak to the locals, you are better off learning the spoken colloquial arabic dialect of that country. That is, learn Egyptian if you are only going to stay in Egypt. Learn Iraqi arabic if you are intending to only stay in Iraq. Learn Lebanese if you are planning to go only to Lebanon.

However, if you would like to have more flexibility and you want to learn the more universal written and formal spoken Arabic, then go for Modern Standard Arabic. It will be a great starting point to help you read and write in Arabic, understand TV news and newspapers and books, and it can make it easier for you to learn any of the colloquial arabic dialects in the future.

As an absolute beginner, I decided to start of with MSA because I had understood that MSA is used throughout the Arab world. There are also plenty of newspaper and written and TV news resources that I can get to help me learn MSA. Furthermore, I knew that MSA would be a great foundation point for me, to help me easily learn any other colloquial dialects of arabic, if ever I find myself in Sudan or Egypt or Lebanon.

Share your own experiences and ideas. Do you have any other tips or suggestions regarding the difference between MSA and colloquial arabic?

Related posts:

1. أهلا Saying hello and other greetings in Arabic
2. طفل Baby steps for Arabic words and sentences
3. Persistence – Learning French, Arabic & Tagalog: June, 2009

Arabic alphabet, with 28 basic letters

Modified letters

The following are not individual letters, but rather different contextual variants of some of the Arabic letters.

Ligatures

The only compulsory ligature is lām + ʼalif. All other ligatures (yāʼ + mīm, etc.) are optional.

• (isolated) lām + ʼalif (lā /laː/):
ﻻ‎
• (final or medial) lām + ʼalif (lā /laː/):
ـﻼ‎

Related posts:

1. اللغة العربية الفصحى What is the difference between Modern Standard Arabic (MSA) and the Spoken Colloquial Arabic dialects?
2. Persistence – Learning French, Arabic & Tagalog: June, 2009
3. أهلا Saying hello and other greetings in Arabic

The modern hero, the modern individual who dares to heed the call and seek the mansion of that presence with whom it is our whole destiny to be atoned, cannot, indeed must not, wait for his community to cast off its slough of pride, fear, rationalized avarice, and sanctified misunderstanding. It is not society that is to guide and save the creative hero, but precisely the reverse. And so every one of us shares the supreme ordeal not in the bright moments of his tribe’s great victories, but in the silences of his personal despair.

- Joseph Campbell, The Hero with a Thousand Faces

The idea of the “Hero” attracts us

The magic of Campbell’s book, The Hero with a Thousand Faces, is that he believes in the power of stories.
Not only for our imagination, but for inspiration in our own lives.
He has a great sense of awe and wonder about myths and stories. That they convey more than just words. They convey meaning. Deep meanings and representations to be shared between and for humanity.

George Lucas, the creator of the Star Wars movie series, had said that he was inspired by Campbell’s understanding of the power of the hero image and character. You can witness the impact it had on Lucas when you view and enjoy his Star Wars films, and see the trials and triumphs of the hero, Luke Skywalker. From these films, you can also see the impact that the “hero” representation has had on millions of viewers and fans worldwide.

Although the Star Wars films may not be for everyone (I like them though!), the idea and attraction of the “hero” story is universal.

Why are we so drawn to heroes?

I think that the reason we are drawn to heroes in stories is because we feel that our own lives are stories. And they are. Our lives are enmeshed with tales and challenges and problems to overcome.

Heroes in stories often give us the inspiration, the visions and the possibilities in overcoming the most difficult circumstances.

I like how Campbell linked our human lives to the lives of hero characters. He had said:

We have not even to risk the adventure alone; for the heroes of all time have gone before us; the labyrinth is thoroughly known; we have only to follow the thread of the hero-path. And where we had thought to find an abomination, we shall find a god; where we had thought to slay another, we shall slay ourselves; where we had thought to travel outward, we shall come to the center of our own existence; where we had thought to be alone, we shall be with all the world.

Basically he imagines that our lives are adventures, too. That we often turn to heroes in storybooks or in films or in comics or cartoons because they give us a model. A model of behaving and overcoming.

How you can be a modern hero in your own life?

It’s true that you may not face dragons in your life adventure. You may not have to fight goblins or monsters.

But is that necessarily true? Campbell points to the fact that stories often use metaphors, because your subconscious mind and your soul speaks in the language of metaphors.

Sure you may not face a physical dragon. But what about the “dragon” of fear, or the “goblin” of a person whom you have to deal with in your life. What about the “monsters” of pain and suffering that life throws at you?

When we think of these hero metaphors, we begin to feel that heroes and stories are not so imaginary after all. Heroes really can help us in the way we respond and act to real-life situations.

I’ve heard the comparisons being drawn between storybook heroes to everyday heroes. And it sure is intereting.

Heroes in the real world can be your fire-fighter going in to save a child in a burning home. It can be a single mother, working hard to make ends meet for her children. It can be a person with an illness, who looks past their physical problems, and still thinks positively about life and their circumstances. It could even be a quality father who acts as a role model for his kids, inspiring them to be all that they can be.

If you want to be a modern hero in your own life, look at heroes you look up to. Notice the positive characteristics that you can actually apply in your life. You can probably notice that in many heroes, they have these sorts of qualities:

• Courage
• Persistence
• Strength – physical or moral or mental or emotional or social
• Special Talents – what are your unique talents?
• Determination
• Desire to Help and Contribute to Others

You’ll notice that as a human being, you can actually take on these “heroic” qualities. What if you were to apply them in your own life, and use these qualities to solve your problems? What if you developed them within yourself?

The Pattern of Adventure for a Hero

Campbell curiously describes the general pattern of adventure that heroes embark. Reading Campbell’s book, you notice that he has read several hundreds or even thousands of hero stories and myths. It’s very impressive.

So when he outlines the general pattern, there is some merit and value in it. You can also see how it influenced Lucas’ adventure plot for Luke Skywalker in Star Wars.

The mythological hero, setting forth from his common-day hut or castle, is lured, carried away, or else voluntarily proceeds, to the threshold of adventure. There he encounters a shadow presence that guards the passage. The hero may defeat or conciliate this power and go alive into the kingdom of the dark (brother-battle, dragon-battle; offering, charm), or be slain by the opponent and descend in death (dismemberment, crucifixion). Beyond the threshold, then, the hero journeys through a world of unfamiliar yet strangely intimate forces, some of which severely threaten him (tests), some of which give magical aid (helpers). When he arrives at the nadir of the mythological round, he undergoes a supreme ordeal and gains his reward. The triumph may be represented as the hero’s sexual union with the goddess-mother of the world (sacred marriage), his recognition by the father-creator (father atonement), his own divinization (apothesis), or again his theft of the boon he came to gain (bride-theft); intrinsically it is an expansion of consciousness and therewith of being (illumination, transfiguration, freedom). The final work is that of the return. If the powers have blessed the hero, he now sets forth under their protection (emissary); if not, he flees and is pursued (transformation flight, obstacle flight). At the return threshold the transcendental powers must remain behind; the hero re-emerges from the kingdom of the dream (return, resurrection). The boon that he brings restores the world (elixir).

You’ll find that Campbell’s hero pattern is described as male. This is probably because Campbell mainly drew on mythological heroes, who tended to be male. Nowadays, we find several female heroes in films and books, and several of the common themes of adventure still remain.

Think of heroes you look up to. Have any of their actions or attitudes, such as self-confidence, helped you? Comment on some of your own personal hero inspirations below!

This article was inspired by
‘The Hero with a Thousand Faces’ (Joseph Campbell)

Check it out at Amazon

Related posts:

1. I find that, above all, the soul wants stories.