The Force is With You

Welcome to the Twenty-Fifth Edition of The Midlife Hero’s Journey Newsletter

Are you ready to embark on a transformative journey to reconnect with your passion, purpose, and joy?

My passion as a Coach, Facilitator and Writer is helping people who are approaching or at Midlife to reclaim their passion, purpose, joy and confidently create the LIFE they want. My experience over the years has shown that Clarity, Courage and Commitment are key to getting what you really want, but it’s very difficult to do on your own.

This twice monthly newsletter (Second and Fourth week of each month) takes a Spiritual approach to Midlife and Menopause and shares Tips, Tools and Strategies you need in Midlife to Step Out of Your Comfort Zone, Reclaim Your Magnificence and Create the Results You Really Want.

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In This Week's Edition...

A couple of weeks ago I watched the entire Star Wars saga, all nine films in chronological story order rather than release order and was struck by how much the story reflects our Hero’s Journey. In this edition I share my thoughts on the symbolism of the main characters and the part they play in our personal growth. I hope this resonates and helps you with where you are (or have been) on your own Midlife Hero’s Journey.

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This Week’s Quote

“Train yourself to let go of everything you fear to lose ." – Yoda (from Star Wars)

The Force is With You…

Over the last couple of weeks I watched the entire Star Wars saga. All nine films in the order of the story line and not the order they were made. A key feature of the franchise of films is that while there are strong characters, there is a very simple, some would say weak, storyline. A good chunk of the two or so hours of each movie is spent with someone is being chased or with a shoot-out (most of which I fast-forwarded through),and each film had the same climactic end; find the weak point of the Death Star (the baddies ship) and blow-up their stronghold.

So why watch all nine?

While I’m not an avid fan of the franchise or into action movies, having watched the original three films? I was ?drawn to? story of good versus evil, light versus dark ?and the grey in between - the idea that we aren’t born intending to do bad things, rather, our lives are determined by the choices we make.

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One of the things I like to do with a story I connect with is explore the main characters as though they are different parts of us. In the context of these films, the Dark Side (Darth Vader, the Emperor, etc) represents our Ego, and the Jedi (Obi Wan Kenobi, Luke Skywalker etc) is an expression of the Spirit within us.

The story arc over the nine films is about bringing balance to the Force. It begins with Young Anakin Skywalker who is discovered and brought to the Jedi Council by one of the masters, Qui-Gon Jinn, and his apprentice, Obi-Wan Kenobi and, despite the misgivings of Yoda and the rest of the council is allowed to develop his innate Jedi skills. Anakin feeling held back and enticed by the Emperor’s promise and becomes Darth Vader. The story ends with a bringing together of the Dark (Kylo Ren) and the Light (Rey) to destroy the Emperor who has resurfaced.

My initial thoughts were that the films are formulaic; the same old story told in the same way with a new Death Star to destabilise. And then it struck me. They have to be the same old story because they reflect the archetypal Hero’s ?Journey we go through time and time again. ?The same story, the same battle, and each takes us to a higher state of being, that we have learned from the previous stage and there is progress.

Something else that I noticed was that once the apprentice was ready to step up the master would die. Qui-Gon Jinn died and Obi-Wan stepped up and died when Luke Skywalker was ?was ready to step up to the next stage as did Yoda and finally Luke Skywalker when his time came.

And so we do in life we start out as an innocent child ?with the potential to become. In the Bible, Jesus tells his disciples that in order to experience the Kingdom of Heaven they have to let go of who or what they think they are. We all possess a Higher Self, a part of us that is able to proceed through life without concern about how the outside world may perceive us because this self or spirit is our True Self and knows that what we see as our life has no bearing on who we truly are. That is our inner Jedi teacher which grows and evolves with us as we grow and evolve so the image of that teacher dies so that we can see ourselves from a different angle. If, on the other hand, we let our ego take the wheel then we end up making choices out of fear or anger or desperation or guilt or shame, in effect moving to the so-called dark side.

We all have our limiting beliefs, our personal death stars that we want to destroy and our tendency is to look for that thing that will do that for us instead of learning how to not allow them to trigger us into making choices or taking actions that can’t or won’t work. Midlife is a time when we understand and accept that we don’t destroy, instead we integrate.

Our limiting beliefs, the ‘I’m not good enough’, or ’I’m not worthy’, or ‘I don’t belong’, were created when we were the young Anakin Skywalker and by Midlife we have allowed the Darth Vader in us to take over some aspects of our lives. But if, as in the final trilogy of the franchise, ?we view ?what is considered our shadow with compassion, if we are able to love that part of us enough that the shadow can recede into the background, then we recognise that it comes out in the form of challenges and trials but only to ?serve as a reflection of where we are and only to help us heal. The Midlife Journey is a time to welcome the challenges we once tried to destroy. They are here to reveal our true prize: our authentic selves. As we embrace our inner Jedi, we find the balance within, and the Hero's Journey continues.

?May the Force be with you.

I hope you enjoyed this edition of The Midlife Hero’s Journey Newsletter. ?The next edition will be published on Tuesday 7th November.

Embrace Your Magnificence

Taiwo x

PS I have a few spaces for 1-1 Coaching. If this is something that would interest you then click HERE to book a chat.