About the Journey

Resilience is the ability to bounce back from adversity and stress. Our goal is to use an entirely educational approach to improve resilience by using storytelling and World Health Organization recommendations for suicide prevention.

We are all familiar with storytelling as a means of learning. The learning here is organized around the storytelling concept of the “Hero’s Journey.” The Hero's Journey is common to many epic stories where a hero who, facing a challenge, goes on an adventure, is victorious, and returns as a transformed person. Some examples are Luke in Star Wars, Dorothy in the Wizard of Oz, and Frodo in Lord of the Rings.

This call to adventure occurs when your normal life is suddenly interrupted by a stressful challenge that threatens to move you from the known to the unknown. Through a process of problem solving, often with other people, you can skillfully and victoriously come to terms with the challenge.

Your goal is to create your own Hero's Journey. Yet, a goal without a plan is only a wish. So, there are three exercises that move you along the Hero's Journey. There are challenges, skills to be developed, and companions on the journey. These skills are considered protective factors, your mental armor, to make you more resilient. You can use five skills, Belief, Persistence, Strength, Trust, Adaptability, and even make your own skills.

Your Hero's Journey: One way to create your Hero's Journey is to explore each of the five skills. You can start with the Belief skill and work on the Tell your story exercise. Then, identify a companion or companions to work with and Collaborate, identify a challenge with your companion, and complete that exercise. Finally, alone or with your companion, work on the Own it exercise.

Yet, another way to create your Hero's Journey is to begin with a real challenge you are currently facing. Next identify a companion or companions to accompany you on the journey. Identify a skill you might use and work on the Tell your story exercise. Then, with your companion, work on Collaborate. Finally, alone or with your companion, work on the Own it exercise. How you wish to complete the Hero's Journey can be as unique and epic as you want it to be. It is, however, important that you complete all three exercises and work with a companion on the Collaborate exercise.

1. Tell your story builds confidence. In this first exercise, using a "flashcard" overview of one of the skills, you are asked to recall a past challenge where you have had success using something like the skill. Keeping that past challenge in mind, work on answering the questions. Refer to the flashcard Example for ideas about how to put together your story. In a Hero’s Journey, this is where we get insight how our heroes go about life in their ordinary world before their call to adventure.

2. Collaborate moves you from the familiar to the unknown in the Hero’s Journey. Recall that Luke had Obi Wan, Dorothy had Glinda the Good, and Frodo had Gandalf to help form social support systems as they moved into the unknown. You also have a companion to work with to develop your skill and meet the challenge. Work with a companion and consider a real challenge you, your partner or someone you know is currently facing by applying the skill. Write the challenge and your responses to the questions. Refer to the flashcard Example for help.

3. Own it asks that you reflect upon the skill you used and describe the skill in a few of your own words. Looking at the Hero’s Journey, you have moved from the known, Tell your story, to the unknown, Collaborate, where you worked with another person to deal with a real challenge by applying a skill. And, finally, your return from the adventure, Own it, where you are now reflecting on self-discovery, meaning, and learning. What did you learn from this experience? How have you been transformed? You are adapting the meaning of the skill to be more useful and memorable. This is where our heroes, surrounded by their social support systems, make their return to their known world. Luke gets a hero’s welcome with his companions, Dorothy has returned with the knowledge that to do anything, you must believe in yourself, and Frodo realizes he can no longer go back to his ordinary life and decides to leave with Bilbo, Gandalf, and the elves. Our heroes become resilient by developing their skills through social support.

Repeat this process for all five positive-coping skills to improve your resilience when dealing with stressful challenges. Your notes from Tell your story, Collaborate, and Own it can serve as a future reminder, an epic story, on how you dealt with challenges and change. Your notes from all of the skills are assembled and can be viewed in My Journey.

Caution: All of your data is stored locally on your web browser. You can selectively save and erase your data using the commands in the app. Clearing your browser buffer will erase ALL data.

This informational material does not provide medical advice. The information, including but not limited to, text, graphics, images and other material contained is for informational purposes only. The intent is to promote broad understanding and knowledge of education, health, and technology topics. This is not intended to be a substitute for professional medical advice, diagnosis or treatment. Always seek the advice of a qualified health care provider with any questions you may have regarding a condition or treatment and before undertaking a new health care regimen, and never disregard professional medical advice or delay in seeking it because of something you have read in this material.

Developed and distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License. You are encouraged to improve this application and share it with others. P Callahan 2021

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License.