You Are A Heroine: A Retelling Of The Hero's Journey
In You Are a Heroine, Susanna Liller takes the mythic structure of the hero's journey and turns it into a practical guide for women navigating the calls their lives keep making—a career leap, a hard conversation, a truer version of themselves. Every heroine reaches that threshold moment. Some answer eagerly. Most hesitate, pulled back by fear or self-doubt or the critics in their own head. Liller meets readers in that hesitation and helps them move through it: models for personal growth, ways to counter the inner critic, tools for working through emotional roadblocks, and a route toward real self-acceptance. It's self-help built on story and myth, but aimed at very present, very real choices — the case being made is that the heroic isn't reserved for anyone extraordinary. It's already there to claim.
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With a vulnerable, transparent personal story of her own courage and transformation, Susanna offers fresh metaphors of the age-old Hero's Journey and practical steps to guide women as they face life's inevitable challenges and setbacks. This is not a book to rush through, but to set aside quality time to engage with the many points of reflection and visioning that will bring about a future of magic and meaning. Women handle the familiar "dragons," or challenges that may stand in our path to convince us that we are not "enough" to reach our dreams, differently. We are encouraged not to "slay" them but to make peace with them as we move forward. Truly, this is the time for the Collective Call: "Women Unite!", and to honor our own intuitive "guidance system", to step into our power and strength and be the leaders and healers we are. We are Mother Earth! We are all Heroines!
Tarey L.
Reading "You Are a Heroine" was like sitting across a small table in a cozy cafe with author, Susanna Liller. Together we explored themes in my major life transitions: how I got "here" and considered what challenges/opportunities lie ahead. The author shared about the metaphoric gift of "story" for framing life transitions. She described the predictable elements using wonderful examples from real life heroines. From initiating the journey, to managing self-talk, to surviving the inevitable uncertainty, until we come out the other end of the journey, just like Dorothy in the "Wizard of Oz." She does a wonderful job recognizing and celebrating that each of us is a heroine in our own life story.
Jeanne W.
In the Heroine’s Journey, Susanna Liller dos a wonderful job of weaving together stories from her own Heroine’s Journey as well as stories from other women, interesting literary references, and of course…Joseph Campbell’s Hero’s Journey model. Her writing is accessible and relatable.
You feel like you’re attending a retreat led by a wise facilitator. Whether you choose to do the exercises and get the most out of the extensive work she has done in this area, or you simply read the book “as is,” you will find many ideas and clues you can use to navigate your own Heroine’s Journey.
If there is a woman in your life who is into personal development and/or wanting to cultivate the ability to “listen to that still small voice inside,” I recommend this book also as a gift.
DL
When I was in my early 20s, I read Joseph Campbell’s "The Hero with a Thousand Faces" and was just captivated by the idea that the myth of the Hero and his Journey of (self)-discovery is one found in virtually all cultures at all times in human history. I remember being equally fascinated by Bill Moyers’ conversations with Campbell when I watched the two of them discuss mythology and the Hero’s Journey on PBS in the late 1980s.
Back then, I understood Campbell’s central lessons about the universality of the Hero’s story, and how it teaches each generation about the value of risking safety in order to reap the rewards of greater self-knowledge. But it never occurred to me that the Hero’s Journey had anything to do with my own life. Maybe it was because in most cultures and in most eras, the Hero is typically a man. Or maybe it was because I first learned about the Hero’s Journey from men, Campbell and Moyers. Or maybe it was because I am a product of our male-centric contemporary culture.
What I now see, thanks to Susanna Liller’s short but revelatory book, "You Are a Heroine: A Retelling of the Hero’s Journey", is that not only can a woman be a Hero(ine), but that every woman is a Heroine! Which, by extension, means I am a Heroine, too! Whoa!!!
That’s both an inspiring and a daunting prospect, especially if like me, you’ve gone through life feeling about as ordinary as ordinary can be. But thanks to her warm, conversational writing style, and her clear conviction in the truth of her premise, Liller makes a wonderful guide for all women, wherever we might be in our Heroine's Journey of self-discovery.
"You Are a Heroine" includes helpful, easy-to-understand (but challenging to do!) exercises for charting the next step along your own Heroine’s Journey, as well as profiles of three extraordinary “ordinary” women whose stories illustrate how varied Heroines’ paths can be. Liller even shares her own life story—replete with Calls (heard and missed), Thresholds (crossed and uncrossed), and Mentors, Guardians and Dragons (heeded and unheeded)—to show that every woman, even one as rooted in the wisdom of the Heroine’s Journey as the author, needs gentle but firm reminding that she is the Heroine of her own story.
Read this wonderful little book. In it, you’ll find the tools and support you need to keep moving forward on your own Heroine’s Journey, just as it has done for me!
christine J
This book is a treasure for women everywhere. The author guides you gently, compassionately and personally through a process for moving forward - past your fears, the internal and external critics, the hurdles, and the uncertainties of life. The style of writing feels like the author is having a direct conversation with you, laying out a framework and tools for addressing a change in/for yourself that has been knocking on the door. There is no judgment about how the process unfolds for any one person, but rather offers support for taking the journey. There are useful exercises presented to give you some structure and insights. It is hard to finish this book and not feel inspired to face your own dragons!
Moxie
I am grateful to have found this book at this moment in my life! I have been on the “heroines journey” many times before but without a map or a guide. I let myself fall right into the book when it was given to me. The author has laid out the map so clearly. She seemed to be right my by side, uplifting, encouraging, and pointing to the path. The exercises she presents are transformative; they have clarified my sense of direction and supported my confidence for the next steps. I hope this journey will be as helpful to you as it has been for me.
Sara W
