Christian De La Huerta

Heroes and what it means to live heroically have been on my mind lately as I begin winding down the writing process on my upcoming book, Calling All Heroes. It’s hard to avoid getting caught up in the identity of spectacular heroes that live in TV and films. Or the heroes that live in our history books and have benefited from hundreds of years of retelling, so much so that it is difficult to identify the human from the myth.

Our myths are ever-present in our lives and act as story arcs that inspire us to stand up for what we believe in. Myths affect how we treat people, determine how we think as a nation, how we think as a class, as a gender, etc. Myths can also hold us back from achieving our greatest potential. It wasn’t long ago (and is still present in cultures around the world) that women were identified as the weaker sex…and not just by men. Likewise, the color of a person’s skin determined their value as a human. And then Rosa Parks came along and sat down on a bus seat in the “white section only,” effectively shattering long-held social and cultural myths.

I bring this up to illustrate that heroic acts live in everyday small gestures that say, “it no longer serves to play small.” Where are you holding onto a personal myth, a family or cultural myth that prevents you from experiencing your greatest joy, purpose or fulfillment? Many times these areas are blocked and not easy to identify because we have built daily habits and routines around them, sometimes even lives around them. Our breath, soulful and with purpose, packs the potential to shake off cobwebs, allowing us to identify and choose the myths that serve and support our greatest potential, and in some cases rewrite them with a new hero or heroine: you.

Learn more about Calling All Heroes, our Molokai Trek