Journey Stories – The Heroine Journeys Project

Written by Nancer Ballard; ed. assistance by Savannah Jackson.

The Seeker’s Journey does not proceed through pre-determined steps as many of the other journeys, such as The Hero’s Journey, The Heroine’s Journeys, The Healing Journey, and The Journey of Integrity, do. The Seeker is guided by intuition or internal “sensing,” and paradigm shifts and transformation(s) act as milestones or significant steps in the journey. Although anyone on any journey can experience paradigm shifts or transformation, Paradigm Shifts and Transformation play a particularly important role in the Seeker Journey.

The Difference between Paradigm Shift and Transformation in a Life Journey

People often use the words “paradigm shift” and “transformation” interchangeably, but for purposes of describing life journeys, we believe there are significant differences. A Paradigm is a way of seeing or viewing the world. More technically, a paradigm is a partly-conscious, partly- unconscious explanation or mental model of reality that we carry in our heads. It is our interpretation of reality based on our physiology, our personal and cultural heritage, our experience, and our dreams, hopes, fears and beliefs.

In a Paradigm Shift, one’s way of seeing— the world, one’s self, or one’s self in the world– changes, often suddenly. After a Paradigm Shift people often remark that they “see the world differently,” or “see through new eyes.” A Paradigm Shift is often marked by a felt sense that some previously unquestioned, profound understanding or perspective is shifting, or has reversed, or is suddenly “inside out.” For example, a teenager might read an article and suddenly see a long chain of self-talk about body image that she previously attributed to personal imperfections and weakness as the product of sexist cultural messaging. In a paradigm shift, background can become foreground, or one can experience a sudden re-arrangement of figure and ground. For example, an artist might suddenly see their traumatic life experience as providing potential rare gifts rather than simply hobbling them with painful burdens.

A Paradigm Shift can also be prompted by a shift in one’s perspective of scale—looking at an event from a meta point of view, or from some point far in the future, or from the perspective of someone living in an unfamiliar place in the world, or from a micro perspective. A paradigm shift can also be prompted by looking at the world or yourself through someone else’s different personal or cultural history or experience. See our previously blog post on Social Context and The Sociological Imagination in Our Real Life Journeys for further explanation on how one’s understanding of a larger sociological context can dramatically shift one’s understanding of personal agency and response-ability; Peggy McIntosh’s essays on the invisible knapsack of privilege for paradigm shifting work on race and gender; and Isabel Wilkerson’s book, Caste, challenging assumptions about race relations and class.

Indeed, any time the assumed temporal, spatial or cultural position or the identity of the perceiving “I” changes, the grip of one’s “normal” default paradigm loosens and a shift is possible.

A Transformation is different than a Paradigm Shift because a Transformation involves a fundamental change in the way one relates or interacts with one’s self and the world. It’s not that one merely “sees” the world differently; one’s “form” or way of be-ing and relating to the world is transformed. For example, a caterpillar transforms into a butterfly. A Paradigm Shift is fundamentally about seeing differently, and transformation is fundamentally about changing the way one interacts with the world. To be transformative, these change(s) must be pervasive and profound.

The Difference Between Transformation and Mere Change

Transformation is more pervasive and fundamental than mere change. We constantly make small (and sometimes large) changes to maintain our existing sense of reality or equilibrium in response to evolving circumstances. Changing to maintain a pre-existing sense of reality or equilibrium is not transformation. We can also change a discrete aspect of how we interact with ourselves and the world—one relationship, one habit, our view on one issue– without being transformed.

Of course, a single small change, such as reading one book at the right time, befriending someone outside your normal circle of friends, taking a new risk (or refusing to take one), or learning a new skill can have a cascading effect that leads to transformation through action and other changes. In fact, transformation almost always involves many changes that, over time, result in a fundamental shift in how one interacts with self and the world. It’s also worth noting that the gravity of an external event does not determine whether a Seeker will experience that event as transformative. Being caught in a life-threatening flood, or winning a long sought-after award may result in temporary change for one person and be transformational for another.

Transformation Takes Time

In human beings, transformation often takes place internally and then is manifested externally. As part of the internal change process, one’s understanding of self and the world often shift, so it’s not surprising that people sometimes equate paradigm shifts with transformation, but in transformations, a Seeker’s internal changes are manifested externally by changes in their enacted values, actions, statements, etc. Although transformation sometimes feels as if it occurs in a particular moment, it takes time for the new way of being to be practiced so that the transforming changes “take hold” and become fully integrated into a “natural” new way of being.

Seeker Journey transformations can seem frustratingly slow while the Seeker is making the journey. Time is often necessary, and a sign of Seeker health rather than weakness. It takes time and repetition for neural routines associated with new (transformative) thoughts, feelings, and reactions to be established and to replace the former routines, so that our new ways of interacting with ourselves and the world become our new “normal.”

For example, say a person or character discovers that one of the parents they assumed was a blood relative is not. The revelation may feel shattering and immediately consequential, but integration of their new understanding of themselves and family members (including those who knew the secret and those who did not) and understanding how this revelation affects how they relate to themselves, family members, the newly discovered relative (whether known or unknown, alive or dead), others around them, and the world more generally, is likely to take significant time.

Paradigm Shifts and Transformations Often Serve as Milestones in a Seeker’s Journey, But They Need Not Occur in a Particular Order

A Seeker’s Journey can begin with a Seeker’s vague sense that something more or different is needed in their life. Sometimes the Seeker experiences an event that results in their having a Paradigm Shift and that is the first signal that a Seeker Journey has begun. A Paradigm Shift can also be a first step in transformation. Sometimes multiple paradigm shifts occur during a transformational process, or, a Seeker may realize quite late in their journey that their beliefs about themselves and/or the world have significantly changed in ways that they didn’t realize at the time. In short, Paradigm Shifts and Transformation(s) are usually, if not always, part of a Seeker’s Journey or experience, but they need not occur in a particular order.

Whether a Seeker’s Journey (or another sort of journey) begins with a Paradigm Shift producing event is likely to depend upon the nature of the journey and one’s personality. Journeys that involve major physical changes, such as illness, injury, prolonged physical labor, withdrawal from addiction, or pilgrimage may not involve as many, or early, paradigm shifts because so much conscious energy is being invested in physical work and/or surviving.

Also, some people’s minds (and likely their brains’ physiology) are more susceptible to experiencing and/or recognizing paradigm shifts than others, just as it is easier for some people to see optical illusions and to switch back and forth between background and foreground than it is for others. I consider myself lucky that I have paradigm shifts on a regular basis; they are delightful, insightful, inspiring, and sometimes horrifying. However, over the years I have learned that it is the daily, sometimes arduous, practice and persistence that leads to transformation(s) and performs most of the heavy lifting and magic in a Seeker’s Journey.

Written by Nancer Ballard; ed. assistance by Savannah Jackson.

I believe that the Seeker’s Journey may begin, or we may veer toward a new heading, when we bump up against the limits of our imaginations. I’ve always been told (and have believed) that I have been blessed and cursed with a “good imagination.” Over the years, I’ve spent a lot of time trying to prove I could actualize what my mind imagines is possible in the face of those who have wanted me to quit, “to be more realistic” or reduce my goals unless a successful outcome is relatively certain. And I have not always been a big fan of failure.

And yet…. In every creative project, I hit the wall.

That place where nothing is working, or rather, I am struggling with something that isn’t working the way I want it to, or it doesn’t feel quite right, but I don’t know what to do to make it feel right. I’ve spent a lot of time believing that I wasn’t good enough, or that I wasn’t trying hard enough, or that I am stupid, or there is something else wrong with me. And, if I can just figure out what is wrong with me and fix it, then my work, my journey, and my life will proceed smoothly. But I can never fix what I assume, in these moments, must be wrong with me, so, eventually, I turn back to the problem at hand and muddle along.

Although we commonly assume that our senses’ and mind’s job is to enable us to accurately perceive reality, psychologist Dennis Proffit of the University of Virginia, and cognitive scientist, Donald Hoffman of the University of California Irvine, remind us that what we see, hear, and feel is largely determined by our automatic, pre-conscious, moment-to-moment assessments of the actions that our surroundings are prompting us to take. When we are looking for a book, we focus on the titles and don’t notice the color of the carpet or the paint condition of the shelf unless they are somehow related to finding the desired book.

Once the book has been found, or the hunt abandoned, we then go on to perceive and focus and store in memory other things related to what we plan to do next, or the things that are integral to the reason we sought the book.

The reality is, there are always more problems and sub-problems than we have the answers for. As Shakespeare’s Hamlet put it, “There are more things in Heaven and Earth, Horatio, than are dreamt of in your philosophy.” We hit the limits of our imagination, not because we are stupid, or ignorant, or naïve, but because that’s how our brains are built. We couldn’t function if everything we perceive, remember, or intuit about the environment, ourselves, and those with whom we are interacting had to be held in working memory or accessible consciousness. Our brains aren’t able to handle that much interacting information, nor did we evolve to do so.

Similarly, when we day dream or think about our life, or career, or a relationship, or a project, we can’t know all the details, nor process all that will be required in the future as we proceed on our journey (or journeys). We also can’t account for everything that could possibly affect us, our environment, our journey, the ones we love, and the world. They are all interconnected, so the solution is not to decide that we are only going to focus on the world instead of those close to us, or that we will focus only on ourselves instead of the world. Thus, no matter how smart, or creative, or driven, or limited we are, if we are present to the world and ourselves, we will hit the end of the known world. That blankness or darkness, which feels so uncomfortable (or worse), is the prompt that tells us to continue seeking.

The Seeker’s Journey may be the most profound journey (but not the only, or most pleasant journey in all moments) that we can take. The word profound comes from the Latin “pro” meaning forth and “fundus” meaning bottom, or coming from the very bottom. The Seeker’s Journey is our most profound journey because it is a physiological imperative that we face (or avoid). The seeking impulse is part of our nature, without regard to cultural constraints or institutional, religious, or political oppression, although these can be a major concern of a Seeker’s Journey. Our brains and bodies are magnificent and limited, and we are constantly asking our senses and minds to simultaneously focus on the subjects of our concern, our relationships, the world, and ourselves, and all of these are constantly and interactively changing.

To be a seeker is to meet the unknown at the edge our known reality, and to do this consciously and willingly without disrespect for what we already are and have done. The Seeker’s Journey often calls upon us to change course, not because we were misguided before, but because what was suitable previously may not fit with what we understand ourselves and our world to be now. The reward for changing course, or wholeheartedly making the journey, may not be material success, or external approval, or permanent anything– the Seeker’s reward is the felt miracle of being alive.

In an upcoming blog, we will explore the role and mechanism of transformation in The Seeker’s Journey.