Storytelling is a powerful medium for teaching and learning because it invites the listener to interact with concepts and ideas in a natural way. Gwynne provides Do-it-yourself techniques for journaling to decode the metaphors, symbols, and archetypes in your life. 

The art of telling stories is interactive, common to every world culture, and long pre-dates the concept of interactive computer applications. A story told is not only shaped by the skills of the teller but also by the participation of the listeners. The Hero's Journey workbook provides an environment for learning the classic mythical story structure and where anyone can write original stories or analyze classic ones that follow this structure.

Most of us were introduced to the Heroic Journey through mythology. Mythological heroes take great journeys: to slay Medusa, to kill the minotaur, to find the golden fleece. But The Hero's Journey isn't just a pattern from myth. It's the pattern of life, growth and experience -- for all of us. We see it reflected everywhere, from a television comedy to the great works of literature to the experiences in our own lives.

Why study The Hero's Journey? Why learn a pattern that dates from before recorded history? The answer is simple: we should study it because it's the pattern of human experience, of our experience, and we will live it for the rest of our lives. In a sense, every challenge or change we face in life is a Journey: every love found, every love lost, every birth or death, every move to a new job, school or city: every situation which confronts us with something new or which forces us to re-evaluate our thinking, behavior or perspective. 

The journey is a process of self-discovery and self-integration, of maintaining balance and harmony in our lives. As with any process of growth and change, a journey can be confusing and painful, but it brings opportunities to develop confidence, perspective and understanding.   Understanding the Journey pattern can help us understand the literature us read, the movies us see, and the experiences which shape your life. By recognizing the Journey's stages and how they function, we will develop a sense of the flow of our own experience and be better able to make decisions and solve problems. More importantly, we will begin to recognize our own points of passage and respect the significance they have for us.

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