DAY 7: Threshold Gaurdians

A book that I highly recommend is "The Writers Journey" by Christopher Vogler. It touches on the mythical elements of storytelling and investigates the main archetypical characters. Personally I think it is also a viable manual for life. It talks about the Hero's journey, and lets face it we are all the heroes of our own stories...we have to be, because who else will cast you in that role.

There is one archetype in particular that has always fascinated me, simply because they are so prominent and identifiable in real life. I am referring to the Threshold Guardians, the ones destined to stand in your way and who will force you to re-evaluate the path that you are on, the ones you must defeat or overcome if you wish to be successful on your journey. They can take on many forms, it could be a teacher that makes your life unnecessarily hard, a boss that prevents your growth in the company or someone that dismisses your ideas and causes self-doubt to set in, basically they could be anybody. They are here to test us, they are here to see how much you really desire something, they are the roadblocks that prevent you from reaching your destination if you allow them. Because whenever a threshold guardian appears there is always a choice to be made, for they guard the threshold between the victim and the hero, between victory and defeat. So always choose wisely.

This reminds me of the scene in the Neverending Story where Atreyu had to make it past the Southern Oracle. The Southern Oracle literally guarded a threshold, they made the symbolism incredibly obvious, but it is still one of my favourite stories of all time. Only those who didn't doubt themselves could make it past their laser beam eyes. One unfortunate Knight was zapped into nothing but metal, bones and disappointment because, even though he had fancy armour, deep down he believed himself to be unworthy.

The Southern Oracle

Even Atreyu almost didn't make it past the burn of their judgement. So I guess the lesson is, you better know who you are, be convinced of what you are doing, and you better be sure of yourself or the Threshold Guardians are going to zap you.

It has been a week now on the o-so-melodramatically-named Road to Redemption, and I have experienced every single human emotion some were fuelled by withdrawals, others just because I sometimes have a tendency to feel sorry for myself. The first three days were by far the toughest, there were moments where I would start crying for no reason, followed by moments where I would want to punch someone for no reason. It is very interesting to see just how much stimulants really affect our bodies, and also as tempting as they are, we don't really need them. It helped to write about it, and it took my mind of things, but the writing is not the point of this journey, it is just  a tool to hold myself accountable. The point is to enter the desert hidden within myself, to face the faceless monsters that have hitched a ride for far too long, to defeat my invisible enemies  and to conquer my own personal Threshold Guardians.  I'll just tell you all about it along the way.

Tomorrow I am going to up the stakes a little. I will add a short kettle bell exercise routine in the mornings, and I also want to start oil-pulling. Oil Pulling is where you rinse you mouth with coconut oil every morning for 20 minutes, apparently it is amazing for oral health...I know, I am also sceptical, but what do I have to lose. I will let you know how that works out.

Good Luck to you all and may we all defeat our Treshold Gaurdians.