Lord Of The Rings Mythology And Leaving Your Comfort Zone
Stories, dreams and your mind are all the same thing. Mythologist, Joseph Campbell, said that myths are public dreams. Lord Of The Rings is a modern myth.
Life in The Shire is good. It’s peaceful with no trouble and no threat. No one seems to bother the hobbits whose lives seems to be about making house, eating, drinking and doing whatever it takes to have a good and constant flow of comfort, food and drink.
Now if your life was like that – if you are comfortable and safe and you consistently know where your next meal is coming from, you have no real cause to change anything and no real cause for emotional distress.
Bilbo left The Shire on a call to adventure – Gandalf came in with an offer, and he went away to look for something that The Shire could not give him. That is one reason to look for change in your life. The other is when ‘the shadow is rising’ in Lord of the rings this is obviously Lord Sauron. If something happens outside your comfort zone that threatens your comfort zone you will often leave your comfort zone to make changes in yourself or in your life so that the shadow is no longer a threat. This is what the good read and inspirational story of Lord Of The Rings is about.
When you leave your comfort zone the subconscious will try to encourage you to go back to it. In real life this will take the form of fear or doubt or a belief that arises that talks you out of whatever you are planning. In Lord Of The Rings the first instance is one of the Ring Wraiths who shows up not long after they have travelled further from The Shire that any of them have been before. If they had turned back at that point, it would have been a less interesting story and The Shire would probably have perished under a stampede of Orks.
If you turn back at such a time in your life then your stability may be compromised. If you ignore the call to adventure your stability may continue but you will always be aware that there is more out there which may turn into resentment or boredom. If you continue though, you will be stronger each time you push past a doubt or fear, life may become more unpredictable, but you will become more equipped to deal with it the further you go.
