Matthew Ashdown Coaching

The Mythical Heroes Journey

Posted on 04. Jan, 2010 by matthew in Blog

When you do something because you “should” do it,  how do you feel?  When we “want” to do something, it becomes so much more fun and the drive to achieve it is that much greater.  Sometimes all it takes is a little mental reframe.  So how do we turn something like a New Years Resolution which is often a “should” into something we want to do?  

Because of who I know to be reading this, I believe that the Mythical Heroes Journey will help reframe it for many!  I hope this speaks to you in some way.

Joseph Campbell, the famous mythologist, outlined what he identified as the steps of the mythical Heroes Journey.  It begins with a call to adventure.  I am here to call you on an adventure, one that will bring forth that hero within you.  The part of you that is here to serve yourself and others.  Your life will change in so many ways!  It is a quest to continue the expansion of your awareness as you pursue physical fitness and health. 

The body is part of us that exists between both spiritual and material worlds and which indicates whether there is balance between the two.

A Heroes Journey

This journey isn’t about beating anything up or fighting anything.   There is no punishment involved.  This is about coming to embrace and love the parts of yourself that you are likley doing your utmost to lose.  That extra bellyfat that you gained over the holidays. The low energy that prevents you from carrying out the things you are passionate about.  The poor heart condition that your doctor has told you needs to be sorted.  The injury that will benefit from exercise.  Take a different soul-based approach and learn what these mentors are here to teach you.

“Love is the will to extend one’s self-in order to nuture-one’s own or another’s spiritual growth.” - M Scott Peck

This calling is to all those who believe you have courage within you.  Courage is love in action.  It will take courage to face your own personal darkness and fears as you move forward on this journey.  To embrace it as a friend.  To inspire yourself to achieve greater levels of well being.  Greater levels of fitness require challenging old perceptions of yourself, exercise, nutrition and much more.  Those who pursue their journey to the end, who are truly committed, learn so much about themselves, and become greater versions of themselves each and every day.  Weight loss becomes a fantastic side effect.  As does awesome health, awesome energy, and awesome feelings about your body.  

“Often when the call is given, the future hero refuses to heed it. This may be from a sense of duty or obligation, fear, insecurity, a sense of inadequacy, or any of a range of reasons that work to hold the person in his or her current circumstances.”

- Joseph Campbell

Some of you will read this far, and decide to leave this blog.  There is no judgement of you.  I believe you have attracted this into your consciousness because some part of you is ready for it.  You will follow it in your own time.  Maybe with me, maybe with someone else.  You will succeed in your own time.    As long as you are aware of where excuses may be holding you back and that it is not the reason for leaving.

For a lot of you however, you have attracted this blog into your life at this time, because you are ready and willing, and are seeking mentorship.   That is what I hope to be to you throughout your upcoming quest as I lead you and others through a Heroes Journey on your road to fitness in 2010.   There will be certain things that I offer that will benefit you, and at the same time, along the way, I will introduce you to other mentors who can provide you with expertise in areas that I am not an expert.

So, are you ready to cross the threshold?  It is like in the movie “The Fellowship of the Ring”, when Frodo and Sam are leaving the comfort of the Shire.  They begin on their adventure and venture into places that they have not been.  Are you ready to take that step right here, right now?

You are about to explore areas of your consciousness where no man has been before.  You will be shining light on aspects of yourself that you may have felt guilt and shame about before.  As spiritual beings we create our reality, and our feelings tell us whether we are in the reality we desire or not.  That extra weight that  you feel so much shame about, can be loved, embraced and released by facing the darkness that created it in the first place.

Permanent weight loss will not come about by a change in diet or increased exercise output alone.  I have seen many start and stop with futility throughout their life as their weight and energy yo-yos.  Those who take this particular Heroes Journey achieve their goals with a new awareness and continue onwards to greater self-transcendence. 

You will be facing tests along the way.  Tests of your mental, emotional , physical and spiritual bodies.  Tests that I know that you can move through.   Tests that I have been through and would love to mentor you through.  

Along the way you are going to be making transformations from who you are right at this moment.  You do not have to buy into anything that I share, but for those who do, and give themselves permission, transformation will occur.  A willingness to shed the old beliefs and attitudes towards yourself and fitness will take place.  It is your choice as to how easily this happens.   You can resist and it will persist.  Or, you can follow some of what I share and allow yourself to change with ease.  This is what Campbell termed “The Supreme Ordeal”.  

You will return from this adventure a new person.  Changed internally and externally.  After every challenge that you face and embrace with love and courage, you will find yourself enhancing your fitness to greater and greater levels.  You will find an acceptance of your body and trust in it that you never had before.  You will have greater awareness of what drives it forward, and what holds it back, what exercise benefits and what nutrition your body is seeking out.  And, this is going to be a permanent change.  With a change in awareness, changes occur at the energetic level and changes will occur in the body.  Only through a refusal to accept the awareness will you stay stuck.  

 

So, for those of you ready to embark on a Heroes Journey with me in 2012, click on the link below.