Building Your Own Helm’s Deep For Tough Times

Life will blow storms at you. The sky can darken. Wars can end up on your doorstep. Goblins (or family members and bosses) may launch fiery arrows at your heart, setting ablaze the tranquility you’ve built for yourself.

We all have hard days, but sometimes, the siege on your peace of mind drags on for weeks or months. These are rough patches.

When prolonged trouble brews at your gate, it would be nice to be able to escape to an impregnable stronghold.

We can’t always find a castle or an Air B&B to run off to, but we can prepare a retreat in our heads. A place you’ve pre-furnished with positive affirmation for dark times and a storehouse of recovery potions. It might help to borrow a blueprint from the people of Rohan in the Lord of the Rings. They had a sanctuary called “Helm’s Deep.” A stronghold to stock up for times when life gets confusing, frustrating, and painful. 

Raise Your Own Refuge

Thankfully, the plans for this walled barrier have already been worked out in a writer’s head and on film. We can borrow the design. We just have to prep it, furnish it, and fortify it for the unique battles we fight in our everyday lives.

J.R.R. Tolkien thought up the iconic battleground Helm’s Deep as an unassailable fortress for his book The Lord of the Rings (LOTR).

It was a fictional castle built into a canyon. It’s where the people of Rohan would retreat when the forces of evil loomed. Helm’s Deep was nearly unconquerable as a physical location.

It also helped restore the faith and hope of the population and buoyed their spirits when orcs, middle managers, and dark wizards approached.

It’s a location based on real geography. A narrow canyon called the Cheddar Gorge in England. A place the author visited as a child. It represented a spot to make a last stand but also stood as a refuge for war-weary citizens.

Weapons, food, and clothing were stored here in times of peace, so it was available when the forces of Sauron were on the march. Let’s try to learn from this strategy and form our own Helm’s Deep.

Helm’s Deep Stone By Stone

In good times, build your own Helm’s Deep, stone by stone, inside your head. Take this measure so you can retreat when things aren’t going your way. When war has been declared on your small little life.

We need these mental bastions as a place to regroup when life knocks the breath out of us. When we lose jobs, lose loved ones, or encounter a pandemic.

Most of us are already constructing our fortress without knowing it. These cerebral ramparts are stacked up stone by stone as we work on our inner selves.

…make sure you’ve left a secret path leading out the back. Because Helm’s Deep was never conceived as a permanent residence.

When we meditate, even though our days went well, the gains will come later. Draw from your meditation sessions to help you fill the deep moats around your castle with stored serenity. When we journal at a coffee shop. When we encode messages of hope into our art, our music. Stack up block after block.

Those truths we store on the page, on a canvas, become invaluable when storms swirl around us. Amidst the fire, those lessons we’ve earned become harder to recall. These pages form a secure chamber for the clarity you’ve earned so you can’t forget. 

We can pull those recorded lessons down from the shelves in our “keep.”

A keep is a residence, an apartment, built within the walls where the owner of the castle lived.

Every retreat into your mind and breath adds another layer of security to your Helm’s Deep. Battles will still take their toll, but perhaps you’ll be just slightly saner after a long day of battle. Perhaps you’ll uncover a message from your past self created in a happier time, reminding you that there will be sunshine again. 

Find Your Way Out of Your Fortress

And when your Helm’s Deep stands against the sky, tall and firm, make sure you’ve left a secret path leading out the back. Because Helm’s Deep was never conceived as a permanent residence. 

It’s a temporary refuge. To stay is to become your own enemy. One day, when the surge subsides, you’ll have to be ready to emerge and rebuild. Restock and reload for the next minor apocalypse.

You’ll also need to restore your connections to family and friends. You may have pushed them away or kept them in the dark, but now is the time to reforge those bridges.

The next time clouds gather, you’ll need to be able to light the signal fires and trust that there are people out there who will respond. Friends who will stand on those battlements, ready to defend you from attack.

They’ll all have different talents and abilities to help out in war. Some will be armed with practical advice. Some will provide stirring rallying cries. Some will be archers who strike from long range on your behalf. 

And be ready to watch for signals from other friends and rush to their aid.

The next time Orcs rise, light the pyres on the mountain tops and then hunker down in your intricately constructed Helm’s Deep. Let the enemy find that taking from your peace and joy will be harder than expected.

End

One way you can retreat from reality is by following another movie blueprint. Tie parts of yourself to certain happy times and cherished places. I break down Voldemort’s plan.

Also, here’s a minor apocalypse meditation option.