How often can we say that we just walked 15 miles, or 24 kilometres, to our destination?
Not often, in our increasingly digital and screen-centric world, but on the Camino de Santiago, this report is the norm. The Way is a very long walk, upwards of 500 miles (about 805 kilometres) towards the Cathedral de Santiago de Compostela in Galicia, Spain.
This famous pilgrimage has been sought after by millions of people of many backgrounds since the ninth century. The duration of its legacy that persists in the present day speaks volumes about its power and influence.
That’s a lot of miles, we might say. Why would we do that when there are so many more convenient ways to travel?
In short, it’s because the Camino serves as a physical access point to the experience of mindfulness, which is:
- Intentionally living with awareness in the present moment.
- Letting go of avoiding, suppressing or blocking the present moment.
- Attending to the experience of each new moment without clinging to the past or grabbing the future (Marsha M. Linehan, 2014).
On the Camino, this awareness arises organically. As we take each step through new terrain, we open our senses to our surroundings and pay attention to them without judgment.
A decision to wake up
Choosing to take a Camino journey is a decision to wake up from our automatic routines and be present in our lives. We arrive with our literal and figurative “baggage,” ready to carry it with us and let it be free.
I lost someone special. I’m on a search for meaning. I need a change from my job. I want to step outside of my routine. I need to take a look around. I just really like walking.
The journey is both physically and mentally difficult. Yet, it’s the challenge of pushing our limits that facilitates transformation, healing, new discovery, access to a deep well of emotions and radical acceptance.
St. Jean Pied De Port, the Camino starting point, consists of ancient cobblestone streets and small dwellings. Pilgrims are everywhere, with backpacks and hiking boots. The first arrow is ready to be found and followed, as the Way begins when we decide. There is no right or wrong way to walk, to follow the path.
Sure, there are guidebooks and suggestions. But starting the path reminds us that at our core, we’re simply being, and how we take those steps is ultimately up to us.
Back to basics
Stepping into this position of being, we return to our basics. We find a rhythm in walking, thinking and talking that is as much about grasping as it is about letting go. There is an acceptance of loss in the same moments that new connections emerge. As we meet new people, we talk, share a meal, collaborate to find the closest hostel.
We connect, despite the knowledge that goodbye is near. Passing through village after village, arrival and departure are one in the same. Hour one, hour two, hour three, we find ourselves becoming more in sync with our surroundings and aware of our place in the life and death cycle of nature.
Being among this collective of pilgrims makes us feel centred, freed and able to process our experiences. It fosters equanimity, mental calmness and composure, even in the face of strenuous days, crowded hostels, blisters on our feet and pain in our knees. There is more air, in addition to more deep breaths, sweating and letting go. It’s difficult to feel stuck, because as pilgrims, we’re in perpetual motion.
We’re drawn to the Camino because this special walk helps us hold painful experiences with tenderness. We integrate them into our life stories while embracing the paradox of connection and loss, day in and day out. On the trail, these elements of the life cycle are experienced in the span of a single day.
As pilgrims, we band together, often eager to converse. We marvel together at the beauty of the landscape, discuss the politics of the era, compare cultures, and process loss and suffering alongside joy and lightness. The Camino is cathartic in that it allows for a paced discussion of hardship in the surroundings of nature’s majesty, with fresh air in the lungs and muscles engaged and steady along a cradle of open road.
Freedom on and off the Camino de Santiago
The Camino is the place where suffering can be faced with compassion and emerging freedom can be felt. As a result, many of us have never felt so alive and empowered to face the full range of our experiences, so we allow both the negative and positive to enter our awareness.
In our quest for well-being, the journey of the Camino offers access to mindfulness, even when we’re off the trail. When we’re stuck in traffic on the highway, buried in deadlines at work, overwhelmed and pressured, multitasking and distracted, we can mentally return to the “Camino” to reawaken our senses and open ourselves fully, openly and non-judgmentally to what is all around us.
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image: Trevor Huxham
