The Power of Pilgrimage
In May, I spent a soul nourishing week walking the Camino de Santiago in Spain. It was ten years since I last walked a section of this pilgrimage. I intended to return in 2020 but, well, we all know what happened then. This year I felt I really needed it. I was spiritually out of shape before I left. I couldn’t put my finger on it, but a part of me was struggling to connect. I was tired, as if some residual pandemic PTSD was lingering in my nervous system. I needed a week of walking to exhale and reset.
The simplicity of the Camino is its superpower. You simply walk, eat, sleep. Repeat. It is incredibly powerful to strip life back for a week. I removed access to emails and most apps from my phone. I carried less than 8kg in my backpack made up of two sets of clothes and other essentials I needed. I slept in basic dormitories with up to twenty other people. It might not sound like the most luxurious holiday but, for me, nothing could be more luxurious than the sense of freedom and space a week like this brings. The removal of ‘stuff’ helps life feel much clearer, less complicated, and more connected.
Pilgrimage is my favourite form of contemplative practice, of prayer. There is much talk today about the power of meditation but walking helps me find my centre. In daily life, walking is how I find answers. Feeling overwhelmed? I take a walk. Need ideas for writing? I take a walk. Stressed about a business issue? I head to the mountains to hike. Walking outside, feeling a part of the natural world expands my worldview and aids my perspective and sense of purpose. I finished the week on the Camino renewed; my sense of connectedness to myself and to the world around me restored.
Finding Spiritual Sustenance
On the train back to Bilbao to catch my flight, the guy sitting next to me was also a pilgrim. We started chatting about the spiritual sustenance we both got from being out on pilgrimage. He asked me about my thoughts on spirituality and I told him about my research. He revealed that, previously, he never really engaged with the spiritual part of himself. And then out of nowhere, in the last few years, he felt it calling him.
His story is far from unique. I hear it time and time again. People often confide in me that suddenly, often in mid-life, there is an inner call to make space and time for their spirituality. The soul wakes up and demands to be nourished. When this internal shift happens, it becomes harder and harder to deny this aspect of Self, painful to suppress something so fundamental to who you are as a person. In my life, I have found nourishing this aspect of myself has liberated me, empowered me to become more fully myself. I am only sorry I neglected it for so long.
Tapping Into Your Inner Resources
My faith is the most important internal resource I have. Nurturing this part of who I am helps me to know the right decisions to take and to trust the path in life I choose. When something in life feels amiss, it is so easy in our modern world to believe we can fix it by doing something, buying something or asking someone else for advice. In my life, clarity and confidence comes from removing things and renewing my inner sense of connectedness. Space itself is a spiritual practice for me. The less distraction, the less internal noise the closer I am to the sacredness of life; God, the divine, the universe, whatever it might be that you call it. When that connection is weakened for whatever reason, my life becomes less meaningful. Pilgrimage is my way to remember the most potent resource I have is inside me.
I am not sure exactly where but that week, as I was walking, I stopped fighting myself. My nervous system relaxed and all of me came together more completely. I let go of a weight I was carrying. It made me realise how tightly I had been holding life before I went. In that letting go, the connection I was seeking returned. The bat-line to my intuition, to my inner knowing felt clearer. I arrived home feeling resourced, stronger, and more solid in myself. Pilgrimage always works for me. By removing what is not needed, by making space, I am filled with a sense of connectedness and inner belief I need to live, work and contribute in a meaningful way.
What Does Spirituality Mean To You? My research was focused on non-denominational spirituality. If you find yourself personally exploring spirituality, there are a number of free downloads and articles on my research & on the broader topic of spirituality on my website which may support you: https://www.fiona-english.com/exploring-spirituality/