7 life lessons from the Camino de Santiago

I’mmmmmmmm back!! In all honesty, I’ve been back for a month already but it’s been one of the craziest months of my life (the come down after travelling is really bad). That’s why I’m only getting round to blogging now. So don’t be hating, okay?

St Jean Pied de Port, France.

As I’m sure you have guessed, I survived the 800km walk across Spain. Yup, I can officially tick ‘Walk the French Route of the Camino de Santiago with my mom’ off my bucket list. And boy, was it something! I don’t even know where to begin. How does one explain or recount one of the BEST experiences in one’s life? Words that come to mind are: beautiful, crazy, challenging, soul refreshing, happy, free, fun, sad, rainy, snowy, hot, cold, awesome, wonderful, incredible, amazing… The one word that keeps popping up in my mind is life-changing. 

You simply cannot walk the Camino de Santiago and come back an unchanged person. If you do, you need to walk it again. 

The people you meet, the landscapes you see, the beds you sleep in, the food you eat, the music you hear, the conversations you engage in, the amount of wine you drink… all of it changes your perspective; it gives you a new lease on life. The lessons you learn on the Camino are the kind that will guide you for the rest of your life. To give you just a small idea of the magnitude of awesomeness that is the Camino, I thought I’d share just a few of the life lessons I learned along the Way:

• The less you have, the more free you are. After walking for 40 days with nothing but a backpack to call ‘home’, you quickly realised how little you really need in life. The less clothes, gadgets, accessories and ‘stuff’ you have in your life, the less tied down you’ll be and the easier it will be for you to move around (my goal in life at this point is travelling, so that was a simple but significant lesson to learn). 

My backpack weighed 10kg.

• We really don’t have control over much of anything. Once you accept this truth, and once you let go of the idea of control, life is much simpler. When you’re constantly planning every single move (which I was prior to the Camino), you never allow for things to happen the way they’re meant to. Sometimes, you just need to step back and see where life takes you. Allow the journey to unfold, it is so much more rewarding.

• When you can, live in the moment. This kind of relates to the lesson above in that by letting go  of ‘control’, we can allow things to happen and truly live in the moment. When life gives you an opportunity to get outside of your comfort zone, do it. When you’re invited for a drink with someone you’ve just met, go for it. When a yoga instructor tells you to stick your tongue out and scream in the yoga class, don’t hesitate (yes, this really happened). By living in the moment, you open yourself up to things you might never have before. That’s when the magic of life takes hold and whisks you off your feet. (For the cynics out there, I know it’s not realistic to always live like this, but when you can, you should) 

"You and me exist in this moment"

• There are good people out there. We met about five new people every single day (that’s 200 over 40 days!) on the Camino and I can honestly tell you that there was not one person who made me feel concerned or unsafe. Sure, there were oddballs or people I didn’t particularly want to bump in to but for the most part, they were genuinely good people. It restored my faith in people. Be cautious but give them a chance and watch the goodness unfold. 

Orisson, France.

• Solvitur ambulando. I spoke about this latin phrase a while ago and I will continue to speak about it for a long time. It means ‘it is solved by walking’ and now I can confirm its validity. Whenever my head was in a difficult place, whenever I felt irritated or anxious or overly excited, the walking got me back into my happy place. It challenged me both physically and mentally and it solved so much of the mumbo-jumbo that had been going on in my head over the last few months. Whatever happens in life, you can always walk it off. 

• Ciga ciga. This is a Greek saying which translates to ‘slowly slowly’. This was our motto. Many people rush the Camino, as they do life: they race out of the albergue each morning, they walk at a ridiculously fast pace and they focus only on the destination, not the journey. My mom and I, on the other hand, decided to take it really slow. We stopped in almost every small town, we only covered 25 km a day (which is short in comparison to some other pilgrims) and we rested whenever we felt like it. Life is so much more pleasurable when you’re not rushing; when you’re not racing to the end. Don’t ever forget to take it slow every once in a while. It’s like medicine for the soul.

A living reminder to take it slow.

• Be you, always. When you don’t have things to hide behind, like make-up or nice clothes or money or a career, then you really have no choice but to be yourself. And why be anything else? When my hair was dirty, when I was tired and sweaty and wearing the same socks as the previous day, I still managed to look in the mirror and think, ‘hey, you’re pretty cool.’ When you are just simply who you are and you’re not trying to prove anything or impress anyone, then being yourself is an easy and honest way to be.

Over the next few weeks I’ll be blogging about the trip - details about the terrain, walking, the hostels, food, people, etc and giving tips on how to prepare for the Camino, what to expect, what to pack and what shoes to look out for. Feel free to send me any questions.

Adios amigos!