Go for a Walk: What I learned about transcendence from a very boring 100-mile trek

This article describes how a walking pilgrimage, specifically along the Camino de Santiago in Spain, offers profound happiness and well-being benefits by encouraging mindfulness and a break from constant striving for achievements. The act of walking itself, rather than arriving at a destination, allows participants to live in the present moment and detach from material concerns, fostering gratitude and a deeper sense of purpose. The author highlights that this kind of journey prompts reflection, self-discovery, and a transformative perspective on life that can bring fulfillment beyond religious or physical motivations.

Key Points

• Appreciate the present by focusing on the journey and not the destination
• “On the Camino, one realizes that fulfillment cannot come when the present moment is merely a struggle to bear in service of the future, because that future is destined to become nothing more than the struggle of a new present, and the glorious end state never arrives. If we want to find true satisfaction, we must instead focus on the walk that is life, with its string of present moments.”