At home
Choose an area. You might find something suitable amongst the Gofinestera routes, but perhaps you have your own plan. Tip: what sort of landscape makes you happiest?
Think about how far you want to travel and/or walk, and map out your route.
Make practical preparations. Click here for general practical tips and here for the ins and outs of walking and pilgrimage. If you’re travelling by car or bike, you can follow the same approach. The only thing missing is the rhythm. What you do have is a greater range of movement.
Also take a moment to look through the exercises in the media hub and see which ones might come in handy along the way.
Setting off
At the start of your journey, pause for a moment and reflect on your intention. What do you most want to do or experience? Do you have a question? Do you want to let go of something or free yourself from it? Do you simply want to enjoy a lovely walk? Tip: do a grounding exercise to be fully present and really feel what matters to you today.
Sample exercises:
With your intention in mind, you’re ready to set off! Along the way, you can stop or sit down every now and then to check in with what you need: an exercise, a moment to gaze into the distance, or a coffee or tea with apple pie.
Usually, during a walk, multiple layers of your question unfold naturally, or a particular theme comes to the fore. This is often a combination of your own story and the landscape. To make it more concrete, you’ll find an example below. With the emphasis on ‘example’: get used to truly creating your own journey, following it, staying open, curious and always ready to venture off the beaten track or not.
Example of a structure
Example area: estate with a stream and burial mounds.
Example intention: making space for a new plan.
Out and about: You go for a walk and come to a stream. Here, the invitation might simply be to let go of whatever stands between you and your plan (impossibilities, others’ expectations, whatever it may be). Tune into the water, watch how it flows and realise that the water simply ‘goes’. Take your time.
Then you might just spot a beautiful tree. All you need to do here is stand against it, resonate with it completely, and simply feel at peace. Then you might well come across a burial mound. Once you’ve felt its energy, it’s time to connect with the earth and the cosmos, and let go of even more old baggage (patterns, the past) to create space once more.
Then you can also sense what you need within yourself to fulfil your plan. Perhaps trust, surrender, a zest for life, or maybe you want to clarify your goal – just a few examples. Take a look at the exercises on this and choose one or two.
At the end of the walk: how do you feel, and reflect on what the walk has brought you.
Once again: this is just an example! There are many variations you can try.
Other tips
Check in with your intention every now and then during your walk: how is that going?
Set your own pace and feel what happens when you change it. What feels right at any given moment? Perhaps a bit briskly now, simply because you want to get somewhere? And sometimes very slowly, observing and being fully present?
If you’re walking with a question in mind: don’t overthink it. That makes things unnecessarily heavy and serious, and I’m sure you’re already familiar with that. You don’t need to go outside for that. Nature shows you something completely different. Keep experiencing and observing. Without judgement. Try asking your question to a tree or a little stream, and don’t overanalyse the answer – just receive it through a feeling, an image or an insight. Try asking your question to the earth and the cosmos, too.
Consciously tune into the elements on a regular basis: wind, sun, earth and water (where present, of course). Just take a moment to gaze at a butterfly resting on a flower, a buzzard in the sky, or a tree swaying back and forth. Follow it with your eyes and try to connect with its freedom, playfulness or ease. How does that feel? Follow it and keep connecting with whatever is simply there.