We stress out about a lot of things every day. It’s normal. We should release those stresses often, but many of us do not. It’s a choice. The more stress you hold on to, the higher the risk of disease and poor health.
I read a post from a Camino de Santiago FB group recently. It stated that the Camino makes adults kids again. I thought about it as I read it. I read it again, and I agreed with it. Walking the Camino de Santiago certainly made me a kid (mentally) during the daily grind of walking from one place to another.
Some network marketing groups beg their members to become kids again – to dream big about what they want in life. They are trying to capture the ‘big why’ in your lives. Back then we might have dreamed of being an astronaut, baseball player, dancer, teacher, cowboy, etc. It didn’t matter. We didn’t know the future and we had dreams that captured our attention at our young age. We were not influenced by others into not being able to do the things we wanted to do.
It’s a place for some people to start when trying to develop their ‘big why’ in their lives. On the Camino, I did become a kid again. I cared nothing about what was going on in the world. I talked to strangers – everyone that passed me. I cared only about today. Tomorrow would take care of itself when the time came.
I didn’t realize it at the time, but for a month I was a kid again. I didn’t develop any ‘big why’ during that time. I did appreciate life in a different way. I appreciated what I had each day. I was thankful for the ability to walk each day with little to no pain. I marveled at having only 18 pounds of things I needed to live on a daily basis. I was ecstatic about being able to talk to people from Australia, Korea, Brazil, Sweden, Greenland, Mauritius, Ireland, etc. Each conversation was a great experience.
The closest most of us ever get to this level of being a kid is during a vacation. We shut down (or should) our minds to the daily rat race. We want to concentrate on ourselves and our families – to have a great time in the few days that are given to us each year. We approach the kid-like level, but don’t cross over the boundary to be one again.
