I pin my hopes to quiet processes and small circles in which vital and transforming events take place. ~Rufus Jones

Over the course of eleven days, Dana, my walking partner and I covered almost two hundred miles or an average of seventeen miles a day. I wouldn’t recommend this distance if you have any desire to explore the area where you’re staying at the end of the day. We were quite content to sit on our hotel beds, prop our feet up, eat some peanuts and wait for dinner. Most Spaniards don’t eat their evening meal until nine or ten at night – pretty much our bedtime so our afternoons were spent lounging, napping, and plotting our next day’s course. If we were lucky, we were served dinner at eight-thirty but were usually the first to arrive at the restaurant and felt like an elderly couple going to the early-bird special.

Despite the fatigue and sore feet at the end of the day, there was something profoundly satisfying about walking – simply walking all day long. The shear lack of distraction from phones, computers, and TVs softened the noise constantly spinning in the background of my mind. The rhythm of walking invited a slower cadence to life, a more relaxed pace. The average person can walk three miles per hour – that’s a painfully slow speed when driving a car, but when all you have are your own two feet to get you where you need to go, speed is not an option nor is rushing. I noticed over the course of eleven days that as I physically slowed down, my internal engine began to calm down as well.

With all the chatter silenced in my mind and my body moving at a comfortable pace I began to feel calm, at peace, and clear-headed. I actually had time to listen to what my gut was saying, that still small voice within that always knows what is needed and what’s important in my life. It was a cellular knowing rather than an intellectual understanding. Why walking unlocked this door for me I’m not sure, though I think it could just as easily been some other form of repetitive movement – riding a bike, kayaking, swimming. With each step a new way of understanding was ingrained into my being, shifting my center of gravity ever so slightly. The pathway that led to my heart space, that place of gut knowing, was walking. Who would have guessed?

Questions: What would it be like to completely “unplug” for a day? What physical activities clear your mind? Does your physical environment calm your mind or add to cluttered thinking?