We receive many life lessons as we walk the Camino de Santiago de Compostela. Today we walked from Zubiri to Pamplona, and it was one of the more enjoyable walks, with beautiful trails and varied scenery along the way.

The people we spend our time with can have such a  huge effect on our standards and on our lives. We had planned to walk a shorter distance today, but then heard that the Koreans who were staying in the same Albergue, were walking further than we had planned, so then it made us also want to walk that distance as well.

If we spend time with people are are fitter than us, then we will get fitter, if we spend time with people who make more money than us, then we will start making more money and if we spend time with people who simply live life on a higher level, then we will also gravitate to that level. The same is also true for the opposite, we can also be pulled down if we spend time with those who have lower standards, or who have set their sites lower in life.

So to spend time with those that are living on a higher level in whatever regard, instills a stronger belief in us of what is possible, and if we see others doing what we may of thought we were incapable of doing, then we start to feel more confident about doing those things ourselves. One thing we love about doing the Camino de Santiago is that we are meeting people who are likeminded and do have high standards for themselves.

The other main life lesson I received today on the Camino de Santiago was to remove anything from my life that was causing friction and to effectively start flowing with life. Sometimes the frictions can be subtle and we don’t realise that they are preventing our flow, but if these frictions go unnoticed or are ignored then they start to become harder and more painful lessons to learn further down the line.

I have found from day one that I have been tweaking everything to lessen the friction on The Santiago Trail. Of course the main physical frictions that I have been feeling involve the heavy 30kg pack that I am carrying, rubbing against my body and also the friction of my feet rubbing in my shoes as I walk over uneven and undulating terrain.

Simply changing my trousers and wearing track suit bottoms to walk in, made a big difference to the friction in my hips from the waist band of the rucksack. The belt holding up my trousers was rubbing on my bony hips and they became bruised and swollen. If I had carried on like that and ignored it then after another week I would be a bruised and bloody mess and would more than likely breakdown and quit. If I didn’t wear two pairs of socks then the friction in my feet would cause massive blisters and again my camino would be over in a number of days.

These lessons on the Camino de Santiago can be carried into everyday life. If we look at the friction in our relationships, if we ignore it, then it can turn into a nasty breakup down the line. If we ignore the friction in our mind from living in a way that does not support us from doing an unfulfilling job, or not following our hearts desires, then that can result in depression or some sort of mental and emotional breakdown.

If our spine is out of alignment and we continue to ignore it or mask it with medication then other frictions will appear in the body and symptoms will start popping up everywhere. Prevention is always better than cure, but if we can tune into the little frictions in life and not be in denial about them, then it can be much easier and less painful to remedy. Buen Camino!

P.S.We are able to take a month out to walk the camino as we earn a passive residual income online. Want to do the same? Just click below to find out more.