It is easy to forget what really matters when we relentlessly focus on tasks that feel never-ending and void of purpose: paying the bills, driving in traffic, sitting in meetings, picking up dinner, working out in a stale gym. Life can begin to feel like a treadmill – adequate but devoid of beauty and meaning.
The good news is that there are ways available to us to reconnect to purpose and re-ignite our passion for life.
If we just create the time for the experience.
Pilgrimage is one of those ways, but maybe not in the way your parents might have thought of it. Spiritual tourism, in a larger sense of the phrase, is growing by leaps and bounds. Now, more and more people at home and across the world choose to spend their “time off” in pursuit of greater meaning and purpose. A United Nations agency (UNTWO) even created a sub-committee in 2013 to learn more about the power and impact of Spiritual Tourism on tourists and the local communities where it is happening.
When we move away from our comfort zone there can be some fear and often great wonder.
In the unfamiliar we can gain perspective and awareness and more easily reconnect with what really matters.
One thing that holds us back is the very mindset that makes pilgrimage a necessity: The busy-equals-importance mindset.
I’ve found over time, that though people need you, the busy-ness can be a distraction.
When busy-ness and hyper-connectivity are stripped away, on pilgrimage or through other life-shifting experience, we recognize how gratifying connection to what really matters is. We thrive in friendship, family, purpose, and belonging.
Through focused and immersive experiences such as pilgrimage we can break the chains of relentless distraction, realize the power of true connection and then bring that truth back to our lives.
Our world today does not give much importance to or educate us in ways to reboot and reconnect.
Either by design or haphazardly, we often find ourselves on an endless merry-go-round of distraction instead of connection.
There are free and powerful ways out there to feel more centered and peaceful, if we are willing to step outside the bubble of our isolated and busy lives.
Wouldn’t it feel great to re-boot and get into relationship with what really matters to you?
What if you could do that for free, with an hour-a-day commitment, in the company of people like you, who know they need a break and way to reset themselves toward purpose and joy?
REALIZING CONNECTION is getting ready to launch a thought provoking, fun, and free experiment centered on the vision of creating peak experience right where you are. I’ve spoken with many of you that long for some way to create expansiveness and possibility in your lives without having to spend loads of money or leave family/job to make it happen. I have an idea I think we should try!
If you’d like to learn more about this #ConnectedPilgrim version of pilgrimage, or just keep track of our motley crew of would-be adventurers, check it out and subscribe here!
Let me know what you think about your life as “on the treadmill”, or “as a trailblazer”? Connecting is what we’re about! Add your comments below and let’s get this party started!
This is the 3rd in a 4 part series asking “Why is pilgrimage relevant in the early 21st century?”
