5 best recipes for a better life: Camino Inspiration

This is the second blog of a series of inspirational advice posts written by the amazing writer Maytte Sepúlveda, a communication specialist devoted to spread the word about growth and wellbeing. The advice in this post can be useful both for your Camino inspiration and preparation as well as for your everyday life. We hope you love it as much as we do!

For part 1:  Spiritual Exercises

For part 3: Camino Spiritual journey

1) Good Deeds for prosperity

“Today do a good and selfless deed for another person. When we help others, the universe conspires to fill our pockets with abundance and prosperity”.

The Camino inspiration means that if we fill ourselves with positive energy and spread it around to others in need, the universe will make that cycle repeat itself and give us eternal peace and wellness. That positive energy can be shared by doing something good for someone else without the other person having to ask you for it and without expecting anything in return. This kind of things make us better human beings and help us channel that strength in a positive way.

They don’t have to be big things that require a lot of time and effort, simply do something that can make another person happy or help them during a rough time. Don’t do it to feel good with yourself, do it because the universe needs good deeds and those will always return to you.

2) Get rid of negative habits

We have top put into practice one of the most important, and maybe the most difficult, exercises of all.

“Make the decision to put an end to that negative habit that affects your health or the balance in your life. Once you have made the decision to do it, don’t look back. You can do this: Tear a newspaper page by page imagining your are breaking that old habit or attitude. If you need it, seek for help to get over it and remove it from your life.”

Unhealthy habits

We are all aware of those things we do that hurt us and for endless reasons we don´t know when to stop or leave it behind. From smoking and eating junk food, unhealthy habits that we know we have to change but haven’t found the strength to, to more important things like attitudes or reactions that hurt us or hurt our loved ones. It may happen that we are not yet aware of some of those attitudes and for that to happen we have to be humble, check and recognise ourselves and  change what we don´t like.

If we want to exercise our soul and feel indisputably better, we have to let go of everything that makes a negative effect on us and everything that can hurt someone else to make way for happiness. Sometimes it is not easy to turn the page and we have to be open to accepting help from someone else, maybe an outside view is all you need to move on. Make the decision, get rid of all the negativity and transform your attitude.

3) Visualize your dreams is part of getting Camino Inspiration

We have to identify our goals and visualize them happening. Get your camino inspiration. “Think of that goal you wish to accomplish in the future. Create a detailed mental image of the moment you get what you want and visualize it several times a day. Do it with the certainty that it is real.”

The visualization exercise is very powerful and doing it regularly can give us the energy and confidence to feel sure that we will accomplish our goals. But beyond the confidence it may give us, there are studies that prove that mental visualization of ourselves doing an acivity can suppose the same activity that the actual one for the brain. This is because the mental pratice of a situation activates the same brain structures that the fisical practice. This is why if we focus on imagining our goal, this vivid image of our success will focus our brain 100% towards it.

An interesting exercise

We have to do this exercise every single day of this week. If we only do it once it will still be a positive exercise to accomplish goals and allign our brain with our desires. However, to get better results we will have to repeat it so that our brain can memorize our actions.

Identify your dreams, goals and desires. Look for a confortable place, close your eyes and dedicate 10 minutes of your day to visualizing what you want the most. Imagine finishing the Buen Camino Sarria to Santiago, reaching Santiago de Compostela, wouldn’t that be great? what a great way to get inspired!

4) Build a Bridge

This time we have a difficult but incredibly important challenge, restoring forgotten relationships.

“Reach out to that person with who you had a misunderstanding or disagreement that pulled you apart for a long time and get in touch. Ask for forgiveness or say you are sorry if it is necessary and restore that relationship. It is worth it to put all of your personal relationships in peace and order.

Personal relationships

Personal relationships are important, surrounding ourselves with friends and people to share moments with is one of the keys to happiness. We have to learn to let go the missunderstandings and problems that have kept us apart from a special person. It is very hard to forgive or to say you are sorry but we have to remember that resentment is much heavier than pride and that spending the rest of our life holding on to grudges may be a waste of time and joy.

Identify those friendships that you have lost for small bumps in the road and fix them, you will see how peace will come back to you. Personal relationships are crutial elements we have to keep and get back in order to feel great.

5) Give yourself a present

The next seven days are about loving yourself and feeling proud of your accomplishments. Maytte teaches us the importance of recognising our success and celebrating it. This is perfect Camino inspiration, your success will be arriving to Santiago and celebrating it. Try visualising it.

“Once in a while it is important to reward yourself for all the small and big efforts you have achieved. Stop expecting others to recognise and celebrate your accomplishments. Today, give yourself a special gift and receive it without feeling guilty. Your deserve it!”

Without a doubt it is of good fortune and brings positive energy to celebrate good times to welcome many more. However, sometimes we forget to celebrate because we expect someone else will. We have to find the inner strenght and clarity to stop needing acknowledgement beyond our own. Raise your head, go out and give yourself a gift to reward all of those accomplishments we have achieved.

Choose something special

Even if it is a small detail, choose something special. Something that you would like to have that reminds you of that success. That way, every time you use it or see it you will be reminded of the wonderful person you are and everything you are capable of. Remember that you deserve a lot and that if we fall back on the expectation that someone else is going to acknowledge them we could maybe feel disappointed. On the other hand, if we take control of the situation and celebrate satisfaction will be guarantied.

Give yourself a gift and feel proud of what you have accomplished. You deserve a celebration and indulge yourself with something that will make you smile.