You know that playlist of fears and worries that invades your mind, getting in the way of you doing what you have to do? Don’t you sometimes just want to make it stop? Doesn’t it just add to your plate when you’re stressed out about something?
It’s a long journey from Markina to Gernika, and about three-quarters of the way, I feared not being able to make it to the albergue before dark. It’s not always easy to spot the trail markers and the route was pretty much deserted. All I could do was keep walking and not lose one second of daylight. At one point, fed up with the constant negative voice, I drowned it out by repeating, “In this moment, I am safe, protected and doing okay.”
What resulted was that I could divert that wasted energy into picking up my pace – almost power-walking, which I never thought I could manage after having covered 21km already that day. The moral of the story is that you are so much more powerful when you are present: put aside your past, don’t fret about the future. Give whatever you are doing right now your full attention.