Burnout and the Call of the Camino

The Camino and the Journey toward Restoration

Sometimes I wonder if I should be medicated
If I would feel better just slightly sedated
A feeling comes so fast and I cannot control it
I'm on fire, but I'm trying not to show it…”
                                                            Florence and the Machine, Free  

Anxiety and the Modern World 

I am returning to walk the Camino Portuguese because I feel burned out, overwhelmed and as though I cannot make sense of myself or the world anymore.    

Years ago, there seemed to be a common understanding of life’s trajectory: attend school, follow the rules, get a job, work hard, and achieve stability. But in today’s world, even with advanced degrees and experience, security seems increasingly out of reach.  While of course there was never a guarantee of advancement, prosperity or happiness - there at least seemed to be a hope that if one pursued life with effort and worked hard such goals were possible to obtain.   In recent years this no longer seems a reality or possibility.   

The situation isn’t just an individual experience—it’s a global trend. People everywhere are finding it harder to secure stable, fulfilling careers where they can pay their daily bills.  This scenario plays out in our neighbourhoods and on the news.  Amazon workers who live in their delivery vehicles, Teachers who can’t afford to own a home in the communities they support, families who can no longer pay their ever-increasing taxes and rent, workers who are being automated out of their long-held positions and people who are being reno-victed out of their homes.  We are caught in a cycle wherein good people are doing their best, and working their hardest, yet they are falling increasingly behind.  We are asked to do more, produce more, buy more, and give more while receiving less and less.  The result is that we no longer believe we matter to those who run the country, the companies we work for, or even our neighbours.   We feel isolated and overwhelmed in our lives.  

Burnout and the Need for Change

Interestingly, burnout does not occur overnight.  It’s a slow, creeping sensation that gradually drains our energy and motivation. It manifests physically through fatigue, headaches, and muscle aches, while emotionally it leaves us feeling detached and unproductive. Feeling like this we find ourselves struggling to accomplish even the simplest tasks each day. This emotional numbness makes it hard to enjoy life or take care of ourselves and confront the challenges of life.

Amid this feeling, we become more anxious, more depressed, and more alone, in addition to which we feel purposeless and without direction.  To escape these feelings and to escape ourselves we go online.  The digital metaverse is appealing as it is exciting, predictable and even controllable.  Yet even here we are frustrated as more and more online we are dealing with AI Chatbots and not other people.  And so the loneliness gets worse.   We are constantly being stimulated but are less satisfied.  Despite its appeal, living online and in front of screens is not good for us mentally, it is not good for us physically and it is not good for our souls.

In the face of these overwhelming feelings in both the physical world and the digital realm, we are often told by those around us to work harder and to push through exhaustion, but progress doesn’t come from trying harder. Instead, the solution lies in recognizing the need for change—a change that goes beyond the routines and institutions which feel unfulfilling and away from the social media that has come to dominate so much of our lives.

As I make my plans to walk the Camino de Santiago I feel burnt out.  I want to find the quiet in the crowd and I want the world to feel a little more real and a little less pixilated. I want to reaffirm that people are good, the world is beautiful, and to find direction again.   I want to have new experiences, gain new perspectives and feel renewed.  And I suspect that I am not the only one…

“This is the real sickness.  Today time is a commodity, and for each one of us, time is mortgaged.  … We are threatened by a chain reaction : overwork – overstimulation – overcompensation – overkill…. You must get free from all the imaginary claims [on our time]” to find yourself.  Thomas Merton

Call of the Camino 

“...if I know one certainty about the Way of St. James it is that no one walks this Camino by accident...no one...”

The Way, Jack from Ireland

For several decades now the ways and routes to Santiago de Compostela have become increasingly popular and not just for religious reasons.  Instead, the calling to pilgrimage in an age which is increasingly technological, increasingly digital and increasingly impersonal seems to be because so many feel unmoored from the essential.  We have never been so connected but never been so far apart.  The digital realms that we spend too much time in have made us empty – because, as many have begun to see it is more media than social.  More often than not there is no one there.  No one to listen, no one to empathize and no one to help.  Author Simon Parker in his book Riding Out says it best noting that  “Social media seems like a tragic waste of time in lives that are already finite…every time I scrolled I felt worse, less significant”.  So much time and heartbreak are dedicated to these empty digital spaces.

As a result, there seems to be a widespread desire to head off and be, for a time, offline, to live simply, and to reflect.  We seek, I think, to find spirituality and faith in the real world once again.  Thankfully Camino gives us the time to explore things, see the world differently, and even see ourselves and life more clearly. 

“Today, as we witness the Western world sink ever more deeply into a secular consumer-oriented society, we also see a surge in the number of pilgrims going to Santiago.  The paradox continues for to walk the Portuguese Way is to travel back in time while going forward into a new era of ….awakening.”

John Brierley, Camino Portuguese Guidebook

At a moment when so many have begun to see that the internet is hollow and devoid of either compassion or life, we are coming to remember that one “cannot drink from an empty vessel” and be happy.  

We have discovered that we are in need of reconnecting with the essential.

And so, we are once again setting off on Camino.