Sensitivity training on the way to Fisterra??

[Deleted member 3000]

NEWS

The Camino de Santiago with mindfulness to improve communication skills in workers
This alternative entertainment fits into the dynamics of team building that are launching many companies

02/10/2014The proposal is simple: living the Camino de Santiago by applying a collective mindfulness. This program takes place over six days and covers a distance of 100 km between Santiago and Finisterre. Those who choose to do this stretch in an attitude of meditation learn to develop a series of internal resources that enable them to face the daily difficulties with greater ease, comfort and ingenuity. Due to this continuous mindfulness training along the way, the teams work empathy, leadership and self-discovery. All this in an environment that invites meditation inner reflection and communicative power both personal and professional capacities. within this internalization experience a series of contemplative walks and exercises covering the different phases of the way they develop. Through slogans, challenges, mindfulness pills, proposals and daily meditations leadership teams manage to transcend their problems using mindfulness techniques.Contact with nature sponsored silence facilitates full consciousness in the present moment, something leads to reunion with the internal and group perceptions. This proposal mindfulness training through leisure making Transpersonal Foundation is perfectly suited to the current dynamic team building being put in place business and is proving to be effective in improving and enhancing communication and leadership in professional teams. It also allows you to design and adopt a common vision techniques to achieve personal growth to personal and group challenges.

 

[ebrandt]

Not sure what I think! I think mindfulness training is good. It helps to have some professional advice to learn how to break through the noise of our every day lives. And mindfulness on the camino makes tons of sese to me. But for me the other necessary ingredient is that feeling of being by yourself. Not solitude exactly because you are usually part of a loose confederation of fellow travelers. But those hours of walking and not talking. How do you get that when you are part of a tour group?

 

[TerryB]

Through slogans, challenges, mindfulness pills, proposals and daily meditations leadership teams manage to transcend their problems using mindfulness techniques.

"Mindfulness pills" is something that I have not come across in new-speak. Pop a pill and "mindfulness" is enhanced??? Something every social worker and pastor should have in their toolkit

Blessings anyway
Tio Tel

 

[Mark Lee]

"mindfulness pills"? Pfizer make those? ha ha
People pay for this "training"? If so, I got a bottle of snake oil for sale, real cheap.

 

[FlechaCadaDia]

For workers?

Mindfulness is often part of walking (on or off Camino) But it seems like they're orchestrating/planning so much of their experience into what the companies want...that they could hike just about anywhere and do the same thing. Their ultimate goal is to communicate with each other better in the workplace?

I dislike the Camino being used as a job training tool. It feels like commodification.

I like the open, inviting spirit so many contribute to the Camino.
I also think it's important that people respect that invitation. And respect the Camino, even if they aren't interested in its historical/religious contexts.
If this group wanted to circle the stone in Mecca for job training, wouldn't that be completely inappropriate and offensive?

 

[Kanga]

@FlechaCadaDia the section between Santiago and Finisterre has never been a part of the religious pilgrimage - in fact until a few years ago the Cathedral authorities seemed to actively discourage it. The pilgrimage officially finishes at the tomb of St James, in Santiago. So an activity such as the one suggested cannot be compared to circling the stone in Mecca.

 

[FlechaCadaDia]

Point well taken, Kanga. Maybe the Mecca analogy doesn't fit for that particular section of the path.

I doubt, however, that a distinction between before or after the Tomb--or a subsequent respect--is the reason the group has chosen the path to Fin (as opposed to Sarria--> SdC for example). Especially given that they are calling it the Camino de Santiago and suggesting that people "live the Camino de Santiago."

And it must be noted that they'd be starting their journey from SdC--from the Praza outside the Cathedral where the arrows to Fin begin. From the holy site. And that site is the origin of the Fin path--the reason the path between Santiago and Finisterre ever came into existence.

I suppose the walk to Fin would historically/contemporarily be part of the religious pilgrimage if it continued on to Muxia/the site of the Virgin Mary's alleged appearance to Santiago.

Perhaps they are ignoring this path's perceived spiritual significance or mystique, and they just needed any old way marked path. But they haven't chosen one of France's many non-religious GR's or a scenic path in New Zealand. Maybe they have chosen this path for a reason--Maybe they are using the path's perceived sacredness in a way similar to the "mindfulness pills" they will take.

 

[Kanga]

Yes, @FlechaCadaDia I don't like the idea of any of the Camino being usurped for commercial purposes - it grates horribly. But it seems impossible to stop. Every time I hear a beautiful bit of music being subverted for advertising I feel the same.

 

[Arn]

Once I let some one, some word, some action...by others in frInge on my person...I give them power over my emotions. Rather not!

 

[Wanderer64]

The latest Eastern religion-based New Age fad sees dollar signs and big market potential in the Camino popularity boom. What a shocker.

 

[Robo]

Sorry. Sounds like a lot of BS to me...

The Camino is surely a personal journey and a very special one, that I for one would suggest is best undertaken alone.

This kind of 'camp' would seem to have little to do with the Camino and could be done anywhere....

 

[VNwalking]

"Mindfulness pills" is something that I have not come across in new-speak. Pop a pill and "mindfulness" is enhanced??? Something every social worker and pastor should have in their toolkit

"mindfulness pills"? Pfizer make those? ha ha
People pay for this "training"? If so, I got a bottle of snake oil for sale, real cheap.

Oh, boy! How much trouble this would save! No need for years of practice...just take a pill! Instant transformation from frazzled and stressed out to tranquil and alert. I want it...my job would be soooooo much easier!
Well, it doesn't amaze me that greedy and unscrupulous people will try to make money any way they can...but that people will swallow this kind of BS whole and probably pay quite a lot of money to do it? Now that's astonishing.

Joking aside...I'm sorry too.
But like it or not, both the Camino and mindfulness will be used for commercial purposes now that they've both become so wildly popular. Sad to say, but it's the way of the world.
And since we can't do much about this, it's best not to get too sucked in to the natural reactions about it.
Otherwise...to borrow an emoji from another thread (thanks, canuk and SY!):

Ouch.

[Edit: BTW, Falcon where in the world did you find this?]

 

[Deleted member 3000]

[Edit: BTW, Falcon where in the world did you find this?]

Google

Kind of sad...

 

[VNwalking]

Kind of?? It's pathetic.
But there is a bright side.
When I realized this was actually an old thread, I went looking on Google to see more and found nothing. Perhaps this 'proposal' never got any further than that?

And upon reflection...you know, we've all been marinating in this crazy consumerist culture our entire lives and somehow come out the other end intact, and interested in deeper things. Perhaps there's hope...someone could do something like this, realize it's rubbish but have their interest piqued by what they see happening all around them. And then...they look online for information...and then...come to the forum...and then...have their own and more authentic camino experience.
(...and then, after years of posting and many caminos later they eventually become a moderator!)

 

[Arn]

Mindfulness in any venue (military, PTSD, drug addiction, pain abatement, etc.) is not a bad thing, nor strictly a commercial thing.
In the early 80's there was one medical review on the benefit of Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction. In 2014, there were over 2,500. Call it what you will, I have used it successfully in many arenas since the 70's.
As far as the Camino, religious fervor sparked the advent of the pilgrimage in the early centuries, St Francis in the 14th Cent, Reconquista of the 15th Cent. In the 90's Shirley MacLaine introduced the "spiritual" essence of the Camino. Hape Kerkeling rejuvenated both German and European interest with humor and introspection.
In 2004, a Norwegian named Ivar had the inspiration to embark on an enterprise where pilgrims on Camino could share their experience with others moved to walk the Way.
In every case mentioned above, the Camino has found an instrument that motivates, instills desire, and leads multitudes to make the journey to the Cathedral of Santiago and the tomb of St James.
Who's to say that this "mindfulness" approach isn't just the most recent manifestation of the Camino to encourage pilgrims to walk the Way?
Buen "for whatever reason" Camino,
Arn

 

[VNwalking]

Indeed, Arn, agreed...
Although I have to say that this:

Through slogans, challenges, mindfulness pills, proposals and daily meditations leadership teams manage to transcend their problems using mindfulness techniques.

does not sound like the mindfulness taught in hundreds of meditation retreats around the world (in various religious traditions), or even in the more commercialized world of MBSR.
It's those wondrous pills I'm most curious about. In over 2500 years-worth of mindfulness teachings there's not one mention of such a thing. So it must be a biomed start-up!

 

[SYates]

Ok, sorry to spoil it for so many of you, but me guesses it was a typo. Mindfulness pills= Mindfulness skills. Both legitimate words, hence not being picked up by a spell checker ... SY

 

[VNwalking]

Oh. Of course. (Should have thought of that, given the rather bad English in the rest of the article...)
Darn.

 

[SYates]

But if anyone ever invents some mindful pills - I would be game! SY

 

[VNwalking]

Me too!!
But alas...well...
The 'pill' to pay attention. Now. Take 100,000 times a day. Repeat until it comes naturally.
Hmmmm. Not so instant.

 

[cher99840]

Ok, sorry to spoil it for so many of you, but me guesses it was a typo. Mindfulness pills= Mindfulness skills. Both legitimate words, hence not being picked up by a spell checker ... SY

Just when we are devolving into mindlessness, you guide us back to mindfulness.