Welcome
Buen Camino! Reflections for cracked vessels and fellow travellers
This website is an invitation to pause, disconnect and focus on what truly matters.
Who am I? Well, I’m simply a fellow student on the university of life, who’s had to mend some of my own cracks and am eager to share what I’ve learnt so far and take you on my journey. It should be noted that I have no formal qualifications in these matters – however I’ll give you a bit more insight about myself at the end if you’re interested. This website is about you and is intended to be a spring-board for further exploration, learning and connection.
There is no rush to complete these steps. Everyone’s path isn’t linear, some meander, some spiral in iterations and some just wander. Take your time, have a little patience, pause for reflection as required and feel free to return to it another day (or not) – the choice is yours.
If something here resonates with you and you’d like to share it, please do so with care and kindness. I only ask that you credit the source and share it in its full context – this is a tapestry of thoughts meant to be experienced as a whole.
This website explores themes of love, wisdom, and purpose that are often linked to the Divine. While my personal lens is shaped by my Christian faith, the concepts discussed here are universal. When you encounter the term “God” or “Divine” in these pages, I invite you to interpret in a way that aligns with your own search for its meaning, for example:
- The Creator: A traditional, tangible source of authority or higher power
- The Life Force: An intangible universal energy that connects all things like Gaia or Mother Earth
- The Muse: A spiritual or artistic inspiration that drives beauty, meaning and connection in life.
Likewise, references to Jesus can be interpreted as the revolutionary figure or as a Divine figure as you see fit.
I’m not here to convert anyone. Whether you believe, don’t believe or are uncertain of your beliefs in God, I hope there is enough here for you to ponder and find useful.
Another note, I narrate the story and want to bring you with me so offer to share a bit of my own experience as a means to connect… for if you can find it within yourself to connect with a stranger, perhaps you can better connect with yourselves and those around you.
For best results, I’d advise working through the pages in order, however you really are free to explore it how you like, but I ask you to at least not leave the website until you’ve read section 3.1 (We are all broken vessels) and see if that hooks you in enough for later contemplative browsing… let’s begin…
Section 1. Grounding and Self Awareness
1.1 Grounding Yourself
Be Patient, Be Still and Breathe…
The aim here isn’t to patronise – after all, we all know how to breathe and you can judge for yourself if you’re doing it right. But in the rush of daily life, we often forget to pause. This section is simply an invitation to slow down and find a moment of calm.
If you're looking for support with breathing or grounding techniques, there are plenty of resources available – from books and apps to videos, classes, and guided audio, in addition to meditation and prayer groups. Explore what works best for you.
For those that are interested, I personally like to find calm through box breathing and minimalist music, and have created a playlist here, but that’s me, you will find what works for you.
1.2. Emotional Check-in
Start to connect with your emotions
Find the means to connect honestly with your emotions , dig deep to peel away the mask just a little.
Before you dive too deeply, ensure you have the tools for emotional self-regulation. Make sure you’ve completed section 1.1 and go back to it if required. When emotions are too overwhelming – or feel like a flood – the mind needs a simple anchor to the present moment. This is known as grounding.
A quick technique is the 5-4-3-2-1 Method: name 5 things you can see, 4 things you can touch, 3 things you can hear, 2 things you can smell, and 1 thing you can taste. This quick exercise forces your brain to re-engage with your physical environment, pulling you out of the emotional spiral so you can then apply further tools safely.
In some cases you might feel more at ease checking-in whilst in your “flow state” whether that be through meditation, prayer, knitting, rock-climbing, cycling – anything that really engages the body and / or mind, and allows some of the background chatter to dissolve and find a blank canvas… in other cases you may wish to protect your flow states from such thoughts as this can be your private sanctuary of peace. Where language feels inadequate find your own artistic means of expressing these emotions or even express them through body movement and exercise – find what most resonates with you.
For me, my artistic expression is music, I have a general playlist which covers me in my “natural state” and then I have specific playlists for certain specific moods and states. I often choose a song that’s most appropriate for my emotional need.
Finish the sentence… “beneath the surface, I feel…”
A note on journaling:
One of the simplest yet profound methods for connecting honestly with your emotions is journaling. This practice serves as a private, unfiltered sanctuary – a space where you can pour out thoughts and feelings without the need for performance or judgment. The blank page is the ultimate safe space; it requires no pretence, no editing, and frees you from the pressure of performative perfection.
Use it to articulate your chaotic internal landscape, identify the roots of your emotional states, or simply capture the small, fleeting moments of gratitude and beauty that might otherwise be forgotten. Journaling is not about writing well; it is about honesty, helping you transition from an awareness of what you feel to an understanding of why you feel it.
I’ve got to be honest I didn’t do journaling myself but I very much wish I had as it serves to show patterns of thoughts / behaviours, it remind you that the bad days come and go and you can look back and see how far you’ve travelled.
Will I do it in the future? Maybe – but it’s probably not going to be consistently. I’m pretty bad at forming habits but am working on that. I do, however, make notes of key points from my counselling sessions and have written letters to key people in my life – some of which were sent, and some remain unsent.
1.3 Mapping your inner world
Acknowledgement of internal world building
I often reflect on how my emotional states shape the internal map through which I view the world – a map unique to me. Each of us sees life through different lenses, our conscious and subconscious are shaped by our upbringing, culture, faith, personality, social circles and through events in our lives. Some follow shared paths, guided by collective beliefs. Others walk alone, forging independent views outside the group-think.
This isn’t about who’s right or wrong, or whose map is “most accurate.” It’s about recognising that while we share common ground, we also carry deeply personal perspectives. The only person who ever knows your own thoughts is yourself. We curate our thoughts and outward actions and we each have our own reasons and validations (either consciously or subconsciously). Despite being similar, we are profoundly unique.
Take something as seemingly universal as imagination. Two years ago, I was diagnosed with Aphantasia – I have no mind’s eye. When someone says, “Picture an apple,” no image forms in my mind. I know what an apple is, I can describe it, even draw it – but I can’t see it internally. Until my diagnosis, I assumed everyone experienced the world the same way. I thought “visualisation” was just poetic language – not a literal ability.
Likewise, my memories aren’t vivid tapestries of sights and sounds. They’re more like faint emotional echoes – ghostly impressions without sensory detail. And yet, I function just fine . I’m not alone in this, and I know many of you have your own stories about how you experience the world differently.
We think differently. We feel differently. We emote differently. We sense the world in our own ways.
But we all breathe the same air. We all beat with the same heart.