In an era marked by constant connectivity and cognitive overload, the act of walking—especially through nature—emerges as a quiet antidote. Pilgrimage, long associated with religious or spiritual aims, now intersects with contemporary science in revealing ways. Neurological research increasingly supports what walkers across centuries have sensed: the act of journeying on foot alters the brain, improves physical health, and creates space for psychological renewal.
A journey beyond geography
Pilgrimage is often understood as a geographical endeavor—routes marked on maps, stages between villages, arrival at a symbolic endpoint. Yet for many, its deeper terrain lies elsewhere. It is a form of embodied inquiry: a slow, sustained exposure to uncertainty, repetition, solitude, and the natural world. For those who walk without fixed expectations, the path becomes an inward passage, shaped not only by place but by neurobiology.
As philosopher Frédéric Gros writes in A Philosophy of Walking: “To walk is to open yourself to the world. Each step is an unspoken word, a thought taking shape.”
What happens to the brain when we walk?
The neuroscience of walking is no longer speculative. Researchers like Shane O’Mara of Trinity College Dublin have demonstrated how regular movement—especially walking—activates neurogenesis, the process by which new neurons form in the brain.
In his book In Praise of Walking, O’Mara explains that walking stimulates the hippocampus, enhances memory, and supports creative thinking. The steady rhythm of footfall encourages mental clarity and emotional regulation, serving as a potent, side-effect-free intervention against stress and low mood.
Walking, he writes, “is the best antidepressant. And it has no side effects.”
Other researchers echo this finding. Andrew Huberman, a neuroscientist at Stanford University, has shown that just 30 minutes of walking can reduce cortisol levels—the primary stress hormone—by 20%. Exposure to natural landscapes boosts serotonin production, improves mood, and enhances neuroplasticity, allowing the brain to adapt more efficiently to change.
Nature as neurological medicine
Walking in nature amplifies these effects. Environmental psychologist David Strayer, at the University of Utah, has found that immersion in natural environments quiets the prefrontal cortex—the brain’s center for analysis, judgment, and self-monitoring. In doing so, it allows for mental rest, emotional recalibration, and a sense of expanded perspective.
This phenomenon is not spiritual in nature but biochemical. The sensorial variety of forests, coastal paths, and highland trails recalibrates human attention systems that are fatigued by urban overstimulation and digital saturation. The shift is physiological and measurable.
Clinical data on pilgrimage
Recent clinical studies extend this understanding to the specific experience of pilgrimage. Greg Sattler, a researcher at Harvard Medical School, tracked participants on the Camino de Santiago and published findings in Brain, Behavior, and Immunity. His team recorded reductions in inflammatory markers, strengthened immune responses, and notable increases in psychological resilience. The body, it seems, responds to long-distance walking with systemic transformation.
Psychologist Kelly McGonigal describes this process as a “neurobiological journey” in her book The Joy of Movement (translated into Italian as Il punto di svolta). According to her framework, pilgrimage becomes not just metaphor but mechanism: an adaptive, evidence-based route to identity reconstruction.
Redrawing the self
Pilgrimage, historically tied to sacred geographies, is now increasingly viewed through a secular, psychological lens. Its contours remain the same—long distances, natural immersion, physical endurance—but its significance expands. It becomes a form of active introspection: a recalibration of personal narratives in motion.
A 2021 study published in the Journal of Environmental Psychology underscores the lasting mental health benefits of walking in nature. Participants reported lowered depressive symptoms, improved focus, and enhanced cognitive function. The study attributes these results to the multi-sensory richness of natural environments, which stimulate adaptive neurological changes.
In this way, pilgrimage sheds its exclusively religious connotations. It becomes accessible to all who seek clarity, healing, or a return to rhythm—regardless of belief system.
The way forward
Pilgrimage today is both ancient and contemporary. It is not about arriving at a shrine, but arriving at presence. It is less about seeking answers and more about learning to inhabit questions—on foot, in silence, through forests and plains.
In a time marked by acceleration and fragmentation, choosing to walk becomes a quiet, radical act. One that honors the need to move, to feel, and to make sense—through the body, in the world.
As one anonymous walker wrote on a stone along the Via Francigena:
“We don’t walk to find something outside ourselves. We walk to remember what’s been within us all along.”
