ABSTRACT
Pilgrimaging is a long journey of spiritual or ritual significance traditionally taken on foot but can pilgrimaging also build resources for creative wellbeing? In this chapter, data materials from a study of a group of 11 Norwegian pilgrims recruited from a social health care project (“The art of walking”) are analysed. A research assistant, one of the organisers, followed the participants their on 320-kilometre pilgrimage to Santiago de Compostela in Spain. Participants were invited to write a diary and report on their emotions every day. This chapter advances the literature on wellbeing with a mixed-methods approach, where intensity of the participants’ emotions is analysed alongside narratives from their diary to explore the interconnection between nature, creativity, and wellbeing. The goal is to identify situations and contexts for these experiences to happen and to discuss these powerful moments for the participants within the conceptual frame of creative wellbeing.
