The Transformative Power of Hiking: Embracing Personal Growth
Hiking has many mental and physical benefits. For example, as a tool to break free from Prisoner Syndrome and embark on a journey of personal growth.
Well-being is a strange thing sometimes.
Very often, to feel good, we close ourselves in our comfort zones. Especially if there are problems with society such as lack of work, increase in the cost of living, etc. We go through life like snails closed in their shells. There is frequent news from all over the world about it.
This behavior not only makes us suffer more, but is bad for our health in general.
I have known for a time that I have this difficulty, and unfortunately, it also aggravates my health condition. All the doctors tell me this. I feel comfortable in my house and don't want to go out. But I'm very curious. Given this detail of my character, I use it to force myself to go for walks.
Here's one of the stories that kicked me out of the house to investigate what happened.
The first legend I heard when I moved here to the Biella area was the curse of Fra Dolcino, a heretical monk.
The people of Biella betrayed him, popular belief says, and for this reason, there are many suicides in the area. It’s a kind of punishment that haunts the population for centuries.
Of course, I couldn't help but study this matter and found many interesting places linked to the legend.
I have already written about this heretic and his story, but to remind you what it is about, I will tell it in a few words.
Fra Dolcino preached poverty and was against the unbridled enrichment of the church. In the period when the population even in the cities and especially in the mountainous areas was small, he had a huge amount of followers: some speak of 4000–10000 people.
Church leaders did not like these ideas. But more and more people joined the movement. The heretics were not rioters. When they were driven from a place, they retreated further and further into the mountains. But for the church, they really shouldn't have existed. And the Pope announced a crusade against the Dolcinians.
There is a strange thing in this story (in truth there are many): Reading the documents one can imagine that those were a few poor starving people who out of desperation ate the corpses of their dead comrades.
But they crossed the mountains in ten hours to get to the Biella mountains at night in winter with a lot of snow (it was March, but that winter was particularly harsh). They created protection, so much so that the bishop of Vercelli who commanded the crusade had to create bastions still visible today to bombard them.
On the maps I had found it written that in some places there were bishop's batteries. I found some information about it and went looking for it.
Imagine how big the surprise was when I found the legible signs of these batteries which are still there, surviving from 1307!
And the curious thing is that archaeologists discovered that the batteries in front of the heretics' refuge (where I took my photos) were not finished because they were destroyed by the rebels! That is, these men, starving tramps according to the documents, not only crossed the mountains in a very fast march (today hikers do it in two days), not only did they take their last battle (there were no other fighting heretics in history), but they also made raids against the bishop's regular army and mercenaries!
Another confirmation that history is written by the winners.
Interestingly, Fra Dolcino's resistance ideas are still alive and heartfelt today. So much so that there are steles and memorial plaques that remember him. The paths linked to his name are also maintained.
Returning to the prisoner syndrome. I think everyone can help themselves if we take these two steps:
be aware of the problem we have and
find something that will be irresistible to us to send ourselves out for the walk.
The important thing is to keep moving.
Did you enjoy this article? I would be very grateful if you click on the button ⬇︎ and share it with your friends.
Write me if you have questions, and I’ll be happy to answer.
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