Spirituality and Lifestyles

In the past and still today, many people have sought and often found in religion – in their cults and in their beliefs – a source and a means for changing their lives for the better: a path to self-transcendence.

This usually entailed the use of anthropotechnics: that is, of mental and physical exercises, special training, varieties of asceticism, with the aim of shaping new habits and a better way of life. Here is rooted the link between spirituality and lifestyles that can be found in the resurgence of interest in religion in the West nowadays.

At the center of this constellation of thoughts, feelings, aspirations, frustrations, there is the notion of “authenticity,” which accurately captures the typically modern belief that there can be a good in itself, but different for each individual depending on their history, personality, uniqueness.

Significantly, in a secular age such as ours, many people seek this kind of authenticity in nature. Special attention in the research projects related to this line of research is thus given to the spiritual metamorphoses that are taking place today in contact with alpine environments. Indeed, the latter offer a privileged vantage point for investigating how contemporary individuals understand themselves and the meaning of their existence.