– The best thing about being alone is the feeling of freedom. You learn to trust yourself, you have to when you are alone. You must trust your decisions 100 percent. That’s what Bengt-Are Barstad says, who on Monday has been out on a walk for 1,000 consecutive days with his dogs. This also led to him missing the entire pandemic, which has been strange for him. – It was sad to see what the pandemic did to people, and what happened to civilization. Due to the pandemic, many people have felt the loneliness, but Barstad chose it entirely himself, on the day in 2019 when he went out for a walk. Bengt-Are Barstad and the dog Kvikk på tur have probably had many nice evenings in nature in the last 1000 days. He believes that you become a different person from being alone for so long. Photo: Private – Do you become a different person? – You change if you spend a lot of time alone. Not all people can handle it, he says. Barstad says that he has trained a lot on being alone and alone with his own head. He believes that the reason he has been able to stay on tour for so long is because he is very fond of nature. Life on tour has also given him a very good sense of mastery. – From time to time you may be a little high on yourself, and have very good self-confidence. It’s good for the head. Bengt-Are Barstad currently has no plans to return to civilisation. He continues his life out on tour. Bengt-Are Barstad has trained a lot on being alone in his own company. Photo: Privat Another type of self-esteem Someone who will soon feel the loneliness is Hedvig Hjertaker from Bergen. She aims to become the youngest woman to go to the South Pole alone. Now the 28-year-old is preparing for 50 days on the ice, over 1,100 kilometers and an average temperature of minus 36 degrees. – I’m really looking forward to standing there alone on the ice and having a whole sea of ice to cross in front of me. She hasn’t mentally trained herself to be alone, yet she believes she will make it happen. – I have been on a trip alone before, and it is perhaps the best training and insurance I have that I will cope this time. She agrees with Barstad that you gain a different kind of self-confidence when you are alone long enough. – You dare to keep learning and trying new things. The Bergen resident says she does not know what she will experience when she is alone for so many days, but that she has faith that she will make it. Hedvig Hjertaker will soon try to take the record as the youngest woman to go alone to the South Pole. She is not worried that she will be alone for about 50 days. Photo: private Mental challenge Psychologist Jørgen Sundby admires the adventurers who seek these challenges alone. – This is largely self-chosen loneliness, and something you prepare for and desire yourself. It is a different kind of loneliness than something that happens against one’s own will. He believes that these two types of loneliness cannot be compared, and describes enforced loneliness as a major health problem. – Voluntary loneliness is not that, it is a mental challenge. It’s not that it doesn’t cost anything, it does, but it’s something else when it’s self-selected, he says. Sundby believes that the special thing is that you are left to yourself, where you have to make all decisions and deal with all emotions without support from others. – It can, as they say, cause you to trust yourself a lot over time.
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Bengt-Are Barstad has been on a trip alone for 1,000 days – believes that loneliness has given him self-confidence – news Troms and Finnmark
