"I walked through our front door and felt homesick in my own home. And it wasn't just my children. All my relationships felt asunder. I had just lost my dad, was losing my mom, my marriage needed to be renegotiated, and my friendships needed to be remade. I was hardly alone: Everyone I know was craving connection and feeling like we've abandoned our loved ones for our screens."
"Americans are devising astonishing new ways to gather in real life. Fed up with isolation, polarization, and digital saturation, people are flocking to rituals - collective, voluntary activities that bring us together for shared purpose. Every day, from Boomers to Gen Z, people are reimagining how to mark life, love, health, and family - and forging thriving communities in the process."
"This groundswell of collective meaning-making may be our best shot to counter the divisive algorithms and artificial intimacies of Big Tech. And every person, regardless of background, can join in. The Ritual Renaissance Rituals are the glue that holds society together. We have 300,000 years of evidence that when humans go through collective transitions, they hold joint celebrations, from baby namings to weddings to funerals."
"I spent the last three years attending-and joining in-life rituals in 16 countries on six continents: a mass baptism in the Vatican, an adolescent tooth filing in Bali, forest bathing in Chile, six weddings in Las Vegas, and ten funerals in Ireland. I also interviewed a hundred top ritual designers and read more than 500 academic studies on how rituals calm us when we're stressed, synchronize our heartbeats when we're scared, and align us to others when we"
After dropping twin daughters at college, homesickness and relationship strain emerged alongside grief, impending loss, and the need to renegotiate marriage and friendships. Many people experience similar loneliness and screen-driven abandonment of loved ones. A response is the renaissance of ritual: collective, voluntary activities that bring people together for shared purpose. Across generations, people are reimagining how to mark life, love, health, and family through gatherings such as baptisms, weddings, funerals, and other ceremonies. Rituals provide social glue, support collective transitions, and can calm stress, synchronize bodily responses, and align individuals with others. Participation is presented as accessible to people of any background.
#loneliness-epidemic #rituals-and-community #digital-saturation #social-connection #cultural-transitions
Read at Psychology Today
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