3 Small Ways Rituals Improve Your Life

(This is my second longer essay. I think.)

Rituals give us an anchor in reality. Let’s face it – the world is a scary place. I won’t go all existential on you and say that we have to create our own meaning, but in some ways we do have to create our own certainty. I don’t mean in the overall, big picture – God certainly gives us more stability than any sort of action or possession could. But on a smaller scale, there is a comfort in the certainty of always taking your coffee the same way. You could argue that that’s just hiding in mundane mediocre monotony, but I think that sometimes we need something constant in our lives to remind us that we are, in fact, alive.

            Rituals help us establish a sense of self. Yes, I understand that you’re made up of much more than what you wear and what you eat, but the fact remains that these things can help create an identity. And in a world where we are constantly bombarded by advertisements, campaigns, and icons telling us what sort of identities we’re supposed to have, an image that we cultivate for ourselves is essential for a personal, unique identity. It doesn’t have to big a huge ritual – it just has to be your own. I always eat raspberry yogurt for breakfast. I spell “theatre” this British way. The first thing I look at when I read a book is the number of pages in it. Are these the most important parts of who I am? Of course not! But they do help me better define myself to myself in a quiet sort of way, which is cheaper than a midlife crisis.

Rituals help us establish relations to other people. Take anyone that you consider yourself close to, and I can almost guarantee you’ll have some sort of ritual with that person. You have an inside joke that no one else understands, or you eat lunch together every day even if you didn’t plan to meet each other. If you think about it, we cross a lot of boundaries when we befriend someone – overcoming differences in opinion, in taste, in culture, in education, in understanding, in personality. But rituals help us supersede these boundaries and focus on what we have in common instead.