What are Rituals for Wellbeing?

We define rituals for wellbeing as actions that are intentionally practiced for the purpose of living a happy and fulfilling life.

Rituals provide meaningful pathways to enhance personal wellbeing, relationships, community, or environment. Rituals are most life-changing when grounded in your deepest values. Rituals help us make sense of life and may complement, or provide an alternative approach to, spiritual or religious practices.

Rituals for well-being may be practical or symbolic, casual or ceremonial, individual or communal, performed daily, or used to honor special occasions. Some rituals help us mark the passing of time, such as the beginnings and endings of weeks, years, seasons, or life phases, giving punctuation to our life’s experience. Rituals are not transactional but transformative, prioritizing not what you will get (six-pack abs, a higher bottom line) but who you will become (a good neighbor, a connected family, a service-oriented community).

What is Wellbeing?

“Well-be·ing. (noun)
The state of being comfortable, healthy, or happy.”

Wellbeing, often referred to as human flourishing, describes a rich and holistic sense of joy, meaning, connection, and fulfillment in life. This includes pleasurable experiences, recognizing that pleasure-seeking alone may produce joy in the moment, but emptiness in the longer view of a good life. The ancient Greeks distinguished between the hedonic happiness of pleasure-seeking and pain avoidance, and eudaimonic happiness, which indicated a virtuous life lived with meaning and purpose.

The science of wellbeing may be a relatively new discipline, but its principles build on ancient ways of making sense of the world. Indigenous models of well-being often include connection to land, spirituality, and ancestors, and are understood in the context of social, cultural, and political factors. However you break it down, wellbeing involves a wide range of both subjective and objective factors that vary by person, community, and society.