Think of all the transitions you make in one day. Going from one task to another, one persona to another. Each transition requires emotional energy. And as you get older and more set in your ways it requires even more energy.
In the past, in the UK. shops were shut on Sundays. Kids sometimes thought it was 'boring' (I didn't as I was off in the woods mucking about with my pals). But that kind of Sunday was a perfect ritual to make the transition to a new week. 'Boring' rituals can actually be among the most effective as they take the stress and tension out.
Some transitions are thought to be major- becoming an adult, having children. Others seem minor- going from visiting a friend to making a complaint at a shop that over charged you. But all transitions can be immensely stressful if we don’t know what is going on.
It makes sense to identify the common structure of a transition. There is the build up, the wall, the ritual, and the breakthrough. When you know the structure you know how to make transitions without being stressed all the time.
Ancient cultures are riven with strange rituals and taboos. Modern man generally mocks them, or studies them as evidence of the engaging folly of ancient thought. Yet, as we are discovering in so many areas, ancient man had a very good reason to devise these rituals. They were to enable a transition to be bridged WITHOUT psychic disorder being left behind.
In the modern age though, there are no rituals. As if this wasn’t damaging enough, the 24 hour style of living enabled by the internet and digital computing means you can live and work with no OFF button. No natural transitions at all. Which means you have to instigate your own, which takes even more psychic energy.
When we are stressed, transitions are harder. When we de-inhibited by alcohol and certain drugs, transitions are easier. When we have more energy, transitions are easier. It is no accident that in the hyper stressed modern world we are reaching for ever more ways to reduce the impact of transitions.