How to Design 3 Personal Rituals for Grounding, Letting Go and Recalibrating
By: Marta Brzosko
Tags: Ritual, Psychology, Emotional Intelligence, Self, Self Care

The Psychology of Emotion Regulation Through Ritual

“Ritual actions do not produce a practical result on the external world — that is one of the reasons why we call them ritual. But to make this statement is not to say that ritual has no function… it gives members of the society confidence, it dispels their anxieties, and it disciplines their social organizations.” — George C. Homans, Anxiety and Ritual

The basic thing to understand about the human brain is that it’s wired to survive, not thrive. Due to negative cognitive bias, we’re more inclined to detect threats than pleasurable aspects of our experience. In the modern world, where we aren’t as likely to be in danger as our caveman ancestors, the negative bias causes us to experience exaggerated negative emotions.

The thing is, our main concern these days is to thrive, not survive. And it’s hard to thrive from the place of overwhelming anxiety, fear or grief. That’s why the emotion-regulation power of ritual can be such a game-changer for a modern homo sapiens.

To fully foster its power, it helps to understand where this power comes from. Nick Hobson says that the reason rituals can have such a big impact on emotional regulation is that they combine two main ways in which we process information. Psychologists call them bottom-up and top-down cognitive processing.

1. Bottom-up processing

Bottom-up processing refers to collecting individual perceptions and constructing an experience from them. It’s akin to synthesis. In rituals, bottom-up processing refers to the rigid physical actions that direct our attention and sensory experience in very specific ways.

How does it help with emotional regulation?

First, by focusing on completing a sequence of activities, the mind enters a very structured experience. This induces a sense of stability, calm, and predictability. Additionally, if the activity we’re performing is pleasant, it directly reinforces positive emotions.

Second, by completing the sequence, we gain a sense of control and accomplishment. Successfully going through the motions of a ritual reaffirms our agency over our lives. According to Self-Determination Theory, this is one of the three basic needs for a satisfying life.

Finally, we perceive ourselves through the lens of what we repeatedly do. Self-signaling is a process of reinforcing how we want to see ourselves through our actions — for example, engaging in rituals. Benjamin Hardy put it best: “how you see yourself is highly fluid and based on your own behaviors. As your behavior changes, your perceived identity changes.”

The bottom-up processing is often at the core of the rituals that athletes perform before the main contest. This helps them instill a sense of control, familiarity, and successful completion before they even tackle the challenge.

2. Top-down processing

On the other hand, the power of ritual is strengthened by top-down processing. This refers to the cognition that’s driven by what we knew, believed or valued prior. It’s akin to analysis. In rituals, top-down processing integrates the arbitrary physical actions into a broader, usually symbolic context. It makes the ritual feel special and separates it from other, non-ritualistic behaviors.

How does it help with emotional regulation?

When we engage in an activity that’s personally meaningful, it connects us to the bigger picture. Most rituals link us to a religious tradition, nature, ancestry or whatever else we value as something “bigger than ourselves.” When ritual reminds us of such a connection, it alleviates negative emotions and enhances the transcendent ones — such as awe or inspiration.

That said, research has shown that even ad hoc rituals that don’t connect to a socially recognized tradition can regulate emotions successfully. One experiment showed that merely labeling a behavior as a “ritual” contributed to decreased negative emotions and an increased sense of control.

On top of that, Nick Hobson and colleagues think that the top-down processes in rituals can impact not just emotions themselves — but also our attitude to emotions. By infusing more meaning into our lives, rituals help us by “making anxieties seem more fleeting and manageable.”