Modern people manage to combine rationality with a craving for mysticism and alternative methods of healing. It would seem that any esoteric idea can be refuted by just conducting a qualitative fact-checking.
However, more and more young people are addicted to tarot, being treated with crystals and bathing in sound baths. Let’s take a look at why non-traditional wellness practices are so popular with millennials.
Young people become less religious, but strive for spirituality
In many countries, young people are disillusioned with traditional religious institutions, especially since the actions of these organizations often do not correspond to the values they promote. Nevertheless, the human need for spiritual support and the search for one’s destiny has not gone away.
Millennials seek support in unpopular religious movements or in abstract spirituality, which includes an interest in astrology, tarot, meditation, yoga, and other esoteric practices. Increasingly, young people define themselves as “spiritual but not religious”.
This, on the one hand, allows them to receive some psychological support and a sense of control, on the other hand, not to limit themselves to the strict limits of religious prohibitions.
People are disillusioned with governments and state institutions
Citizens’ trust in governments around the world is also declining, especially against the background of the global climate crisis, the tense economic and political situation.
Along with it, respect for state institutions, in particular for the healthcare system, is also leaving. People do not trust doctors, politicians and take responsibility for their physical, psychological and spiritual well-being.
Millennials seek to take control of their lives
All esoteric and simply non-traditional practices are a way to get relief when the usual methods do not work or are not available. Sound baths, yoga, meditation, crystal healing are modern forms of self-care.
They help to join the awareness, which is so lacking in modern people living in conditions of excessive information pressure. Non-traditional practices also allow you to gain some sense of control over your life. People do not wait for someone to take care of them, but become healers for themselves.
In this sense, such hobbies can be useful, even if their effectiveness has not been scientifically proven. They give a person some kind of spiritual support, new ways to feel their body, which has a beneficial effect on mental health.
The topic of mental health has become more relevant than ever.
Practices like sonic baths, meditation, or crystals are most often sought out for non-physical healing, even if they promise to make you feel better.
People are increasingly realizing how important it is to take care of mental health and how strongly the state of the mind is related to the state of the body. There is a lot of mental health research emerging, and public figures sharing their struggles with depression, anxiety, and other issues with the public.
Talking about mental illness and acknowledging that it is as real as the flu, cancer, and other illnesses has become normal. In addition, we live in an age when people get tired mentally faster than they age physically.
A modern person regularly experiences tremendous stress, which cannot be relieved simply by taking a pill or visiting a doctor once.
Ways to maintain mental health are much more diverse than the types of treatment for physical ailments. This could be a visit to a psychotherapist, enrolling in a yoga group, or going to a tarot reader.
Young people are self-centered
Another reason why millennials are drawn to non-traditional practices is that they are far more inward-looking than outward-looking.
Previous generations created families almost from the age of majority, gave birth to children and fought for survival, while today’s young people marry much later and can afford to remain infantile at least up to 30 years, or even more.
For this reason, millennials are fixated on self-development, knowledge and self-discovery. This is exactly what spiritual practices do: they provide answers to questions that defy ordinary logic.
Social media can turn anything into a trend
Another important reason why alternative medicine, non-traditional practices and various kinds of esotericism are gaining popularity among young people is social networks. They set trends in everything, including taking care of their health and personal care.
Thanks to the Internet, even the strangest practice can gain hundreds and thousands of followers, enough for a more or less influential influencer to tell about it.
If earlier crystal treatment could remain the interest of a narrow group of people – after all, alternative medicine lovers have always been and will always be – now they have become a global and even stylish youth trend.