We live in a strange time of unprecedented social isolation. This has catalyzed the negative emotional states of millions of individuals increasing feelings of depression and anxiety.

Though it is not new knowledge that regardless of the Covid-19 pandemic the issue of people experiencing difficult emotions and hardship in their lives has always been prevalent. History shows us that rituals to deal with spiritual well being are as old as humanity itself.

Being in this difficult situation myself I set out to try and help alleviate these negative states of mind. Inspired by aforementioned rituals, I looked into many different activities(rituals) and analyzed its effects through a personal lens. To name a few I experimented with Yoga, Meditation, Tea Ceremony, Journaling and even Kung-Fu. I gathered insights and effects of such activities on my emotional well-being. Over time, some proved to be more effective than others and led me to a compilation of things that further informed my protype ritual.

As my ritual, I propose a new system for journaling. The journal is broken down into 3 distinct categories: gratefulness, fear and desire, as these categories were observed to be at the basis of all other thoughts or emotions. Creating a tangible and intuitive medium was very important as it enforces the idea of a ritual and is more natural for us to understand and interact with objects. Inspired by the presence of candles and fire in other rituals lead me to create an array of smart candles. These candles have the ability to remind you of making a journal and the user can simply lift the candle and record a verbal note for themself. There are 5 candles for each category totaling 15candles for a full journal. Each category is represented by a different color of the flame. After completing a journal the user is rewarded with a visual play of flames enforcing the sense of completion.

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Skilles used:

Animation and Rendering (Blender 3D + Procreate)

Resarch Methods

Sketching (Procreate)

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