Now more than ever it may be important to consider how we can rediscover sanctuary in our increasingly frenetic world.

The premise of Realistic Sanctuary is that individuals and communities can and must employ effective means of coming to grips with, and acting in spite of, their anxiety over an increasingly unpredictable and potentially chaotic future.

Realistic Sanctuary encourages calm engagement to mitigate the effects of fast, instinctive and highly ineffective cognitive processing precipitated by a 24/7, hyper-economic, hyper-digital society.

In addition, Realistic Sanctuary promotes the preservation of humane ethical values — as well as ingenuity and wisdom — during this time of growing surveillance, civil rights erosion, distress-ocracy or undemocratic decision-making, and the instability of national and global institutions.

A brief history of sanctuary

Traditionally, sanctuary has been seen in a religious context.

Across the world, sanctuaries have historically been places of refuge for outcasts and criminals.

Religious institutions in Europe and Asia protected these individuals from authorities by providing penitent criminals, and other challengers of social norms, the opportunity to achieve redemption and transformation.

Over time, the concept of sanctuary evolved to encompass everyone, referring to time and space set apart from ordinary life — often within nature — for respite, contemplation and renewal.

Realistic Sanctuary explained

The realistic part of Realistic Sanctuary refers to the need for individuals to learn — and begin to accept — that each day from this point forward will be one in which:

• There are fewer natural resources
• The air, land and water are increasingly polluted
• The weather is unpredictable and threatening to humankind and biodiversity
• Social, environmental and economic changes continue to accelerate, impairing society's collective ability to respond
• Survival is at stake, not just material sustainability

To develop sanctuary in this challenging context, the concept of Realistic Sanctuary recognizes the need for:

• Community
• Interpersonal relationships
• Creativity
• Nature
• Service
• New, community-based economy