Why So Many Gen-Xers Are Suddenly Craving Something Deeper — And Finding It In Spirituality
When life experiences and a desire for connection and purpose lead to personal transformation.
Gerardo Weckesser | Canva I’ve always felt it — this invisible thread connecting me to something larger than myself. But I kept quiet about it. Everyone is just too busy being practical, climbing corporate ladders, and raising kids to talk about spiritual feelings or cosmic connections.
People in my circles are too busy thinking about their bills, job politics, traffic to and from work, and the weather. Not any kind of mysterious pull toward something I can’t quite name.
Yet that feeling persists quietly humming beneath the surface of my everyday life, waiting for the moment I’d finally acknowledge it out loud. And out loud to others.
Why so many Gen-Xers are suddenly craving something deeper — and finding it in spirituality
It wasn’t a dramatic conversion or a blinding light. Instead, it has felt like a gentle awakening — as if a door I hadn’t noticed before had slowly creaked open. I have questions. Many questions. Questions like:
What happens after we die? Is there meaning to all of this? Am I more than just a collection of cells and electrical impulses? What is my purpose? My true purpose …
Is there someone — somebody — some force watching me at all times? Does this entity know the thoughts I think? The good thoughts? The bad thoughts?
Yes. I believe in God. But I want to understand God.
Gen-X is like a bridge between two worlds. We’re the forgotten generation, you know?
We grew up with rotary phones and saw the birth of smartphones. We started our careers with typewriters and now manage teams through video calls. It’s no wonder many of us are now caught between skepticism and spirituality.
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But I’m looking for something that makes sense to the practical mind. To understand that there is more to life than what I can see or prove.
For me, this spiritual curiosity didn’t come from a place of fear, but from an unexpected sense of connection. I started noticing patterns and synchronicities that my younger, more cynical self would have dismissed as mere coincidence.
A song on the radio that perfectly captured what I was feeling. A chance encounter with an old friend exactly when I needed their particular brand of wisdom.
I began exploring what I now call “practical mysticism” — a blend of new age concepts with the grounded sensibility that comes from decades of navigating the real world. And while I love reading about crystals and chakras, I discovered a more personal spirituality that acknowledges the mystery of consciousness while remaining rooted in lived experience.
This journey has led me to fascinating conversations with peers who are on similar paths.
We’re the generation that was too busy building careers and raising families to contemplate the infinite.
Now, with our children grown and our professional identities established, we’re finally asking the big questions — and finding that we’re not satisfied with simple answers. What strikes me most is how this spiritual awakening differs from traditional religious experiences. I’m not necessarily looking for dogma or strict belief systems.
Instead, I’m drawn to ideas about universal consciousness, quantum possibilities, and the interconnectedness of all things. It’s as if science and spirituality are finally meeting in a space where both can coexist without contradiction.
I’ve found myself drawn to meditation — not the kind that requires sitting in lotus position for hours, but simple practices that help quiet the constant chatter in my mind.
Just ten minutes of focused breathing can create a sense of spaciousness that stays with me throughout the day. It’s practical spirituality for people who still have meetings to attend and deadlines to meet.
This exploration has also changed how I view mortality. Where I once saw death as an ending, I now wonder if it might be a transformation. Not in a religious sense necessarily, but in the way energy cannot be created or destroyed, only changed.
This shift hasn’t eliminated my concerns about aging, but it has softened the edges, replacing sharp anxiety with a gentler curiosity about what comes next.
Perhaps what’s most surprising is how this spiritual dimension has enhanced rather than replaced my practical side.
I still approach problems analytically, but now I also trust my intuition more. I still plan for the future, but I’m better at being present in the moment.
It’s as if I’ve added another tool to my life management toolkit — it helps me not only manage the external world, but also my inner thoughts and feelings.
For those of us in Generation-X who are experiencing similar stirrings, I offer this: our spiritual journey doesn’t have to look like anyone else’s. We can be skeptical and open, practical and mystical, grounded and expansive all at once. We’re writing our own rules for this phase of life, just as we’ve done with everything else.
The universe, it turns out, is patient. It’s been waiting for me, for us, to catch up, to finally have the time and inclination to ponder its mysteries.
And now that I’m here, asking these profound questions, I’m discovering that the answers aren’t as important as the asking itself.
In this space of wonder and curiosity, I’m finding something I didn’t even know I was looking for — a sense of connection that transcends my individual experiences and links to something infinitely larger than ourselves.
Michelle Carey, a retired Federal Human Resources Specialist and published author, writes articles on Medium. Her content covers a range of topics, including Creative Writing, Gen-X perspectives, entertainment reviews, and pop culture.
