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How might a bit of understated elegance change your life?

Are you fixated upon progress, perfection, conformity and achievement?  If so, have you thought about the cost of this way life? 

  • How often do you experience the feeling of truly enjoying yourself?
  • Are you able to laugh at yourself like a good old friend or are you your own worst enemy, endlessly berating yourself? 
  • When was the last time you stopped to admire the infinite and transitory wonders of nature?
  • You have one life, are you spending it wisely?

 

If you have deep rooted patterns of perfectionism and other traits of the exceedingly driven, it can help to utilize a framework to foster change.  Today, I seek to open your mind to the framework of Wabi Sabi.

Wabi-Sabi is a way of living.

The Japanese cultivated “wabi-sabi;” 

“Wabi” connotes rustic simplicity, quietness or understated elegance;

Sabi” means beauty or serenity that comes with age.

 

There are seven principles for achieving wabi-sabi

Fukinsei: asymmetry, irregularity; 
Kanso: simplicity; 
Koko: basic, weathered;
Shizen: natural, without pretense (i.e., authentic);
Yugen: subtle, profound grace, not obvious; 
Datsuzoku: unbounded by convention, free; 
Seijaku: tranquillity. 

 

Wabi-sabi has influenced Japan’s art and culture over centuries so there is a history you can look to in order to evaluate it's impact on life and it's potential impact on your life.

It is said that wabi-sabi originated with the tea masters in the 16th century, who reacted to the popularity of mass-produced, imported porcelain. The masters advocated local ceramics with their flaws and humble appearance. The more flawed and weathered, the more revered. Gradually, the concept was applied to other crafts, clothing and furnishings, the tea house itself and eventually the garden.

 

In life, wabi-sabi means to accept three essential realities:

nothing lasts,

nothing is complete and

nothing is perfect.

 

How can we apply the principals of Wabi Sabi to our own lives?

Simply by observing the ways we seek to deny reality, our age, our fallibility as humans, our limit to certain resources such as time, and our need for love and connection.

Fukinsei: asymmetry, irregularity; 

Sometimes things are out of balance and that can be okay for a time. People may behave inconsistently when they are facing daunting challenges.
 

Kanso: simplicity; 

Simplicity and authenticity are closely related because being yourself is the most simeple thing you can be. Yet we overcomplicate what it means to be human. We need things on the outside to appear complicated and our lives to appear complicated so that we can feel important. We want people to know our work is high level. Our workouts are scientific and take place in state of the art facilities, rather than out in nature. When you allow yourself to simply be who you are, you can still achieve great things. Maybe even greater things because you are bringing something uniquely you to the challenge. Additionally, you will have extraordinary amounts of available energy that you used previously to appear complicated and extremely important.


Koko: basic, weathered;

Your life experience is your most valuable asset. The way it weathered you is the way you can gain wisdom.  Do you always have to have the latest version of everything or are you willing to love something that has endured over time?  The basic is sacred when we see how it has endured.


Shizen: natural, without pretense (i.e., authentic);

This was referred to in Kanso, simplicity, above. Here I will apply the principals of both shizen and kanso to relationships.Relationships without pretense allow for vulnerablity and vulnerability is a necessary ingredient for intimacy.

The more pretense we bring to relationships the less we are known and the more we are lonely.

 

 


Yugen: subtle, profound grace, not obvious; 

A beautiful flower itself impresses us, but its beauty is even more impressive than the surface superficial beauty, when we can imagine the seed it came from, the bud that longed to burst open of its past and its future. Yugen encourages you to use your imagination to see more than just what appears. It does not suggest holding onto illusion but rather the unseen reality and its beauty.
 

Datsuzoku: unbounded by convention, free; 

Datsuzoku signifies a break from daily routine or habit, a certain freedom from the commonplace. You have a routine. That's great but how rigidly attached to it are you? Can you hold things more lightly and see what arises?

Seijaku: tranquillity.

We know tranquility but do we truly experience it and value it. But finding the real meaning, fulfillment, energy and wisdom in the midst of everyday hustle and bustle – building a silent and imperturbable center while active in the disappointments and triumphs of our busy lives. Finding moments of peace in the midst of your busy day.

 

Wabi Sabi is a way of life that can help you to foster being strong and assured in who you are yet vulnerable and open to connection. Wabi sabi is seeing your life experience as a source of  wisdom and seeing the undeniable quality of the depth of that personal wisdom. Wabi sabi means being up for challenges yet able to maintain stillness in the face of change. Wabi sabi can help you to be more deliberate in your life, without pretense, and with authenticity. You are secure in yourself and the cage of comparison doesn’t interest you. What might transpire if you give it a try?

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