Everyday Happiness - Finding Harmony and Bliss
Education:Self-Improvement
In this episode of Everyday Happiness, we talk about the theory of Wabi Sabi and how we can incorporate this philosophy into our lives.
Transcript:
Welcome to Everyday Happiness where we create lasting happiness, in about 2 minutes a day, through my signature method of Intentional Margins® (creating harmony between your to-dos and your priorities), happiness science, and musings about life.
I'm your host Katie Jefcoat, and today we are talking about Wabi Sabi. Wabi Sabi is a Japanese concept that encompasses the beauty of imperfection, the impermanence of life, and the simplicity of the world around us. While it may seem like a funny word, this teaching is a beautiful theory that can be adopted into our lives.
In our Western World, there is a love of perfection, balance, and the idea of permanence. We can find it in our architecture, art, fashion, and beauty standards. On the contrary, Japan has a different concept of the beautiful, which we have no word for in English, Wabi Sabi.
Wabi Sabi shows respect for the passage of time and how everything in life ages, faces challenges, and eventually breaks. It is the appreciation of imperfection, impermanence, and the melancholy.
As a brief history lesson, Wabi Sabi has developed over time, right down to the meaning of the word. It truly began to come to play in 15th century Japan in the tea ceremony. The original tea ceremony was designed to keep monks awake during long periods of Zen meditation, but the shoguns of Japan overtook it as a way to be flashy and show off their wealth.
One tea master found this convoluted practice of the tradition unacceptable, so he redesigned the tea ceremony to emphasize the teachings of Wabi Sabi. Rather than the glitz and glamor of the ceremony, it focuses on the reality of life, aging, and incompleteness.
To put it simply, it rests on these seven aesthetic principles: simplicity, asymmetry, the beauty of the understated, naturalness without pretension, subtle grace, freeness, and tranquility.
Wabi Sabi can be found all around us if we so choose. Instead of seeing ugliness in a face full of wrinkles, you see a life filled with laughter and smiles. Rather than discarding a worn blanket, you cherish it as representing hundreds of snuggles, movie nights, and loving moments. I think you get where I am going with this. We can see the world through whatever lens we choose.
Hopefully, this philosophy has inspired you, but we aren't quite done yet. Tune in tomorrow for a bit more Japanese philosophy that you can adopt into modern life with the art of Kintsugi.
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Links: https://onamission.bio/everydayhappiness/
Inspired by this article in https://positivepsychology.com/wabi-sabi-lifestyle/
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