7 Japanese Concepts That Can Improve Your Life By Brett & Kate McKay

One of the things I love about the Japanese is that, like the ancient Greeks, they can take complex ideas or concepts and sum them up in a single word or phrase.?These phrases can serve as reminders of how to live a flourishing life.?

1 - Kaizen: Seeking Continuous Improvement

Kaizen?is a Japanese term that means "continuous improvement."?It's the idea of making small, incremental changes over time to improve your life and achieve your goals. The Japanese believe that even small changes, made consistently, can accrue significant compound interest.

Try getting just 1% better every day. If you can make tiny improvements over months, years, and decades, you can move mountains.?

2 - Ikigai: Finding Your Purpose

Ikigai?is a Japanese concept that translates to "a reason for being."?It's the idea of finding one's purpose in life and aligning it with one's passions, skills, and values.?The Japanese believe finding and pursuing your ikigai is the key to a long and happy life.?

3 - Obaitori: Avoiding Comparison to Others

The characters that spell out?oubaitori?represent four different trees that bloom in Japan in the spring: cherry, apricot, peach, and plum. Each tree blooms in its own way and in its own time, and each bears a distinct flower and fruit.?

Obaitori as a concept grows out of this arboreal image and refers to?avoiding comparing yourself to others and embracing your unique journey and timeline instead.?The word serves as a trigger to shift my focus away from others and back to my path.

4 - Wabi-Sabi: Embracing Imperfection

Wabi-sabi?is a Japanese philosophy that embraces imperfection and transience. As artist Leonard Koren put it, wabi-sabi?is about finding beauty in the "imperfect, the impermanent, and the incomplete."?It's the idea that flaws do not necessarily negate something's worth.

While wabi-sabi is often applied to objects like pottery, it also resonates with how we think about all kinds of projects and ourselves.?

While there's a place for seeking excellence and perfection in life, at a certain point, that pursuit can get in the way of making progress. Think of the writer who's never able to turn in a manuscript because he keeps tinkering with the edits, the guy who never starts a business because he keeps fine-tuning his business plan, or the person who's crippled by anxiety whenever he makes a mistake.?

You have to embrace imperfection as inherent to all art, striving, and the human condition itself — and move on with your life.?

5 - Hara Hachi Bu: Eating Until You're 80% Full

Hara hachi bu?is a Japanese maxim that means "eat until you're 80% full." This concept originated on the island of Okinawa, where people use the mantra to avoid overeating and the ill effects that come with it.??

Maintaining a healthy weight requires leaving just a bit of emptiness in your stomach - eating until you reach the point where you?could?have a few more bites, but you don't.?

6 - Shikata Ga Nai: Accepting What You Cannot Change

Shikata ga nai?is a Japanese concept that means "it cannot be helped."?Accept the things we cannot change and let them go.?

Shikata ga nai?harkens to Stoic philosophy. A lot of our frustration in life comes from the fact that our expectations don't meet reality. We want things to be one way when they're another. Shikata ga nai is a reminder to accept things as they are.?

By recognizing what we cannot control, we eliminate angst and frustration, but more importantly, it allows us to focus on the things we?can?change and work towards improving them.?

7 - Shinrin-Yoku: Forest Bathing

Shinrin-yoku?is the famous ancient Japanese practice of "forest bathing."?It represents "taking in the forest atmosphere" to receive the many physical, mental, and spiritual benefits you get by spending time in nature.

Shinrin-yoku is about experiencing nature with all your senses: paying attention to the soft bed of pine needles beneath your feet, the way rays of sunlight filter through the trees' branches, and the sound of a gurgling brook that runs alongside the trail.?It's about truly immersing yourself in the natural world. Any nature heals the body and soul.?

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