After the COVID pandemic, people started to analyze their materialistic and luxurious lifestyles. They become self-aware to find the true purpose of this valuable life. On this journey of living a quality life, seven Japanese concepts have proven to be life-changing. By accepting and practicing these concepts slowly but regularly, people can take a step towards self-acceptance and self-love.
Seven Japanese concepts have inspired the world to move forward in the direction of changing their lives and increasing their life quality. These 7 life-changing Japanese concepts have created great influence over people to shift their values from selfishness to kindness, to empower and support each other. It has helped people improve their mental health as well.
7 Cathartic Japanese concepts to involve in life
Let us learn the seven Japanese concepts one by one in detail to transform our lives in a better direction.
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IKIGAI
The Japanese word ‘iki” is explained as “life,” whereas ‘gai” is described as value or worth. Therefore, the whole word ‘ikigai’ is self-explanatory, which explains how to discover your life’s purpose.
Ikigai concepts revolve around four factors. These four factors are as follows:
- Passion: This factor helps us realize what we truly love to do.
- Mission: It helps us to set our most lovable activity as the aim or purpose of our lives.
- Vocation: This helps us to find a best way to live includig passion and mission.
- Profession: Finally, this allows us to shape our careers in ways that are both enjoyable and beneficial to our surroundings.
These factors explain why you should find your passion in such a way that it can become your way of life, which is your vocation. You can convert your passion into a mission to benefit others. Thus your passion converts into a profession that helps you earn money for living.
This way, you can find your reason for living, which is helpful in adding value to the lives of others. One should read the book “Ikigai: The Japanese Secret to a Long and Happy Life,” written by Hector Garcia and Francesc Miralles, to dive more deeply into this concept.
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SHIKATA GA NAI
The Japanese proverb “Shikata Ga Nai” is translated as “That can’t be helped.” There is another phrase in Japan, “Sho Ga Nai,” which means “It is what it is.”
This idea clarifies the need to let go of the things beyond our control. This concept is all about accepting whatever life offers us.
The implementation of this concept makes everything in life easy to accept. Acceptance of a situation will eventually help us let go of things that are not in our power to change.
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WABI-SABI
The word wabi is here explained as freedom from any kind of attachment and showing deep and clear understanding of any matter. The word sabi means being pure and beautiful yet mature and limitless.
Thus, the wabi-sabi concept is explained as accepting human imperfection in life. You should be at peace with all your flaws. Everyone should accept themselves with their imperfections and embrace them instead of being harsh on them.
Overall, this concept tries to bring simplicity, tranquility, and naturalness into life. If a person is at peace with himself or herself, he or she will be able to achieve their desired goals.
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GAMAN
Gaman tries to teach us that we should preserve dignity during difficult times. One should maintain calm while facing the challenges of life. We should practice self-control and be able to tackle the situation with great maturity.
Great patience and resilience help us to understand and analyze the difficult situation properly, which helps us to fight that phase of life in the right manner.
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OUBAITORI
This Japanese idiom tells us not to compare ourselves with anyone. This life-changing concept is explained through the example of trees. Cherry, plum, peach, and apricot blossom during the spring season in Japan. In fact, the word Oubaitori in Japanese is written with kanji symbols for these four trees.
These four trees bloom in different shades of pink, mauve, blush, and white, respectively, in the springtime. Though all of these trees bloom in the same season side by side, they all have their own time and manner of growing. We cannot compare the juicy-sweet taste of a peach with the tart-sweetness of a plum. They both have their own unique tastes to enjoy.
Every being on this earth has their own journey to travel. Siblings, even twins who are born with the same genetics and brought up in the same environment, grow up to be two different individuals. Our mindset, values, experiences, and failures determine our journey. Our uniqueness makes us different from others, and we should learn to enjoy this.
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KAIZEN
This word is made up of two different words. Kai means change, and zen means good. So combined, the meaning of these words becomes good change. It is said that change is the only thing that is constant in the world.
We must make good improvements in our lives to lead. Small changes in everyday life result in massive changes in life. These concepts are widely accepted in life as well as in business. Those who are able to adopt the change in their lives at the right time are able to survive and sustain themselves better than those who restrict themselves to change.
We should be flexible enough by nature to accept the change. Constant small changes in life give us big rewards in the future. We must improve ourselves on a daily basis for a better life.
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SHU-HA-RI
This japanese concept gives us the understanding of stages of learning in life. Shu tells us to obey or follow the rule, whereas Ha tells us to detach from or break the rule, and lastly, Ri tells us to separate from or create our own rules.
In the first stage of Shu, we follow and repeat the forms and discipline ourselves into them. We try to understand and observe the meaning behind the particular pattern. In the second stage of Ha learning, after complete understanding of the concept, we try to innovate and put some new ideas into it. And in the last stage of Ri implementation, we will bring our new ideas into application in different circumstances. These are the three important stages of learning in life.
CONCLUSION
These seven life-changing Japanese concepts help the human being become its best version. Every human being lives their whole life with the desire to become successful in every aspect of their life, and to attain that, they face a lot of struggle. In the process of becoming successful in a materialistic world, they sacrifice their invaluable gift of inner peace. With the help of seven life-changing and eye-opening concepts, people are created in such a way that we can face our problems with courage and patience while maintaining our calm.
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