Ikigai

('ee key guy)


The above picture was taken in 2014 when hiking/walking with four friends in Japan. The five of us plus our guide Jamie walked one of the paths Matsuo Basho took in the 17th century. Basho is considered the father of the haiku. According to Jane Reichhold who translated his haikus into English, Basho felt that traveling around his country would give him the inspiration needed to create and perfect this new form of poetry (Reichhold, 2008).


Haikus are only three sentences long and have a 5, 7, 5 syllable structure. The brevity of the haiku pacts a powerful image that can awaken our senses and pull us right into the scene. For example, Basho’s haiku 466:


departing autumn

pulling closer to the body

a single quilt


Basho also studied Zen Buddhism. Although he wore the robes, he didn’t take the vows because it would mean giving up his poetry (Reichhold, 2008). His haikus though reflect the Zen principle of yugen (‘you gen). Yugen is described as the “mystery and inexplicability which surrounds the order of the universe” and “functions in art as a means by which man can comprehend the course of nature” (Hakutani & Tener, Afterward to Richard Wright, Haiku, This Other World, 2008, pp. 256-257). The haiku can capture a moment so simply that it triggers emotions or feelings that are quite beyond words. It is this reality, the one 'quite beyond words,' that for me, is sacred and feeds my soul.


So in this mindset, a little book called Ikigai The Japanese Secret to a Long and Happy Life (Garcia & Miralles, 2016) shows up on my phone while searching for a completely unrelated topic (this is when we know it’s important). Ikigai is the Japanese belief that when we live our heart/soul’s desire or purpose, we are happier and may even live longer. The Japanese believe that everyone has an ikigai deep within us, but sometimes it is hard to find, but often it finds us.


Our own deep resonance lights the way and guides us to what we are meant to have or experience. For example, this Note is late because of the process I went through to write it. As always, I resonate to a picture first, which for this Note was of Japan. This led to finding my Japan journal, reading it, maping out the locations of our travel, then finding the Basho book, reading it, then the Ikigai book shows up on my phone, buying it, reading it. Then and only then could I write this Note. All of these steps were heavily marked with resonance that put me in a flow state, and this state is immensely pleasurable and feeds my soul.


Back to purpose and living longer, Okinawa is one of the five blue zones, places that have the most centenarians in the world. The others are Sardinia, Italy; Nicoya Peninsula, Costa Rica; Icaria, Greece; and (wow) Loma Linda, CA. Supercentenarians are those people over 110 years of age, and it is estimated there are between 300 to 450 in the world today. Garcia and Miralles interviewed many of them on Okinawa and found they all had ikigai. They also found that the centenarians had ‘enviable levels of vitality’ and had fewer chronic diseases.


They also eat lots of vegetables, do light exercise every day, play, and stay in community. Many consider their vegetable gardens their purpose or ikigai.


For me, the take home message is we need more balance in our lives; we need more flow states (states of being that are so absorbing that there is no time). Needless to say, flow states are nonlinear in nature, but I believe they are what happens when the left brain follows the right. We are western folks however, and we tend not to live as closely with nature as we likely need so we don't have a lot of peaceful nonlinear experiences. We tend to live lives full of juggling stressful concerns and worries. That is, we tend to live incredibly left-brain lives that may give us satisfaction after we accomplish a task, but this isn't the same as a flow state.


There is a new science developing that has been called Medicine 3.0 (Attia, 2023) that considers the whole person not just a specialized disease state. Others are looking into how we can heal our bodies by changing our circumstances (Rediger, 2020). Autoimmune diseases are on the rise, and they are disproportionately affecting women with currently no known cure in sight (80% of people with autoimmune diseases are women; Angum, Khan, Kaler, Siddiqui, & Hussain, 2020). Repression of feelings has been found to be highly associated with disease states (Rediger, 2020) so returning to the world of feeling is likely the way.


Seems to me we urgently need to change. For me if we're not in flow, silence is the key to balance with play, community, meaningful work, walking, laughter, love, art, and haikus to help bridge the gap.

Apparently vegetables too ;-)


In Hiraizumi, Japan there was a stream where people would write haikus and let them float downstream on leaves to others...I love the romance of this, the mystery and excitement...the yugen.



We, and all of our Children need this.

 



NCAR is delighted to bring a bit of our world to others and is sending Notes on a monthly basis. Each Note will focus on some aspect on the Neuroscience of Attachment that applies to all of us and is the specialization of NCAR. Notes build on each other and involve key concepts in Integrative Regulation Therapy (iRT: Newton, 2009, 2013, 2017, 2021), a neurobiological subcortical scaffolding for depth therapies. Feel free to forward to others.


"Would not green peppers

Make strangely lovely insects

If they sprouted legs?"


--Richard Wright



The best of living to you,


Ruth Newton

NCAR's Vision

That all children feel known, loved, valued, and guided by secure, conscious, and loving parents who strive to live an authentic life that supports a civilized world.


NCAR's Mission

To promote emotional security, growth, and happiness in children, adults, couples, and families.


Copyright © 2023 Ruth P. Newton

Newton Center for Affect Regulation (NCAR)

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San Diego, CA 92108

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