Wabi Sabi

Learn from the Japanese concept of Wabi Sabi which encourages to value simplicity and to find beauty in imperfections and impermanence.

Wabi sabi teaches us how to simplify and prioritize the right things, while allowing time to make the necessary changes. It shows us how to access the magic of the everyday and the mundane and to understand that what we have is enough.

Wabi: subdued taste. Sen no Rikyū revolutionized tea ceremony favoring a version that celebrated natural beauty and simplicity. Rikyū’s style of tea ceremony was known as wabi tea, or “wabi-cha.” Wabi implied a mindset that appreciates simplicity, humility and frugality.

Sabi: elegant simplicity and beauty that come from the passing of time. Pensive luster, in Tanizaki words, is preferred to shallow brilliance.

Wabi sabi implies a worldview that appreciates simple beauty, imperfection and the transience of all things.

Imperfection is to be celebrated. Home should be the place where you feel more at ease. Use natural and imperfect materials like wood and stone that remind us that life is perfectly imperfect.

To bring more of yourself in your home decorate with objects that create emotions or memories in you. This coupled with the right kind of decluttering can help you build a home focused only on the truly important parts of your life.

The wabi sabi home, then, allows for all of our imperfections, but encourages us to simplify our lives so that we’re closest to what we cherish most.

“that a certain type of perfection can only be realized through a limitless accumulation of the imperfect. And personally, I find that encouraging”

When we pay attention to nature, we begin to notice a whole world of quiet and simple magic. We also become more present. This is celebrated in Japanese poetry called Haiku and in the classification of seasons. Japan calendar has 24 smaller seasons to acknowledge small changes like “Mist starts to hover”. Noticing the small changes in the outside world make us more attuned to changes in our body and mind. We start to notice we need to rest, to lighten or to change scenery. Nature impermanence makes us aware of our own. Cherry blossoms reminds us that we must focus on what really matters now.

”Suffering is inevitable, pain is optional”

We mist learn to embrace change and respond promptly to it. We cannot control what happens to us but we can control how we respond to it.

The sooner we accept what is happening the better, as we can modify our behavior to the new reality.

Life is fundamentally imperfect. And after we’ve accepted this basic truth, we should realize that much of what we have already is – in its own way – perfectly imperfect.

"I have not failed. I've just found ten thousand ways that won't work." Thomas Edison

As we embark on a learning journey, we must understand that the journey will never be complete. It will have set backs and advances but won’t end. You are not competing against others but growing compared to the person that you were yesterday. In this process failure can be the opportunity for expansion, we can reframe it and learn useful lessons that we might have otherwise missed.

Tea Ceremony is a moment where we look after of one another offering care and consideration.

It has 4 principles:

1. “Wa” - Harmony. What could you do to encourage harmony in your relationships?
2. “Kei” - Respect. What do you respect of each individual that you could celebrate and acknowledge?
3. ”Sei” - Purity. Cultivate purity of heart and seek out the best in each other. Think of how you could manage your conflicts differently if you tried to see the best in others.
4. “Jaku” - Tranquility. To connect with others you need space and calm. How can you create more time and space to grow your relationships?

There is no perfect career path. Each successful person had to endure many difficulties and face many failures in their path to success.

“Do” represents the journey one has to take to acquire knowledge and wisdom in a discipline. Sado, the way of tea; Judo the way of gentleness. It is the path towards something which contains the most vital lessons. The journey is more important than the end goal.

The same is true for our careers. We should seek out and learn the most important lessons in our journeys through self reflection.

With age we acquire life lessons, wisdom and discernment . We treasure moments with loved ones and carve out time to do the things we enjoy most. Perfection can be found in the everyday magic of our imperfect lives.

Take time to reflect and write down the things you love most like the eleventh-century poetess Sei Shōnagon which noted her favorite things, in lists like “Things to Quicken the Heart”.