Embrace the Mindset of Wabi-Sabi

How being reminded that everything is imperfect, impermanent, and incomplete can bring you peace and drive you to success.

Image Author’s own, created in A Design Kit App

Wabi-Sabi is the Japanese concept that encompasses the spirituality and simplicity of life being impermanent, incomplete, and imperfect.

This simple little phrase can be used almost like a mantra: reaffirming daily can bring serenity and peace in the face of change and adversity. Isn’t that what we’re all looking for nowadays?

Too often we try to hold onto a permanent state: whether it’s a job, our body shape, or a stage in our life. Maybe this is out of a sense of perceived control, but often this brings pain as we are prised from our attachment when things out of our control force us to change. It‘s ’like trying to take a favorite toy from a toddler: usually, there is screaming and crying before coming to the realization that a force greater than yourself is in control.

Wabi-Sabi illustrates the more we practice acceptance and letting go, the less distress we are likely to experience. It is more akin to ‘going with the flow’ rather than trying to swim against the tide.

Let’s briefly touch on the origins of Wabi-Sabi. Wabi relates to detachment from the real world and appreciating a life of simplicity. Sabi is more concerned with the passage of time, and the beauty of aging. Combined, they take on an exalted meaning: impermanence, imperfection, and incompleteness.

On Impermanence

I was once told by a wise psychologist that pets are a fantastic way to teach children about impermanence. I welled up when I thought of my own fur babies. But she was right.

Impermanence is all around us. Why do we try to hold on to the idea that we should have the body of a 20-year old when we are three decades beyond that? Wabi-Sabi is about appreciating the beauty of growth, existence, and decay, and how aging changes the visual appearance of living things.

Why is being reminded of impermanence good for us?

• Impermanence can be a light at the end of a tunnel of darkness. No matter how dire your situation or state of…