Tokyo Mindfulness Newsletter #19
Upcoming events, guided meditations, awakening vs. healing and more
Hey there it’s Misha from Tokyo Mindfulness. 👋
The cool air, warm sun and falling leaves have been beckoning me to explore. I recently walked around Shakuji-koen barefoot and struck up a conversation with a man from Ghana.
“There are snakes around here,” he warned me, noticing my bare feet. We talked about life, Ghana, and how 79 yen used to be $1. I felt gratitude for this unexpected connection.
I can feel the mood shifting from doing, doing, to slowing, slowing. A more reflective approach, noticing what’s both inside and outside. A desire to see others, to be in nature, to drink more hot chocolate.
What inner shifts do you feel this autumn?
📅 Upcoming Events
In November we have a coupe of outdoor events, a retreat, and our weekly Thursday sessions — two in Daikanyama and two at Koyama Garden near Toshimaen station. Not trying to put too much in the calendar otherwise. Come and connect!
Sun Nov 3rd: Eye contact experiment @ Yoyogi park
Thursday Nov 7th: Weekly meditation @ Koyama Garden
Sun Nov 10th: Mindfulness hike in Ome (wait list)
Thursday Nov 14th: Weekly meditation @ Daikanyama Brighton Studio
Fri Nov 15th- Mon 18th: Autumn Meditation Retreat in Nagano (4 spots left)
Thursday Nov 21st: Weekly Meditation Koyama Garden
Thursday Nov 28th: Weekly meditation at Daikanyama Brighton Studio
Guided meditation: The breath is a great teacher🧘♀️
The breath is one of the ways I check in with myself dozens/hundreds of times a day. Mindfulness is practiced in every moment, not just on a cushion. What’s fascinating is what happens when you notice your breath (and the sensations of your breath in your body), as you talk to others and go about your day.
You start to notice your internal state as you interact with the world around you. You start to notice what place you’re coming from — am I agitated? Am I feeling connected? Why is my breath shallow right now? Interesting.
Using the breath not just as an anchor, but a compass. A beacon. A teacher. Where will it guide you? What does it have to tell you?
Listen to my guided meditation below or on Spotify here. I post one almost every week!
Our Latest Retreat in Nikko 🏞️
We had an awesome retreat in Nikko this past weekend paddle-boarding on Lake Chuzenji and practicing several types of meditation!
Sharing a few takeaways and photos:
1/ “Not a retreat.” Most of the time we are escaping, avoiding or retreating away from our present-moment experience. So in a sense, this retreat was not a retreat. Because when we come to a beautiful place in nature and put away our phones for the whole weekend, we’re not escaping, but we’re actually starting to pay attention.
2/ “Who are you?” One of our practices on the beach facing Mt. Nantai was a pair exercise where you asked your partner “who are you” for 10 minutes straight. A father, friend, son, employee, citizen, human…All of the roles and identities we hold come to light. As they do, we start to let go of trying to hold on to any one too tightly, leading to a sense of inner freedom and fluidity between our various roles in life.
3/ “Nature is whole.” Nature provides many reminders of its perfection. The acorn is whole, perfect as it is, and not a deficient oak tree. The lake and the mountain are just as they are. This reminder allowed us to move away from the goal-oriented, self-improvement view that we tend to take. Labels and judgments drop away and we experience a deep, inner presence and sense of completion.
Big shoutouts to Joel for letting us use his place, and to our intern Tucker for taking some great photos :)
We have 2 more retreats coming up this year. One in mid November and one mid December. Message me if you’re interested to learn more or have any questions :)
🌅✨Awakening vs. Healing
An idea that I have been thinking about lately is the difference between awakening and healing. You would think the two go hand in hand, but that’s not often the case. You can have a deep spiritual practice and yet side-step working on the hard/messy stuff in life. This is why many wise teachers or gurus still can have a lot of less than flattering behaviors.
I spent years getting into deeper states of awareness and oneness, but it took some time before I realized the limits of that approach. While I experienced a greater degree of freedom and non-reactivity, it became apparent that I needed to work with the various parts of myself directly to heal them. For example, healing my relationship with my past self, family and relationships using tools like IFS therapy and somatic experiencing.
Both approaches are powerful and rewarding in different ways. They also converge at many points. What I’m trying to do with Tokyo Mindfulness is provide opportunities for both through various tools and offer different ways of being. This podcast conversation I found does a great job of differentiating between the two, and where we often get mixed up. I highly recommend Scott Britton’s Substack, who talks a lot about integrating spirituality in our daily lives.
What I’m listening to 🎧👂
Gotta love the handpan. Some people are tired of it, but I listen to Malte Marten almost everyday. Soothing, grounding, relaxing and great background music for writing. This is one of my favorites. The emotion in here is powerful.
Quotes I’m Pondering 🌎
"The ultimate way you and I get lucky is if you have some success early in life, you get to find out early it doesn’t mean anything."
— David Foster Wallace
Loved the post, Misha. Thanks for the mention. And good to see my friend Michael in the pics!