DECODING THE IKIGAI #2 - THE MORITA THERAPY

"When your feelings bother you, you can fight them, choose to ignore them, you can express them (with great frequency) or.. you can make friends with them, invite them to come with you while you get on with your life."

Breaking the vicious cycle of worry, hurt and depression can prove to be difficult yet rewarding. There are numerous ways to help you discover your existential fuel, your ikigai - in this short article, you'll read more about Morita therapy.

Devised by Shomu Morita, a Zen Buddhist and a psychoanalyst by profession, Morita therapy aims to help you find clarity of thought and action. Personally speaking, I feel it is the most awkward yet most introspective and rehabilitative mode of conscious therapy. Here, the patient goes through 4 sequential phases, each phase spanning a duration of 5-7 days.

Phase 1 - Observe. Reflect. Repeat.

The patient is isolated in a room and cut off from all human and worldly contact and technology. He is asked to remain silent and observe the tides and lulls of his emotions and reflect on them as the day progresses. During this period of social sequestration, the patient is visited by his therapist who also takes special care to avoid any unnecessary interactions from his side, and advises the patient to keep observing his thoughts. When he grows bored of this activity and expresses his need to free himself from isolation, he is good to enter the next phase of Morita therapy.

Phase 2 - Light Occupational Therapy

The patient is taken outdoors and has to complete certain tasks and assignments in silence, do some breathing exercises and some simple activities such as painting, gardening,etc. During this phase, care is taken to minimise human interactions - only the therapist is allowed to talk to the patient.

Phase 3 - Occupational therapy

Now the patient is asked to do tasks that require physical exertion. Tasks such as chopping firewood and lifting heavy objects. Also, such tasks that require some amount of mind put to it - writing, craftwork and freehand drawings. And the happy part is, the patient is now allowed to talk to people, but there's definitely a catch here, they can only talk about those tasks at hand. The idea is to completely free him from the repetitive, vicious cycle of destructive thoughts and to help him develop a fresh outlook towards life.

Phase 4 - Recovery and Re-entry

The patient leaves the clinic and resumes his social life, keeping in mind the principles that he imbibed during the Morita therapy. His sense of purpose reinvented and his power of self-esteem improved by leaps and bounds.

Controlling the flow of thoughts and harnessing the right ones is central to the idea behind Morita therapy. Morita therapy aids in:

1. Accepting your feelings and not try to combat them with another feeling or action - in Japanese, it is called the "arugamama."

2. Helping you live in the present - do your duties, never abandon them.

3. Discovering the purpose of your life

And how does Morita therapy help you find your ikigai? At the juncture of an existential crisis, when all your thoughts and actions are directed towards self-destruction rather than self-actualisation and acceptance, this form of conscious therapy is instrumental in flushing negativity out of your system and rejuvenating your inner soul.

As someone rightly said, "your worst enemy cannot harm you as much as your unguarded thoughts."