or rather, it’s zen …when it comes to Marie Kondo method:
She proposes a similarly agreeable technique for hanging clothing. Hang up anything that looks happier hung up, and arrange like with like, working from left to right, with dark, heavy clothing on the left: “Clothes, like people, can relax more freely when in the company of others who are very similar in type, and therefore organizing them by category helps them feel more comfortable and secure.”
Such anthropomorphism and nondualism, so familiar in Japanese culture, as Leonard Koren, a design theorist who has written extensively on Japanese aesthetics, told me recently, was an epiphany to this Westerner. In Japan, a hyper-awareness, even reverence, for objects is a rational response to geography, said Mr. Koren, who spent 10 years there and is the author of “Wabi-Sabi for Artists, Designers, Poets & Philosophers.”
“Think of the kimono, and the tradition of folding,” he said. “There is also the furoshiki, which is basically a square of flat cloth used daily to wrap packages. Folding is deep and pervasive in Japanese culture. Folding is a key strategy of modular systems that have evolved because of limited living space.”
He added:
“More spiritually, the idea of non-dualism is a relationship to reality that proposes that everything is inextricably connected and alive, even inanimate objects. If we are compassionate and respectful to everything that exists, then we would have to be compassionate about the socks in the drawer that aren’t folded properly.”
No wonder I love restorative yoga – folding the blankets! (but not socks!!) And Judith is definitely quite a “crazy fanatic” about that with all her “how-to’s” – it resonates …Rather amazing … it merges right into my homework assignment I am struggling with – “Application of one of the Mahavakyas in yoga therapy” as I ponder on The Upanishads.
Month: March 2016
Some words do not have an exact translation – “tokimeki” I guess translated to “Spark Joy” in Marie Kondo’s best seller … I think the onomatopoeia of “Kyun!” did not get special attention by the interpreter. (8:35 min. into the utube video referenced below), when she said the criteria for what you keep vs. what you discard is the feeling of “kyun”! That piece is a keeper, when you hold and touch an article of clothing in question, if every “cell” of your entire body can feel “KYUN!” – feeling of going positively “up”! – it’s the sound of the heart/mind “kokoro” feeling the adoration … it’s like falling uplifting/rising in love but … more for a puppy or a sweet baby. You know, your heart just … melts but no, that would translate to “toromeku” not “tokimeku”.
Onomatopoeia of “Tokimeki”, her criteria is when your heart goes “kyun” … almost like heart skipping a beat – the heart throbbing…UP – finger points up like an arrow up as she demonstrates. There really is no exact translation but closest would be something like a “vibe” that’s upbeat and exciting. Okay, so “Spark and Joy” will have to do…
She’s kind of like a doll but one with OCD. She’s just so cute but once she opens her mouth, definitely seems to have an Obsessive Compulsive streak. Yet there’s a spectrum to every disorder (or is it a disorder or a gift? what’s normal?) and we need the extremes who helps other extremes – the hoarders – and all in-between. It’s also a bit cultural – in the less disciplined anything goes anarchy like world, what’s seen as OCD, in Japan can only be admired and aspired to. Orderliness, neatness and cleanliness is next to Godliness there, she can only be admired as someone of great virtues and desired skills. In fact, she’s practically like a “life coach”. We all have an element of various tendencies to hold onto things we no longer need – as we favor brevity and speed, abbreviate and expedite how we live, we surround ourselves with objects that impedes living in the presence. Slow down. Reflect, Re-evaluate; then Regenerate through Restoration of Self by knowing how best to take care of ourselves. More restored we are, the more occasions in which our heart can positively spike UP …”kyun”! It’s an UP-tick:)
Here’s her talk from AirBnB – you can search on google or facebook:)
MK “Safe to assume, I am a crazy tidying fanatic!” Indeed.
It would be interesting to see how motherhood may change her…transformative I would guess:)
She may even let a little MESS slip by…
Categories
Spring Cleaning “Kondoing”
For all hoarders … it’s a festival time!
I need Marie – “crazy tidying fanatic” – home to give me a lesson:)
Better yet, wish she just move in and rid of things and organize while
I take care of her baby<3 Really wonder how this baby will grow up, having a self-
proclaimed "tidying freak" as a mother.
Thank you Judith for a great book for our reading list.
"Life changing Magic of Tidying Up" by Marie Kondo.
Here's her recent talk given at Google from UTUBE - searched on ... google:) Click Here:)
or
Here’s Wall Street Journal article that summarizes well even though you have to sit through an ad.
“. . . her voice . . . is by turns stern and enchanted,
like a fairy godmother for socks.”
— The Wall Street Journal
“[It is] enough to salute Kondo for her recognition of something quietly profound: that mess is often about unhappiness,
and that the right kind of tidying can be a kind of psychotherapy for the home as well as for the people in it . . .
Its strength is its simplicity.”
— The London Times