The Case For Ikebana As A Mindfulness Practice

Photo by Yasunobu Tamari
When you do sports, you have many choices. Some people love running occasionally participating in full marathons, while others prefer swimming or walking. Some kick a ball and others hit it. You can do sports outside, or you enjoy cycling in the dark with loud music. You choose any sport that fits you - and it delights your life more and makes you feel better both physically and mentally.

On the other hand, in the realm of mindfulness, it seems that we do not have many options. Basically, mindfulness is about meditation.

Meditation is a powerful practice. I am not an expert on this, but I understand that it is based on human wisdom developed, refined and proven over thousands of years. And it is very simple and convenient. All you need is yourself. No device, tool, music or special venue is needed. You can do it for a few minutes or for an hour.

But this "all-you-need-is-yourself" part can be tricky. If you cannot focus, that's it. When I meditate, I have to admit that often times I have no idea whether I am meditating or I am just daydreaming - highly likely the latter. Even if I get some assistance, such as guided meditation, I often find myself so difficult to let my imagination flow with the guidance and end up thinking about totally irrelevant things.

I understand that meditation would be good for me, everyone and society as a whole. I understand more practices would help me appreciate meditation more. However, to be perfectly honest, I just cannot feel like spending time on meditation. Unless you feel that something fits you, you cannot continue and practice it more. Meditation is not for me, period. And I know there are people who may feel the same way.

I am a person who likes something dynamic and creative than something static and routinely. I have never found going to a gym or running around the Palace exciting (though I have tried countless times), while I have been dancing almost for 30 years.

As we can choose dancing over running in sports, I hope we can choose other practices than meditation in mindfulness as well. And one option I would like to present is ikebana.

In ikebana, you have flowers. Your role is to listen to the voice of the flowers so that you can let them live and shine. Thanks to the power of flowers, you find yourself naturally focus on what you are creating through the collaboration with flowers. You never know what you are going to do next or what you are going to create, as it is all guided by flowers. Your focus has to be on the moment, and then, you will find yourself living in the moment, which I believe is one of the essences of mindfulness.

I believe, among those who find some distance between meditation and themselves (like me), there are people who would find ikebana an easier and more exciting mindfulness practice so that they can practice it regularly. I hope someday, not in the distant future, ikebana would become one of the available options in mindfulness practices across the globe.