What should we learn from Eastern philosophy?
The practical part seems to me the most essential.
Where do we start?
For the 15 keys to achieve excellence: five to improve your body, five to improve your soul and five to improve your mind as a work tool.
Let's start with the body.
After many attempts I have lost 20 kilos. I applied, and I recommend, the kaizen philosophy, continuous improvement, taking small steps that add up, and are so small that your mind doesn't see them as a threat.
Does the mind not like changes?
No. I didn't like walking, but I started with 1,000 steps a day, I went up little by little and in a year I reached 10,000 steps a day. Another example: to pass the official intermediate Chinese exam you have to learn 300 words, it's complicated, but what if we learn just one word a day?
Very reasonable.
It's about crushing goals. Nobody has time to learn Chinese, but they do have time to learn a word a day. I do four minutes of very basic physical exercises, it's better than nothing and they add up. Fengshui also helps.
With?
You have some goals, in my case it was to lose weight, and conditioning the space helped me. Since I spent many evenings on the sofa in front of the TV with the table full of snacks, I changed the TV to break that habit.
He thought that fengshui was a matter of architecture and order.
All great Chinese buildings are built under their rules, even Donald Trump has fengshui advisors for his hotels. But I apply fengshui kaizen: I love white rice, but it makes me fat, so I put it behind the quinoa, chickpeas and lentils to remind me that they come first.
We continue with the practical subtleties.
Zen meditation, a few minutes focusing on your breathing. I had to learn it the hard way after a heart attack. Zen has helped me to have a much clearer and calmer mind. Five minutes a day have changed my life.
How to improve the soul?
The kintsugi, fixing a broken object by highlighting its cracks with gold, helps. How many times do we break down and not even stop to reflect? This accumulation poisons us. You have to take your time to put yourself back together and cover your scars with gold.
OK, but how do you do that?
First, don't break yourself into a thousand pieces, pay attention to the alerts that your body and mind give you, pay attention to your surroundings, what is not working. And if you still break, look for that rubber band to help you put the pieces back together, from a friend to a professional. Don't get lost, stick to bushido.
The ethical code of the samurai?
Find your values, make a list of seven values and ask yourself if you bring them up. Benjamin Franklin had a notebook where he noted daily if he had respected his values or if he had betrayed any of them; this way you get to know if your soul is aligned with your life.
Everything requires work.
There are gifts like the art of guanxi, a very Chinese system of meeting people, because we are the average of the five people we spend the most time with. If you surround yourself with vitamin people you will live with energy, if you surround yourself with toxic people you will become toxic. Simple, right?
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An African proverb says that if you want to go fast, go alone; if you want to go far, go with them. And don't forget that knowing how to listen is the first step to understanding, and understanding is fundamental to continuing to learn.
The mind, how can we cultivate it?
In Chinese we say: live to old age, learn to old age; in continuous learning. And you can't learn anything new if you think you already know everything. I apply kungfu to learning. Depending on whether you are tall or short, the kungfu you practice will be different, and the same goes for the mind and learning.
Everyone at their own pace and way.
I learn by doing, others by memorizing. Find your way to learn, that's why you have to know yourself: observe yourself, pay attention to what you like, what you don't like and what moves you.
Understood.
It is highly recommended to write a diary, practice hansei, self-reflection, introspection, what went well today and what didn't: have I met my goals for the day?, why not? Have I put my values into practice?
Is this what you ask yourself every day?
And also if I have exercised enough, that what cannot be measured cannot be improved. A journal allows you to appreciate your progress and correct your mistakes with an improvement plan.
