Yutori is a Japanese concept of spaciousness. It refers to having enough time and peace of mind to enjoy life. In this busy world we all need to make time to be.
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I'm feeling gratitude for the wonder of having clean water that comes from my taps and electricity 24 hours a day. I have food in my store cupboards and winter is over. I'm really conscious of the many, many people around the world and in the UK for whom these things cannot be said and I have a heartfelt gratitude for the plenty I find myself blessed with.
Today I'm thankful for the coming of spring and invite you to watch the really wonderful Helston Mayday Carol, sung traditionally on May Day and performed by the inimitable Watersons. My research this week has taken in the creation of the idea of 'normal', our relationship with time as affected by capitalism in ways that make it harder to live a peaceful and fulfilling life and the value of social activism.
The concept of 'normal' as something first to aspire to and then do-better-than has arrived in the last couple of hundred years deriving from a mathematical term, having been developed in the 19th century by white men. This standard has been extended to the rest of the population as something we should all aspire to. It is intimately wrapped up in the requirements of standardisation inherent in factory work and industrialisation where a 'one-size-fits-all' work day was essential to the profits of rich industrialists who co-opted the disenfranchised rural poor into towns and cities after losing their cottage industry though the arrival of machinery that took their labour. Our relationship with time shifted with this change. The rhythms of the day and night, the seasons and each person's own cycles were replaced by the factory whistle. Sickness and health, the menstrual cycle, ageing and our own feelings of enthusiasm and lull were overridden by the demand that we arrive on time and stay for the given number of hours. Any resistance to this was punished with loss of employment causing destitution and starvation and even deportation in the case of those who took direct action to challenge the rise of the factory. A criticism fairly levelled at therapy is that it enables sociopolitical problems to be seen as personal thus moving the political into the realm of the individual and reinforcing the expectation that we suck up the affects of structural inequality, poverty, lack of access to services and the like. A solution to this depoliticisation is social activism. Some of the feelings we bring to therapy are the direct result of structural inequality and oppression and these problems cannot be dealt with individually. Taking action to bring about change and to affirm our own and others experience of power imbalances empowers us and allows the associated affects - sadness, anger, rage - to be transformed into something creative and useful. Social activism builds networks and moves us out of isolation into connection. Examples of social activism networks are the incredible 'UpFront Suvivors' for suvivors of chidhood sexual abuse (CSA) https://www.vivgordoncompany.co.uk/upfront-survivors.html And the brilliant 'A Disorder 4 everyone' challenging the culture of psychiatric diagnosis https://www.adisorder4everyone.com/dosomething Sources of this musing can be found below 1) BBC Sounds, Free Thinking - 'What is Normal' https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/m001v50n 2) Guardian - Time is your most precious commodity. Can you ever get it back? https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2024/apr/24/getting-your-time-back-comic |
AuthorEmma Pickerill, Humanistic and Integrative Psychotherapist in training, storyteller and folk singer. ArchivesCategories |