Tag: Japan

When we are sick or injured, we go to a hospital to see a doctor for treatment or hospitalization. In this case, the patient wants to get back to normal and regain his/her life as soon as possible, so he/she obeys the doctor’s instructions and follows them to the letter.

On the other hand, what about the case of a person who has lost a loved one and is experiencing grief? As in the case of illness, the desire to be free from grief and suffering naturally arises. However, what about the reality? 15 years of “Wind Phone” activities have shown that many people continue to be immersed in a sense of grief, albeit unwillingly. After a long time, many of them realize that they cannot go on like this and feel they must somehow get out of this suffering. Or they may isolate themselves with their grief and fall into a state of depression. Grief is a state of “heartbreak” along with injury or illness. However, it cannot be cured by medicine or surgery. There are therapists, but it is important for the person concerned to have a strong desire to return to his or her original state of vitality.

Psychologist Dr. Hayao Kawai says, “It is the patient, not the doctor, who heals the wounds of the mind, and the only thing the doctor can do is to watch and help the patient heal by himself. The only thing that doctors can do is to watch over and help the patients heal on their own. (2) The person concerned must have a strong spirit for recovery. (3) Someone to stand by and watch over them and support them. The “Wind Phone” is a therapy that is conducted by oneself without a therapist, in which one becomes aware of one’s own self-healing power through self-questioning on a black phone.

One person who came to the “Wind Phone” today left the following message. I felt for the first time that you are always there for me, even though I have nothing to say, and that you are always watching over me.

Most of the people who visit “Wind Phone” wish to say “Thank you” to their deceased ancestors, parents, family, friends, and acquaintances, and to ask them to continue to watch over them.

Originally, Japanese people believed that the gods were found in things and phenomena in nature, helping people in their daily activities or possessing them and causing illness and death. People have felt the presence of the gods, made requests to them, and held festivals to pray for their repose. Gradually, however, these deities were replaced by Shinto deities, along with the spirits of great historical figures. In the modern era, this trend has changed to the relationship with ancestors. One’s parents and ancestors do not die and leave one’s life, but they are there to watch over us even after death. The so-called trend toward the unification of Buddha and God is felt.

This trend is clearly expressed in the words that many people who have lost loved ones leave in their “Wind Telephone” notebooks.

Translated with DeepL.com (free version)

On the afternoon of the 29th, a day of dazzling fresh greenery, the first “Grief Care by Wind Phone” seminar was held.

This seminar focused on how to reduce grief when experiencing loss, rather than on how to care for people with grief. In my experience and in talking with people who have visited “Wind Telephone,” I have found that the loss of a loved one is not perceived in a uniform way, and that there are many individual differences depending on each person’s life circumstances up to that point. I believe that this individual difference is due to the fact that each one of us has a “heart”.

To deal with the “heart,” we first need to know what the “heart” is. We believe that in order to heal a wounded heart, it is difficult to respond without knowing its reality. To do this, I believe that we must not treat “heart” as a concept in the abstract, but must replace it with a familiar word and deal with it in a realistic manner. I see mind = life force (energy).

Secondly, I believe that we must be prepared to face any sudden change in life or health one day in a calm manner. To this end, I believe that, as the term “advance recovery” suggests, and as with training in sports, it is important to train or prepare in advance in one’s personal and social life as well.

In support of this, we believe that the low self-esteem and self-affirmation of the Japanese people, as shown in UNICEF’s surveys of the well-being of countries around the world, aggravates and prolongs grief in the wake of loss. To this end, it is important to provide moral education from elementary school onward, and to raise awareness that death is an extension of life and coexists with it, without making the topic of death taboo for those who have entered the workforce. We believe that the key to reviewing our own way of life is to gain “awareness” from a number of things and change it ourselves. The opportunity to review one’s way of life crosses in front of one’s eyes at any time, when something happens, or when one sees or hears something. The seminar concluded that it is one’s usual sensitivity and attitude (motivation) that determines whether to seize these opportunities and make them one’s own vitality or just look at them sideways and let them pass by.

This program is intended for those who are dealing with grief, those who want to become clinical psychologists, and those who want to learn about other ways to be close to others.

How can we “recover our hearts and minds” in times of grief and despair after the loss of a loved one due to disaster, accident, illness, suicide, etc.?

We humans also have an invisible life force. The life force is not only the power to live and vitality, but also the mind itself. When we despair of sorrow and suffering, we believe that our life force declines. I believe that restoring the degraded life force, or state of mind, to its original positive, cheerful, and motivated state is the “restoration of the mind.

I have set up an environment where I can be there for the “emotional recovery” of those who have suffered emotional trauma through the “Wind Phone”, a phone with no telephone line connected to it, and I am quietly waiting for anyone, anytime.

Date & Time: April 29, 2024 (Monday/Holiday), 13:30-16:30 (Reception to follow)

Venue: Bell Gardia Kujirayama, 9-36-9, Kirizaki, Otsuchi-cho

Capacity: 20 people

Fee: 5,000 yen

Application: bell-gardia＠aqua.plala.or.jp

 

We all have an ego that wants to be thought well of by others. When people criticize us for something, we are hurt or depressed because we cannot accept it.

All of these things can be said to be your mind creating suffering. Your mind is picking up suffering. It is your mind that sees criticism as negative and receives it as suffering, giving them value.

It is not that you are suffering because some person was mean to you, but that you are suffering because you are obsessed with it at the time and perceive it negatively as “oh trouble” or “oh I hate it”.

The same is true of stress. There are many causes, but most of them are actually caused by our own selfish beliefs. This includes the frustration that comes from expecting something and not getting it the way you want it, or the victim mentality that says, “I’m doing all this, and yet I’m the victim.

It is not that you alone live in the world, but that people and people, people and nature, and many other things are related to each other, so it is natural that things do not go your way.