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Welcome to our Online-Resources. We are so glad that you are part of our journey, whether you have the analog or digital Journal. Make sure you purchased the Journal via our store or sign up for our newsletter to receive further updates and resources. We keep creating piano meditations, videos and other food for thought.
01
Here you go.
You have the Journal lying in front of you. Either as a book, a printout or on your tablet or computer. Now take your time - we prepared enough music and accompanying impulses for you. Let’s get started with the first piece by Michael:
Work at your own pace. Do the thing that you need right now.
As soon as you feel settled and you have arrived in the moment, go on to see what Motoki has to say:
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Hurray, you have arrived! We are happy to accompany you on your journey through the next 9 chapters.
02
Finding focus.
What is important to you at this very moment?
What’s filling you with energy, what is draining you?
What makes you lose your focus and what are the (important) things you never get to do?
Take your time and write down a few topics. Once you are done with this practice, we invite you to do a short meditation.
Find a calm place that feels safe and familiar to you. You can close your eyes or look in front of you with a soft gaze. Find a relaxed yet upright position for your body. Relax your shoulders and feel how your feet touch the ground. Now focus on your breath.
We invite you to do so with curiosity and kindness. Simply try to concentrate on breathing. Remember that there is no such thing as “right” or “wrong” kind of breathing.
Just breathe in your own rhythm - naturally and relaxed. Take as much time as you need and your schedule allows it.
Roundabout five minutes are enough to start with. You will notice how your breath becomes more and more calm over time. At first five minutes can feel like a very long time. But the more you calm down and focus on your breath, the more the time flies by. If you like, listen to Michael’s piano meditation. Also Motoki’s guided meditation can be of help. Whenever you’re ready you can end your mediation by slowly coming mentally back into your environment. You have all the time in the world. Now notice if something changed. What do you feel right now? Do you feel anything different?
What is important to you at this very moment?
Feel free to note down, if something important came up. It’s perfectly normal for thoughts to pop up during your meditation. It’s even impossible not to think :) As soon as you notice these thoughts, you can welcome them with curiosity and kindness. You might also try to label and caption them, as in “Oh yes, this is on my To-Do List” - and then return to your conscious breath. The most essential part of this practice is to notice the shift in your attention. This strengthens our ability of “Meta Awareness” and is essential if we want to stay focused. In addition, meditative practice allows us to make more conscious decisions. They create a bigger space for our decisions and in this we discover freedom and our future prospects.
You can find out more in our seminars.
„Between stimulus and response there is a space. In that space is our power to choose our response. In our response lies our growth and our freedom“
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Welcome to the third lesson of your journal. are you ready?
We are asking you literally: Are you ready? If you don’t feel in the mood or uncomfortable, maybe take a break before deep diving into the next topic.
03
Find resilience and inner strength
The present time is marked by many challenges. Many of our plans were cancelled and we had to adjust quickly to new circumstances. This is where resilience and our inner strength help us. A key topic that we broach the issue of in our seminars is the story that we tell ourselves. Our personal narrative. Do we percept ourselves as learners or failures during challenges? Prof. Carol Dweck's studies on "Growth Mindset" have verifiably demonstrated that we can learn at any stage of life. We are not "fixed" in our mindset. We can train and develop it. Take some time to ask yourself what you have learned over the last few months. The more time we take with this question, the more we discover both the simple and the great. We can recall technical and adaptive learning experiences. Based on this we can establish gratitude and awareness for new things we can learn every single day. If you are curious to get to know more about Growth Mindset, here’s a video.
„It’s a funny thing about life, once you begin to take note of the things you are grateful for, you begin to lose sight of the things that you lack“
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The fourth chapter awaits you. take all the time that you need.
04
Gratitude.
What are you grateful for today? What are you grateful for now? Here’s a musical piece by Michael Nickel to reflect with.
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We encourage you to enter the next chapter with a cleared mind and sufficient time. In case you can’t contribute these right now, we recommend you to come back later. If you are good to go, we wish you a great time.
05
IKIGAI | How do we approach life?
“Ikigai” stems from Japanese. Iki 生き means „to live“ and kai 甲斐 „worth, value“. You could say Ikigai is what it’s worth getting up for in the mornings. In the west IKIGAI is often misinterpreted. You can find a lot of information on that topic here. To us it’s crucial not only to reflect about “what” it is that we do but also “how” we do it. According to many studies this leads to lifelong satisfaction - and therefore we can find many people in Japan, that not only reach great age. Many of them are happily engaging in their activities into old age. To them it’s inconceivable to stop doing what they are passionate about. To them it’s inconceivable, not to engage into society. It is in this context that the IKIGAI has been rediscovered.
Take some time for the IKIGAI. You can start with the western conception of the IKIGAI and ask yourself “what” it is, that you are doing. After that you will find enough space to reflect on “how” you are doing it. For that make use of the Journal, fix snippets of newspaper in, stick photos in, assemble pieces of memories into it. If you still need some extra pages, you can download and print a larger version of the IKIGAI here. Additionally there is accompanying music by Michael Nickel:
Listen to some Music from Michael and fill out your new Ikigai
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Awesome, you’re halfway through the journal. we hope you will have many more hours to enjoy journaling.
06
Retroperspective.
Retrospective. On the subject of Kinstugi, we proudly present you two videos, which we recorded for you in Japan and with Michael in the studio:
Listen to one of our Kintsugi workshop participants, who spontaneously grabbed the microphone and shared her personal story:
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a new chapter is waiting for you to fill it with passion. if you need a break - we’ll just wait here.
07
Decision making.
How do you come to your decisions? Have you ever found yourself saying “yes” when you actually wanted to say “no”? Decisions usually have consequences for us. No matter if small or big - we make decisions on a daily basis. Some of them more consciously than others, when we decide affectively, on autopilot, out of a routine, emotionally. In fact, it is this type of “unconscious” decisions that we make more often. Our emotions play a significant role in this.
Our decisions reveal a lot about ourselves. This is why we say “Decision making is sense making”. If our decisions don’t align with our values (saying “yes” when actually a “no” would have felt much better) even minor decisions can weigh on us heavily. They determine our future course. They can cost a lot of our time and resources. Decisions that are not in alignment with our values can literally "stress" us out a lot. It takes a lot of energy to revise decisions once they have been made.
At best, our decisions lead us right into the future that we hope for and that comply with our core values. To get there we need space for reflection and time to come to a decision consciously.
Reflection: How many decisions a day do you make consciously? What has an influence on your decisions? Are they shaped by your past or by your vision of the future? It’s time for a reflection in your journal.
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We are happy that you made it so far. now take a deep breath before continuing.
08
Practicing Mindfulness.
How can we come to conscious decisions then? How can we be present and aware in the moment in order to draw a broader picture of our circumstances and our environment?
Both our situation, i.e. how we feel emotionally, physically, mentally, and our environment influence our decision-making. In addition, we are shaped by our past experiences and adventures.
This is why we call mindfulness a superpower. It allows us to focus attention on the present. With this we can build awareness on how we feel. We can increase our “emotional intelligence” with this. We can use our body as a "data source", for example. Our body tells us a lot about our well-being. Neuroscientists like Antonio DaMasio proved this years ago: Before we are able to comprehend cognitively, what is happening within ourselves and what our intuitive behavior will be, our body is already indicating it with signals. If you are interested in this, take a look at this video.
How can we benefit of these signals?
We make decisions multiple times a day, we have to process a number of impressions and stimuli. This can lead to stress and rash decisions. Practicing mindfulness help us to interrupt our "autopilot" over and over and thus create space for reflection. In this space we can calm ourselves down (stress reduction) and thus enable us to deal with ourselves and others more consciously. This higher level of “self-awareness” enables us to control our decisions and actions more consciously ("self-management").
Best of all: Mindfulness practice doesn’t cost a cent and is available anytime. Even when we are en route in the subway or sitting in a weird business meeting. All that we have to do is commit our time and attention to practice. If we deem them important, we can value them by granting them a little of our time during a busy day.
Reflection: How many times a day do you interrupt your “race, your “autopilot” and exchange it for pausing, relaxing and consciously being aware of yourself? How can you establish more space in everyday life to enable this process? Have a look at your schedule, set your alarm, join “Finde Zukunft” Communities that can help you to cultivate your rhythm. If we manage to establish this rhythm, we will be able to evolve a culture and new routines, which enable us to engage in mindfulness practices naturally and effortlessly.
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You are nearing the finishing line.
09
Finde Zukunft - find future.
Now let’s take some time for one last important practice, shall we? Take some extra paper, just any blank sheet you can find and write as far as your thoughts carry you. As you listen to Michael’s piano play write, write and write. If everything goes as planned - who will you be in 10 years? What will you be doing? How will you feel? And what does imagining this do to you right now? In which part of your body can you feel this idea the most?
Later on you can take some time to look at what you have written to mark keywords - with a golden marker for instance.
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Are you ready for the final chapter of your journal?
Take another deep breath.
Why don’t you leaf through your journal to take a look at the work and passion you’ve contributed. Highlight what is important to you - you can transfer these insights later on to your Finde-Zukunft Poster.
Put the journal aside for a moment, close your eyes and take another deep breath.
10
CONGRATS
To bring this wonderful journey to a close, here’s Michael Nickel and a fantastic bonus. Just close your eyes.
„Between stimulus and response there is a space. In that space is our power to choose our response. In our response lies our growth and our freedom“