How To Embrace The Japanese Art Of ‘Shikata Ga Nai’ (Or ‘Letting Go’)
3 steps to making the most of life’s messy moments
Last week, I missed 3 trains on my way to work.
Why and how I missed the trains isn’t really important (it was a mixture of poor judgement and time blindness, dear reader).
What struck me in particular was the fear, the panic, the stress. For some reason on this day I saw myself from afar, and recognised — with some sadness, I may add — that this poor girl (me) was in distress over something so insignificant as missing a few trains.
You probably recognise this in yourself. The tight-chest feeling of ‘I will be late!’ and ‘I must meet my duties!’
Then I did something very unusual. I acknowledged this fear and decided to try…‘going with the flow’.
“F*ck it” I thought. “I have missed these trains and this is the way it is. I will live with this, and embrace what happens next as a result”.
I later found out that this concept has a name in Japanese: ‘Shikata ga nai’. To take the approach of ‘it cannot be helped’ or ‘what will be, will be’:
