Embrace Wabi Sabi: Imperfection in Your Practice and in Your Life

Wabi sabi is a Zen Buddhist philosophy where natural imperfections are highlighted and held as beautiful. 

When describing Wabi Sabi, there is no direct translation from Japanese. It is a philosophical or aesthetic state of mind that one can aim to personify where we find beauty in the natural aspects of our organic forms. Wabi Sabi can be broken down and dissected in a myriad of ways and there will likely be no agreeable definition, but maybe that is the wabi sabi of wabi sabi itself. 

A less abstract way of looking at this concept is finding and appreciating the beauty of natural imperfections - the way a tree grows crooked around manmade structures, flowers blooming out of concrete or asphalt, or the way freckles scatter unevenly across skin. Wabi sabi feels like the joy of a tree sprouting out of a stump left behind by a giant relative and the way an eclipse projects light in the shape of crescent moons even as it plunges our day into darkness. It is kintsugi, filling cracks of the broken and damaged mundane objects with gold, allowing us to continue using our favorite cup or bowl and preserving the memories in a physical form.

What this looks like in a yoga practice is the act of falling out of a balance pose, or struggling to even get into it and feeling that little chuckle of frustration bubble up and out of you. It is trying to focus on your breathing, but today you can’t get the thought of an upcoming date off your mind. It can feel like a practice that is never given enough time, but each time you participate you feel your whole body singing in harmony. Wabi sabi in yoga is the dedication you give to your entire being so that you can work towards peace and comfort on a daily basis.

This is a lovely, helpful way that we can think and exist, but how do we get there? Just like yoga, it is all about daily practice and conscious effort. When I started Wabi Sabi Yogi, I chose that epithet to help myself embrace who I was, how I was, as I was - how I looked, spoke, felt, and behaved. 

Wabi sabi can be embraced on a full body level, for the body, mind, and spirit - our emotions, morals, etc.. I chose this theme for my practice because yoga has always been about my body. From my very first practice when I was 22 years old, in my living room, and following along with a pre-recorded yoga class on Youtube all the way to my current daily practice and weekly teachings. I made the decision for yoga to be my constant movement practice in a body that couldn’t handle a lot of movement options. Between chronic pain, hypermobility, and body dysmorphia, the gym was out of the question and all of the fun activities I had picked up (lyra, bungee, etc.) were too costly to do on a day to day basis. Yoga was free, easily accessible, and doable without even leaving my home. I could find it before and after work, on my days off, and I later found out even on low spoon days where I could barely get out of bed. 

What I found in an (almost) daily yoga practice was that I wasn’t the same every day. Where two days in a row I could pop into kākasana (crow), the third day my arms would be so fatigued I could hardly manage to hold myself up in adho mukha śvānāsana (down dog). How could I possibly feel so strong and hold my weight on two hands just yesterday and now I’m trembling in a pose I’ve frequented almost every day? 

This is the nature of acceptance that we learn continually throughout our yoga practice. Some days require gentle kindness, some days require a strong push and every day requires knowing the difference between what is right and what would cause more harm. This is vital to the individual. What I learned from a daily practice was actually how to accept that today could be a day where I needed a ten minute balasana (child’s pose) or a thirty minute savasana after a fifteen minute practice, or no asana practice at all. This is the art of acceptance, knowing what you’re capable of at 100% and still giving your body what it needs at 20%. This consideration applies to more than just our energy levels, as the body changes daily - especially for those born female.

The AFAB body goes through it’s 28 (or 29, or 30) day hormone cycle and this changes everything from their mood to their weight to their perceived thoughts and more. While AMAB bodies go through their own hormonal cycles, it is vastly different and often affects the body in a more subtle way. Beyond this, though, wabi sabi allows us to accept our bodies as they present in physical form. The stretch marks and shapes as fat and muscle play under our skin, wrinkles that show we survived joy and stress and allowed ourselves to age. 

One thing that has brought me joy is finding the silver hairs sprouting at my temples, taking my night sky hair and streaking it with shooting stars. One day the obsidian curls will be gone, but I will have the memory of long black curls turning to short black curls turning to starlight curls and won’t that be an amazing memory to share with people who care to know me in my old age. I write that and I speak it as a confession of love to and for myself. 

This is the magic of wabi sabi. Finding beauty in the natural way things are imperfect.