Danshari is a Japanese concept that is gaining popularity little by little. The term is difficult to translate and it is composed from three ideograms: “refuse”, “dispose” and “separate”.  In a conventional sense it is rendered as “cleaning” or “tidying up”.

Having a home means having a refuge, a place to relax, enjoy and be able to rest.  Especially in the hectic times that we live, the figure of the home is becoming increasingly important, due to the constant stress to which we are subjected in our day to day.

Therefore, it is essential that we feel comfortable at home, in an environment that we consider welcoming and that we love to get to.

Home, our hallmark

It is the small details that make the difference when we feel comfortable at home.

According to various studies, the light and color of the walls have a great impact on the feeling of well-being. Normally, warm tones create a cozy feeling.

But also furniture and decoration play an important role.

All this accumulation of small details often show personality traits of who inhabits the place. In this way, you can have an idea of the tastes and preferences of the homeowner.

There are no limits when it comes to giving a good change of look to our home, whether they are new curtains, a radical change in furniture, painting or a simple decorative motif. Each one of them will give us the comfort we are looking for.

As happens when we go through important rollovers in specific stages of our life and causes us to visit the hairdresser for a haircut, so does our home.

Generally it motivates us to make “retouching” as a manifestation of our internal moving process.

A house, not a garage

This is when our protagonist becomes present. The Danshari is a technique to turn our house into a more welcoming and pleasant place and definitely not, in our second garage.

By throwing away everything that does not serve us or that we accumulate capriciously, we will give ourselves the freedom to move more easily, in a visually clean and tidy place  most of the time.

By contrast, the accumulation of unnecessary things will only bring us disorder, chaos and even negative energies.

You may also like:

Music Therapy - Healing through Harmonic Vibration

 

Let’s apply the “Danshari” method

When applying the practice of danshari or ‘get-rid-of-everything’, we will get the benefit of more time for other activities that we could not do before, as we will save the hours that previously occupied us by ordering and cleaning up those “distracting elements”.

How to start your Danshari practice:

• Remove all those things that you no longer need.  First get rid of the obvious junk, such as broken things, clothes, shoes and accessories that you have not worn for years.
• Plan what you will do with everything you separated: garage sale, donation, recycling, etc.,  but do not accumulate them in some other corner of your house.
• Do not focus on what you are loosing, focus on what you will gain. More space, freedom, time and energy is what you will notice by start practicing Danshari.  The goal of danshari is not to have fewer things, the main goal is to be happy with yourself as opposed to owning things.
• When the 3 previous points are completed, begin to organize and customize your new space.

 

Other cozy ideas

An excellent idea that will also help us as a therapy, is to install fragrances in some spaces of our home.  Always focused on harmonizing with our feelings in each corner of it.

The important thing here is that we feel tuned and inspired at home at all times.

Customize your favorite places, mix styles and try not to use “dead” natural flowers.

“When you like a flower, you just pluck it. But when you love a flower , you water it daily… One who understand this, understand life…”.     – Buddha –

Flowers and plants give us life, colorful, aroma and help absorb disturbing energies from the environment.

If we take care of them, they will thank us with all their splendor.

Each plant has a particular energy that can become an effective means to attract positive energies or absorb all the bad energy.

Many people have in mind that, if they have plants in their home, they are simply part of the decoration. It’s time to throw that myth away.

The plants that best help to carry your environment with good energy are: bamboo, cactus, lily, sunflower and jasmine.

You may also like:

KonMari Technique - More than Decluttering, a Lifestyle

 

However, plants also have an important role, since numerous investigations have shown that, during photosynthesis, they let out a water vapor, humidifying the environment and avoiding the respiratory difficulties of those around them.

There are also plants that absorb nuclear radiation such as marijuana and sunflower. Therefore, they could be beneficial in the rooms of those people subjected to the invasive effects of chemo and radiotherapy.

If the fundamentals of Danshari method have seemed interesting to you, you can find more information about it, and also about his creator Yamashita Hideko on the web. However, unfortunately by now, it is very difficult to find his books translated into English.