Mary Rosendale

Constructive Living is a naturalistic “operating system” for your life. It offers a perspective of individuals as basically optimistic, with a natural inclination towards living in a morally responsible manner and an instinctive, constructive drive towards wholeness through purpose-centered action.

To fully appreciate Constructive Living, it is useful to know how it was created.

Dr. David K. Reynolds, a cultural anthropologist, visited Japan in the 1960’s and combined Morita therapy with a Japanese insight meditation, Naikan, to make the uniquely Western amalgam he called Constructive Living.

Morita therapy was developed by Dr. Shoma Morita (1874-1938) one of Japan’s earliest psychiatrists. Although Morita’s early training was in Western psychiatry he found the need to create a protocol for a set of anxiety-related disorders which were particular to his Japanese patients. These disorders ranged from psychosomatic illnesses, to phobias, to obsessive thinking and the like.

Morita moved away from person-centered or cognition-centered therapy to an educational model which cast the patient into the role of student. The successful end result of Morita therapy, therefore, was not that the patient be cured by the therapist, but that the student by re-educated to live in alignment with his instinctive, constructive drive towards wellness.

A Constructive Living Guide or Instructor is generally unconce ed with the causation of unhelpful behaviors. Indeed, introspection to determine the cause of difficulties only encourages the individual to ruminate, develop obsessive thoughts, fuel unhelpful belief systems and develop alte ative realities as to how things are.

Constructive Living generally directs the mind away from the self, and encourages the individual to accept the self and the world just as they are (the Japanese concept of arugamama).

This acceptance is then the basis for determining appropriate action which leads to purpose. The purpose referenced here is purpose with a small p, not a spiritual or religious based Purpose.

You have a purpose for tying your shoes or putting gas in the car and you might also consider that you have a Purpose for being on this Earth. You might consider these to be different purposes, but actually both are manifested through action.

In Constructive Living, feelings are considered a useful source of data. They are also acknowledged to be natural phenomena, like thoughts, which rise and fall outside of our control. Feelings which are not developed will naturally subside; thoughts which are not fueled by rumination or other thoughts will fall away. Other thoughts will, no doubt, arise to take their place.

The Constructive Living approach of living life in an active, purpose-oriented way frees us from the tyranny of feelings. We can feel bad and still take positive steps. We don’t need to allow fear or anxiety to derail us from what needs to be done. We always have control over our behavior regardless of how we feel about a situation.

Our feelings don't need to be fixed. There's nothing wrong with them.

Although Constructive Living is neither religion nor science it is obviously firmly rooted in Zen Philosophy. One does not need to be a Buddhist to appreciate it, nor to practice it.

The other component of Constructive Living, Naikan, was developed by Yoshimoto Ishin (1916-1988). Yoshimoto was a devout Buddhist who practiced insight meditation. He developed Naikan as a vehicle for bringing a modified form of insight meditation to the lay person. Today, Naikan is still immensely popular in Japan, although less well known in the Western world.

The introspective practice of Naikan provides a balance to the response-oriented Morita aspect of Constructive Living.

A traditional practice of Naikan would consist of the practitioner asking herself these three questions:

What have I received from this person?

What have I given to this person?

What troubles/inconvenience have I caused this person?

The object of these three questions could be a spouse, parent, family member, co-worker etc. Most of us walk through our lives unconscious to the ways in which we are supported and cared for by others. We may be quick to pick up on when we feel we are slighted or neglected but we often take for granted the small considerations and gifts given to us by others.

Naikan provides a non-judgmental framework in which we can see the totality of our relationships with others.

In summary, to live in a Constructive Living way one would:

Pay attention to reality.

Accept reality as it is and not as we would like it to be.

Notice and accept our feelings

Be aware that we are not responsible for our feelings and we cannot control them.

Find our purpose

Take whatever appropriate action needs to be taken to reach that purpose.

Repeat.

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