Is 'Self-Denial' Not the Antonym of 'Self-Affirmation'!? Learning from Ichiro's Words
Ichiro's words
The other day, while reading online news, I found
an intriguing headline.
Ichiro
'Self-affirmation' is a creepy word to me
Hmm, what could this mean?
I read on.
The source of the statement was
an Instagram Live session where
Ichiro
answered questions from troubled adults in a Q&A format.
The questioner was actress and model Akane Hotta.
She posed the following question to Ichiro.
I think we see the term 'self-affirmation'
quite often, but
when things don't go well at work,
there are moments when I deny myself.
How can I live positively
without denying myself?
Even when interacting with students,
and as a general characteristic of Japanese people,
I have always felt that
self-affirmation is low, so
I was curious about
how Ichiro would answer
Hotta's question.
I would like you to read the online article for details, but
to summarize Ichiro's answer in bullet points:
・First of all, things at work don't always go well
・'Self-affirmation' is a creepy word to me
・I have a huge resistance to affirming myself
・Do you feel that people with strong self-affirmation are stress-free and enjoy their work? Does that really create depth as a person?
・In my case, I am constantly questioning what I have done and what I am about to do.
That was the content of his talk.
It was also uploaded to YouTube, so please take a look there for more details.
After watching the news and the YouTube video,
what I understood through my own interpretation was,
I see,
Ichiro doesn't even have the concepts of
'self-affirmation' or 'self-denial'
in the first place.
Within him,
the antonym of self-affirmation is
self-denial
not,
but rather, questioning oneself.
That's what it is.
It's not denial.
Because,
right here, right now, in this moment,
you 'are'.
Because I 'exist'.
That in itself is 'affirmation',
There might be an 'affirmation' in the sense that 'I am here, I exist',
but Ichiro doesn't view that
with the nuance of it being 'good' or 'bad'.
Of course,
depending on how he feels that day,
there are times when he's at 80 points,
and times when he's at 40 points.
But, for Ichiro,
there is no 100 points.
By the same token, there is no 0 points either.
Just as there is no perfect affirmation, there is no perfect denial,
so he is constantly struggling with self-doubt and conflict,
while focusing his consciousness
on achieving 'what he wants to do'.
When do people get sick?
I was once plagued by a strong sense of inferiority,
and fell into symptoms on the verge of depression.
I also received a year of counseling at a psychosomatic clinic.
The greatest result I learned through that experience is,
that you get sick if you focus too much on yourself.
Because,
if you stare at yourself too much,
you start to self-circulate,
going around and around endlessly,
and your worries never get sublimated.
It's like negativity accumulates like sediment,
so to speak...
Ichiro
has a strong impression of facing himself,
but what he is probably thinking about is,
how can he
achieve 'what he wants to do'?
is the point,
In order to realize what he wants to do,
what should he do?
What is he lacking?
He is thinking about those things, isn't he?
Since what he wants to do
is naturally not yet achieved at this moment,
what should he do?
He keeps constantly throwing questions at himself.
In that,
the concept of
'I am good' or 'I am no good'
doesn't exist in the first place.
People who suffer from low self-esteem
are naturally setting goals and things they want to do, but
before they know it,
Am I amazing?
Am I no good?
They start thinking only about that,
and the direction of their consciousness goes off track.
The biggest factor in feeling out of sync is 'comparing yourself to others'.
In other words, the thought process of,
'That person can do it, but I can't,'
'therefore I am no good.'
This thought process is what I believe leads people to become unwell when it piles up.
'That person can do it, but I can't.'
Well, since we are different people, that is only natural, isn't it?
So, how can I become able to do it?Or,what is something I can do (that others cannot)?
I feel that if you can make this shift in perspective,
life becomes considerably easier to live.
As a teacher at a preparatory school,
I find that the curse of deviation score-based education is still deeply rooted.The trend of trying to evaluate oneselfbased on comparisons with others does not disappear.
For example, if you cannot win
in the arena of entrance exam preparation,
you should run away as much as you can,
and create your own fieldwhere you can win outside of entrance exam studies.That is the kind of resourcefulnessI want to pass on to the children.
I feel like I received one such catalyst from Ichiro.
Thank you for reading until the end.
I would be happy if this article could be of even the slightest help to you who read it.