Self-Improvement | Philosophy | Psychology

Haiku: 17 Syllables To Get Better

How a Japanese 3 lines poem can force you to find a simple solution for complex issues

Feeling good today,

grateful for the autumn time,

hope you like haiku.

I discovered Haiku while I was writing my final dissertation for my MSc. I was looking for some methods to help me focus on small things, for both my thesis and my mood. You can imagine that a final dissertation can be a stressful experience!

“Daily haiku-ing fired up my creativity, sweetened my days, brought me closer to others, and more”

Since my huge passion for TED contents, I started to search for some solutions that could have helped me facing my worries. I found this article about a Japanese kind of poem: Haiku. The article started with this sentence “Daily haiku-ing fired up my creativity, sweetened my days, brought me closer to others, and more” by Daryl Chen. I was in the write webpage!

Basho attempted to compress the meaning of the world into the simple pattern of his poetry

What is a Haiku? Haiku is a 3 lines poem, in which the first line has 5 syllables; the second, 7 syllables; the third, 5 syllables. According to Deborah Christensen’s article, the traditional form of Japanese haiku as we know it today was perfected in the late 17th century by the poet Basho. Britannica suggests that Basho attempted to compress the meaning of the world into the simple pattern of his poetry, disclosing hidden hopes in small things and showing the interdependence of all objects.

I tried immediately to write one of them, here my first attempt (I wrote it in Italian, below the translation, the number of syllables follows Italian rules)

Grazie per questa cena, oggi per me ok, voi invece come va? (“Thank you for this dinner, I am okay today, how about you?”). Yeah, it didn’t compete for Literature Nobel Prize.

Haiku forced me to think in just 17 syllables

However, it forced me to think in just 17 syllables, and I started to use it to sum up complex concepts of my final dissertation. In addition, I started to write one per day, in the evening, to sum up in a grateful way the day I lived. The idea of forcing me to think using just a few words was very helpful and the result has been surprising. I had to perfectly manage the concepts I was writing in my thesis in order to sum them up in 17 syllables, because you have to have the concept clear in your mind if you want to write it in a very simple manner.

Besides, in order to review my day I had to focus on very small details. It helped me to concentrate my thoughts on some events that in other moments would have gone unnoticed. I tried to write my gratitude in 17 syllables. I had to have clear in my mind all my day. The more I was writing, the more I was improving and the more I got better.

When you have those three lines in front of you, it is like a small meditation break or a small oral test. It is something that challenges you.

It was not easy, at all. It is difficult to me to compress knowledge and emotions in “a block” of just few lines. It requires discipline and knowledge of the topic your learning about or, alternatively, of yourself. When you have those three lines in front of you, it is like a small meditation break or a small oral test. It is something that challenges you.

I became aware of some concepts that I pretended to know perfectly, but that I couldn’t summarize. I had to delete some ideas and pages from my thesis because I realized that they didn’t work. In addition, I went deeper within my emotions about my day. I realized that I was wasting energies on some useless activities and relationships. I realized that I used to describe myself as “optimistic” (whatever it means) but I was not able to be grateful using 17 syllables.

It has been a hard path. Not simple at all, but it was worth the pain.

The haiku writing process and explanations created a context for deconstructing complex concepts into simple terms and then reconstructing them to produce descriptions that reflected deep meaning.

At the end of my period of trials and errors, I was satisfied with my results. However, I didn’t trust myself, so I started to look for evidence about haiku. Pollack and Korol in their article found evidence that haiku writing can be used to forge comprehension of complex ideas in any discipline and to bridge the arts and the sciences. The haiku writing process and explanations created a context for deconstructing complex concepts into simple terms and then reconstructing them to produce descriptions that reflected deep meaning. Composing the haiku plus the evidence based reasoning together required a series of active deconstructions and reconstructions that seemed to engage lateral thinking and synthesis within and between topics.

This process encourages people to think in a creative and novel way about their models and to recapitulate the science in their own terms, similar to the learning cycles of explorations, followed by concept development and application.

Despite this evidence which helped me a lot in writing my thesis, I wanted to learn more about the possible effects of haiku on my mood. I found an article by Stephenson and Rosen about Haiku and Healing.

Creativity has been connected with studies demonstrating the psychological value of positive emotions and behaviours.

The authors stated that, since the introduction of positive psychology, creativity has been connected with studies demonstrating the psychological value of positive emotions and behaviours. They argued that one area of study related to positive psychology is the expressive writing paradigm. The mechanisms by which writing exerts effects like trauma and anxiety are still being examined; such writing constitutes a multiply determined phenomenon that does not lend itself to a single theoretical explanation.

Haiku poems had been incorporated into interventions and exercises within the context of Focusing and Focusing therapy. Focusing attends to the felt sense of bodily awareness, considered a point of access of a deeper sense of knowing. Authors suggest that in literature there are studies demonstrating that writing haiku poetry regardless of the topic, led to significant decreases in anxiety and psychological symptomatology.

Nevertheless, according to the experiment done by these scholars (participants wrote about 3 topics in either narrative or haiku poetic form), narrative writing led to decreases in anxiety and depression, and haiku writing increased creativity and sensitivity to topic. There was no indication that haiku poetry led to increases in positive psychology variables such as spiritual meaning or happiness. In Japanese tradition, the combination of narrative writing with haiku is known as Haibun.

Creativity has been significantly correlated in a negative direction with anxiety and depression and in a positive direction with subjective happiness and health evaluation.

In addition, the author suggested that creativity has been significantly correlated in a negative direction with anxiety and depression and in a positive direction with subjective happiness and health evaluation. This link between creativity and decreases in anxiety and depression can be a further suggestion to the positive effect that haiku writing has on individuals.

There’s no way to be sure 100% that a self-improving strategy works for all individuals in each situation, as you could read research is still in progress about these topics. There is evidence of a possible overall positive effect about writing haiku poems; it can help you as it helped me. It forces you to concentrate, to focus and to recapitulate.

It forces you to concentrate, to focus and to recapitulate.

I wanted a method to help me in analysis of my final dissertation and my knowledge of the topics proposed. I wanted also a method to help me in focusing on the good parts of my day. A kind of “Gratitude post-it” to attach on my agenda every night or every morning. A reminder that something good can be found at the end of the day as well as at the beginning of the day.

It worked well for me, I challenged myself in summing up concepts and emotions. I had to study concepts and to concentrate on myself. This haiku moment can be seen as a small “meditation-break”, a very short self-dialogue to check your mood or gratitude level. Or it can be seen as a very short self-oral exam to check your knowledge and skills. It could worth trying it!

Writing just few words,

about you or something else,

you could get better!

Please read: your life matters. I am not a psychologist, a therapist or a mental coach. I had some issues and I tried to face them differently, working on myself and sharing with you my experience. If your issues are different, or you need another kind of help, please tell to a friend, a relative, an expert or whoever you prefer. The world needs you.