{"id":31048,"date":"2021-04-08T16:38:46","date_gmt":"2021-04-08T20:38:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/?p=31048"},"modified":"2021-04-11T17:06:09","modified_gmt":"2021-04-11T21:06:09","slug":"morita-therapy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/morita-therapy\/","title":{"rendered":"Morita Therapy: Healing Through Acceptance"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>What is Morita therapy? What is the main premise behind the Morita therapeutic approach? <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Morita therapy is a Japanese form of life therapy informed by Zen principles. It teaches people in psychological crisis to accept their emotions instead of trying to control them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Keep reading to learn about Morita therapy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<!--more-->\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">What Is <strong>Morita Therapy<\/strong>?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>Morita therapy is a Japanese form of life therapy specifically based on <a href=\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/finding-your-purpose\/\">finding your purpose<\/a>. Created by psychotherapist and Zen Buddhist Shoma Morita, it teaches people in psychological crisis to accept their emotions instead of trying to control them. It says your emotions will automatically change when you change your actions, and as this happens, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/your-life-purpose\/\">your purpose<\/a> will become clear.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The therapy takes place in four stages. The first stage is a week of absolute bed rest and total silence. This creates an extended space for doing nothing but watching your mind, thus clearing away the layers of manic mind activity that pollute your life and obscure your purpose.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The second and third stages take the patient through a multi-stage reintroduction to active living and working. Activities include keeping a diary, practicing <a href=\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/breathing-exercises-for-beginners\/\">breathing exercises<\/a>, walking, and doing chores such as gardening and chopping wood, while still maintaining mostly silence so the patient can continue to reflect.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The fourth stage has the patient return to the world and social life as a newly inner-directed person with a clear <a href=\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/having-a-purpose-in-life\/\">sense of purpose<\/a>. The patient now knows who they are and what they\u2019re supposed to do, thanks to the treatment developed by Shoma Morita.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>What is Morita therapy? What is the main premise behind the Morita therapeutic approach? Morita therapy is a Japanese form of life therapy informed by Zen principles. It teaches people in psychological crisis to accept their emotions instead of trying to control them. Keep reading to learn about Morita therapy.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":31275,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[9,6],"tags":[253],"class_list":["post-31048","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-psychology","category-spiritual","tag-ikigai","","tg-column-two"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v24.3 (Yoast SEO v24.3) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Morita Therapy: Healing Through Acceptance - Shortform Books<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Morita therapy is a Japanese therapy inspired by Zen principles. 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It teaches people how to live in harmony with their emotional fluctuations.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/morita-therapy\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Shortform Books\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2021-04-08T20:38:46+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2021-04-11T21:06:09+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/s3.amazonaws.com\/wordpress.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/04\/thinking-fugure-girl-view.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1920\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"1080\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Darya Sinusoid\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Darya Sinusoid\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"1 minute\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/morita-therapy\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/morita-therapy\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Darya Sinusoid\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/0421cce75bc249b11e2517b3a91f9c46\"},\"headline\":\"Morita Therapy: Healing Through Acceptance\",\"datePublished\":\"2021-04-08T20:38:46+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2021-04-11T21:06:09+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/morita-therapy\/\"},\"wordCount\":261,\"commentCount\":0,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/#organization\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/morita-therapy\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/04\/thinking-fugure-girl-view.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"Ikigai\"],\"articleSection\":[\"Psychology\",\"Spiritual\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/morita-therapy\/#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/morita-therapy\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/morita-therapy\/\",\"name\":\"Morita Therapy: Healing Through Acceptance - Shortform Books\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/morita-therapy\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/morita-therapy\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/04\/thinking-fugure-girl-view.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2021-04-08T20:38:46+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2021-04-11T21:06:09+00:00\",\"description\":\"Morita therapy is a Japanese therapy inspired by Zen principles. 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