ToDo Institute

05/26/2026

Gregg Krech has been writing a book about crisis for several years now. During that same stretch, he's been moving through several personal crises of his own, which has given him the unusual experience of studying something while living it.

In a new piece this week, he shares what he keeps coming back to:
A crisis isn't really about what happened. It's about the gap between what's being asked of us and what we believe we have to meet it with. Two people can face the same diagnosis, the same loss, the same upheaval, and experience it in completely different ways.

And what surprises most people: when researchers follow individuals through serious crises, the most common outcome isn't lasting trauma. It's resilience.

Most people find their way back to solid ground. A meaningful number come out stronger, wiser, more compassionate than before.

That's not the cultural story we've been telling lately. The definition of trauma has expanded so broadly that some now suggest 90% of us are carrying it. Most of the research disagrees.

, what's your experience been in your own life, or in the lives of people you've watched move through hard things? Read Gregg's perspective in the latest issue of Drops of Wisdom. Link in comments.

05/20/2026

Every quarter, we send our journal, Thirty Thousand Days, into the world and wait to hear what lands.

This came in last week from a reader in New York:
"We just read the new issue of Thirty Thousand Days. What a masterpiece! The whole issue is a treasure and a true keeper." — JS

We don't take that lightly. The journal is a small, quiet thing. A quarterly print publication on Japanese Psychology, purposeful living, and the practices that help people meet their lives with more attention and less struggle. It doesn't compete for clicks. It arrives in your mailbox and asks to be sat with.

This issue includes Gregg Krech on the Morita Journal, a two-column practice that revealed to one woman that her decades-long belief about her depression didn't match what her own days actually held.

Linda Anderson Krech on finding bright spots when problems feel monumental.

A piece on ganbatte, the Japanese philosophy of perseverance without shortcuts.

New research on SuperAgers and what keeps their minds sharp into their eighties.

And artist Ieva Leimane on finally beginning to draw, using only paper that found its way to her.

What's the last thing you read that you wanted to keep?

05/14/2026

"How was your day?"
It's such a common question, and we usually answer with a single word. Good. Fine. Hard.
But a day is rarely all one thing. In a single day we can experience disappointment and joy, frustration and ease, grief and laughter — often within the same hour.

In a new essay, Gregg Krech writes about why our minds tend to flatten the day into a verdict, and what changes when we start paying attention to it as a stream of moments instead.

Suffering is not all there is.

04/22/2026

"Gregg and Linda Krech are masterful teachers in presenting what Japanese Psychology offers in ways I can understand with my mind and, more importantly, in exercises and practices that have changed my life for the better. A month-long immersion in a ToDo course enables one to experience life from a new and fresh perspective." — Bill S.

That last part is worth sitting with. Not just a new way of thinking about life. A new way of experiencing it.

Fundamentals of Japanese Psychology — a 21-day program led by Gregg Krech, author of five books on Japanese Psychology, Linda Anderson Krech, and Trudy Boyle.

Saturday sessions: April 25, May 2 & May 9 | 10:30am–1:00pm ET Registration link in comments.

This Program is a required program in the certification process, providing 35 credits toward Certification in Japanese Psychology.

Register: https://www.thirtythousanddays.org/fundamentals-of-japanese-psychology/

04/14/2026

Reading about gratitude doesn't make you more grateful.

Thinking about attention doesn't sharpen it. Understanding why you avoid things doesn't help you stop avoiding them.

Skills are built through practice. Not through more information — through deliberate, repeated, guided practice.

That's what Fundamentals of Japanese Psychology is built around. Three weeks of daily exercises, live instruction, and individual sessions with Gregg Krech, Linda Anderson Krech, and Trudy Boyle covering Morita Therapy, Naikan, Kaizen, and Living Fully with Illness.

It starts April 25.

04/07/2026

Reading about gratitude doesn't make you more grateful.

Thinking about attention doesn't sharpen it. Understanding why you avoid things doesn't help you stop avoiding them.

Skills are built through practice. Not through more information — through deliberate, repeated, guided practice.

That's what Fundamentals of Japanese Psychology is built around. Three weeks of daily exercises, live instruction, and individual sessions with Gregg Krech and Linda Anderson Krech, covering Morita Therapy, Naikan, Kaizen, and Living Fully with Illness.

It starts April 25.

03/24/2026

Have you ever found yourself facing a crisis?

Over the course of a lifetime, nearly all of us will face one or more crises, which will challenge us to stretch ourselves beyond our current capacity. Such a crisis may be related to your health, finances, relationships, career, or a combination of circumstances that hit you from many sides at the same time.

Gregg Krech, author of five books on Japanese Psychology, will conduct a one-hour free webinar this Thursday, March 26, from 7:30-8:30 PM on Zoom, on how to cope with personal crises, using principles and strategies primarily derived from Japanese psychology, Buddhism and Eastern Philosophy.

Gregg’s newest book, on this theme, will be released later this year and he will share some of the ideas and approaches that will help you navigate a current crisis, or prepare yourself when the next one arrives. The webinar will last one hour and is for ToDo Institute Members.

A limited number of seats will be available for non-members who are interested in the ToDo Institute’s work.

There will be time set aside for questions and discussion. For ToDo members that are unable to attend, a recording of the webinar, or excerpts, will be available to you at a later time.

The webinar is offered for free, however donations to the ToDo Institute (a non-profit organization) are gratefully accepted. Advanced registration is required and space is limited.

Register: https://preview.mailerlite.io/forms/833761/182113020954018895/share

02/26/2026

At 22, Gregg Krech got his first solo apartment.

Three weeks later: every dish piled in the sink.

His solution? Paper plates.

But six months later, he read about Gandhi washing his own clothes and dishes.

Not because he had to.
Because it was spiritual practice.

Gregg went home and washed every dish.

Not motivated.
Not excited.

But understanding: The way you do small things is the way you do everything.

What small thing have you been avoiding that might actually matter?