Finding your Ikigai
Do you dread waking up in the morning and slowly raise yourself off the pillow and force yourself to begin your day????
Viktor E. Frankl, an Austrian Psychiatrist believed that life can have meaning even in the most miserable of circumstances and that the motivation for living comes from finding that meaning. He said, “Those who have a ‘why’ to live, can bear with almost any ‘how.”
According to the Centenarians in Okinawa, our raison d’etre or Ikigai is hidden deep within us, and this is the reason we get up in the morning!!!! Multiple studies have found that the key to longevity lies in the diet, exercise, finding a purpose in life (ikigai) and forming close bonds.
There are 4 aspects to focus on which will help us find our Ikigai. Ask yourself these questions:
In my experience, the answer is never easy. Most of us get so trapped in the overlap of what we are skilled at and what we can get paid for that we lose sight of what we love doing. Our modern-day pressures lead us to living lives lacking in meaning. Once we become mindful that the lacuna is experienced because of us being unaware of our purpose, we have started our journey of discovering our Ikigai.
The more we introspect and get in touch with our intuition, the more we are able to tap into that which gives us sheer joy. Tapping into our intuition requires faith and trust in ourselves. A simple step forward is to indulge in activities that fill us with happiness and meaning. These activities need not be feeding a thousand hungry individuals or building homes for the homeless… The activities can be as simple as finding joy in being available parents or sending a happy note to a friend or family member on a regular basis…
I found my Ikigai when I asked myself the powerful question: “If I had all the money in the world, what would I do?” In my private practice, numerous clients were able to tap into their purposes of being when they asked this question. Interestingly a few of them even said that the answer they received was not something they were unaware of but that they had not paid any heed to the message all along. Money, power, attention, success, achievements had distracted them all along…
According to Hector Garcia and Francesc Miralles, ten rules of Ikigai are:
All of us have a different purpose in life but we are all searching for our meaning of existence. While this search for meaning may frustrate us, know that as we gently tune into ourselves with self-compassion, we find our Ikigai.