Ikigai

Ikigai (生き甲斐,) is a Japanese term for "a reason for being." The word ‘Ikigai’ is usually refers to the source of value in one's life or the things that make one's life worthwhile.[1] The word roughly translates to the "thing that you live for"[2] but it also has the nuance of "the reason for which you wake up in the morning" similar to a daily purpose.[3] Each individual's ikigai is personal to them and specific to their lives, values and beliefs. It reflects the inner self of an individual and expresses that faithfully, while simultaneously creating a mental state in which the individual feels at ease. Activities that allow one to feel ikigai are never forced on an individual; they are often spontaneous, and always undertaken willingly, giving the individual satisfaction and a sense of meaning to life.[1]

Overview

The term ikigai compounds two Japanese words: iki (wikt:生き) meaning "life; alive" and kai (甲斐) meaning "(an) effect; (a) result; (a) fruit; (a) worth; (a) use; (a) benefit; (no, little) avail" (sequentially voiced as gai) to arrive at "a reason for living [being alive]; a meaning for [to] life; what [something that] makes life worth living; a raison d'etre".[4]

In the culture of Okinawa, ikigai is thought of as "a reason to get up in the morning"; that is, a reason to enjoy life. In a TED Talk, Dan Buettner suggested ikigai as one of the reasons people in the area had such long lives.[5]

The word ikigai usually is used to indicate the source of value in one's life or the things that make one's life worthwhile.[6] Secondly, the word is used to refer to mental and spiritual circumstances under which individuals feel that their lives are valuable. It's not linked to one's financial status[6]. Even if a person feels that the present is dark, but they have a goal in mind, they may feel ikigai. Behaviours that make one feel ikigai are not actions one is forced to take—these are natural and spontaneous actions.

In the article named Ikigai — jibun no kanosei, kaikasaseru katei ("Ikigai: the process of allowing the self's possibilities to blossom") Kobayashi Tsukasa says that "people can feel real ikigai only when, on the basis of personal maturity, the satisfaction of various desires, love and happiness, encounters with others, and a sense of the value of life, they proceed toward self-realization."[7][8]

See also

References

  1. 1 2 Nakanishi, N (1999-05-01). "'Ikigai' in older Japanese people". Age and Ageing. 28 (3): 323–324. doi:10.1093/ageing/28.3.323. ISSN 1468-2834.
  2. ↑ "The Japanese Concept 'Ikigai' is a Formula for Happiness and Meaning". Better Humans. 2017-11-30. Retrieved 2018-05-24.
  3. ↑ "The Japanese Secret to Finding One's Purpose is Forgetting Oneself". The Ascent. 2018-09-25. Retrieved 2018-09-25.
  4. ↑ Watanabe Toshirō (渡邊敏郎), Edmund R. Skrzypczak, and Paul Snowden, eds. (2003), Kenkyūsha's New Japanese-English Dictionary (新和英大辞典), 5th edition, Kenkyusha, pp. 127, 459, 130. In the game go, iki especially means "alive" (able to remain on the board indefinitely): "in go normally a situation in which a connected group of stones of any size contains at least two independent liberties [me] and so cannot be captured by an opponent".
  5. ↑ https://www.ted.com/talks/dan_buettner_how_to_live_to_be_100?language=en
  6. 1 2 "Ikigai – What makes you come alive?". Chaaipani.
  7. ↑ Mathews, Gordon (1996). What Makes Life Worth Living?: How Japanese and Americans Make Sense of Their Worlds. University of California Press.
  8. ↑ Kobayashi, Tsukasa (1990-04-04). "Ikigai — jibun no kanosei, kaikasaseru katei". Nihon Keizai Shinbun. Tokyo.
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