Asobigai: The Value of Playing
While challenges can bring us insights and a deep sense of life satisfaction when we overcome them, often the activities that make us feel that life is worth living, right in the moment, are the ones that are spontaneous and carefree – what we might call ‘play’.
The verb for ‘play’ in Japanese is asobu; asobigai means ‘play that is worth doing’. While the word asobigai is rarely used, the concept is something intrinsically recognised by children. However, somewhere in between teenagehood and adulthood, most of us come to see play as something trivial to put aside in order to pursue more ‘important things’ like work and the accumulation of wealth. In the West, we tend to use ‘play’ to refer to two main types of activities: those pursued by children, and those associated with sport.
However, in Japanese, asobu also means ‘to enjoy oneself’, ‘to have a good time’, ‘to hang out with friends’ and ‘to fool about’. Taking this broader perspective of play can help you find more ways to be playful – or ways to be more playful – in your daily living. This is important for ikigai because play is all about willingly engaging in spontaneous activities simply because doing so holds value for you; in other words, we are compelled to engage in play because play is intrinsically motivating, it makes us feel alive, and it brings us pleasure. We experience ikigai-kan when we play.
Recreational therapist Dr Susan Ross writes that engaging in play allows us to be in the moment, which can help us to uncover our authentic selves and, ultimately, self-actualise:
‘Play and leisure are integral to transformation because it unfolds through moments of experience, some of which are extraordinary, others might be deemed “important” and many viewed as mundane. Regardless of the importance assigned by the individual, living life experientially is tantamount of transformation.’
Sources of asobigai include hobbies and other leisure activities. As discussed in Chapter 3, pursuits that are enjoyable, effortful, stimulating, and comforting add to ikigai-kan by generating life affirmation and life vibrancy.
This ‘carefree ikigai’ is probably the easiest place for us to start when we want to generate more ikigai-kan in our lives. These activities are generally not burdened with the complexities and potential problems we encounter in our next source of gai – hatarakigai, or ‘work worth doing’.