IkigaiTribe

While our work, hobbies, goals and personal dreams can be life-affirming sources of ikigai, it may be the people in your life who matter most to you – family, friends, colleagues, mentors – that are your strongest source of ikigai. As a result, it is these relationships that may cause you to experience ikigai-kan most intensely.

Tanoshimi is a commonly used word that translates to ‘to look forward to with anticipation’. It is usually said in relation to future leisure activities, and is also understood as enjoyment, amusement, or hobby.

In her work with the Aisei-en lepers of Nagashima Island, Mieko Kamiya found that the experience of ikigai-kan, the feeling of ikigai, depended on the satisfaction of seven ikigai needs.

Ikigai starts with your values. You will feel ikigai if you live in harmony with your values – not those that you have inherited from or been pressured to accept by family, friends, institutions, or society, but those that you have identified for yourself.

Ikigai ni Tsuite is the title of Mieko Kamiya’s seminal book in which she shared her model of ikigai. Her book is still considered a standard reference by contemporary Japanese researchers, professors, and psychologists, despite it being published over a half-century ago, in 1966.

In the West, we have a tendency to talk things up. If we have done something reasonably well, we have ‘crushed it!’. If we are proficient at something, we have found our ‘zone of genius.’ If we are working hard, we are ‘hustling.’ If there is a challenge ahead, we like to taunt it with

My Japanese father-in-law is a shokunin, a craftsman. This one-word translation doesn’t capture the essence of shokunin and the significance they have in Japanese culture. Shokunin make one-of-a-kind products that are highly appreciated for their simple yet sophisticated aesthetics; as a result, these masters are held in high regard and represent the closest that one

‘The words we live with today become part of our lives tomorrow.’The above quote are the words of Yoshimoto Ishin (1916-1988) – a Japanese businessman, Buddhist monk, and the founder of Naikan therapy.Naikan is a structured self-reflection technique. Nai means ‘inside’ and kan means ‘looking’; therefore, Naikan translates to ‘inside looking’ or ‘introspection’. The technique

How does one begin to self-actualise?Self-actualization starts with acceptance: acceptance of yourself, of others, and of the world you live in. This is articulated by the Japanese word arugamama, which literally translates to ‘as it is’. Arugamama means the acceptance of the true nature of things.This is the foundation of Morita therapy, a psychotherapy developed