IkigaiTribe

Ibasho is another of my favourite Japanese words – one that describes the community I have built within Ikigai Tribe. Like ikigai, ibasho has no direct translation, is used in daily conversations, and encapsulates both psychology and philosophy. A Japanese-to-English dictionary would translate ibasho as ‘whereabouts; place; location’, but in recent decades the word has been used in relation to belongingness and mental wellbeing.

Yutori is psychological state in which one feels a sense of wellbeing and life satisfaction because she or he feels a sense os space in their mind and life.

A term you hear often if you visit Japan, ikizurasa: “It’s tough to live”. I think two years ago I was in Hiroshima, right after a conference, in a bookstore. It was just a small bookstore, but there was an entire section on ikizurasa.

‘The Constituent Elements of Ikigai’ to reflect the complex relationships between the things that lead us to feel ikigai (‘objects’, which may be found in the past, present, or future), the experience that results from engaging with these objects (‘feelings’, or ikigai-kan), and what mediates this process – the ‘agent’ (our selves).

Feeling that your life is moving forward is where Mieko Kamiya’s needs of ‘life satisfaction’ and ‘a bright future’ overlap.

There is a lot of joy to be found in the small things of everyday life if we have the mind to notice them and the heart to feel them.

I personally avoid using ‘ikigai’ and ‘happiness’ interchangeably. The sensation is not something momentary or extreme, like joy or bliss; while it can be associated with a sense that life has meaning, there is no guarantee that this feeling will last forever. I argue that ikigai is deeper and more extensive, providing an ethos and means of orienting towards fulfilment and life satisfaction, rather than ensuring that those feelings will be permanent.

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.