127 – The Power of Awareness: How Kizuki Moments Transform Our Lives with Mae Yoshikawa

With constant distractions everywhere, how can you stay receptive to notice life’s aha moments?In this episode of the Ikigai Podcast, Nick speaks with Mae Yoshikawa about how moments of deep insight, known in Japanese culture as kizuki, can reshape self-understanding and perspective on life.Podcast HighlightsA life shaped by multiple worlds. Mae explains how her life was […]

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126 – Aligning Work with Purpose: A Conversation with Tina Bagwell

How can we find meaning in today’s workplace?In this episode of the Ikigai Podcast, Nick Kemp speaks with Tina Bagwell to explore how meaning, identity, and belonging are reshaping modern work and what it means to build a more human-centered professional life.Podcast HighlightsA foundation of intentional living. Tina shares how living in Okinawa helped shape her

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125 – Expanding Your Inner Capacity: The Utsuwa Philosophy with Shigeki Nishimura

How much can we truly hold?In this episode of the Ikigai Podcast, Nick speaks with Shigeki Nishimura about utsuwa, a concept that encourages us to focus less on doing more and more on expanding our inner capacity in work, leadership, and life.Podcast HighlightsFrom corporate engineer to global leadership thinker. Shigeki shares his life in Germany.What is

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Episode 124 - Nicholas Kemp

124 – Nick’s New Book: A Year of Ikigai

The fact that you’re alive to read these words is nothing short of a miracle. Thousands upon thousands of generations in your ancestral chain all lived long enough, met, and procreated at the exact right time to eventually produce you. In short, you and I won the jackpot in the evolutionary lottery. Yet, we don’t treat life as a miracle. Most of the time, we struggle to get through each day. The Japanese concept of ikigai reminds us that life is a miracle

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123 – Turning Pain Into a Gift: The Kintsugi Life of Kiki Fukai

How do you deal with pain?In this episode of the Ikigai Podcast, Nick speaks with Kiki Fukai about how physical pain changed her perspective, purpose, and approach to life.Podcast HighlightsA life of freedom before the fall. Kiki shares her experiences as a digital nomad.The day everything changed. Kiki reflects on her life-changing accident.Gratitude before fear. Kiki shares how

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Asobigai

Asobigai: The Value of PlayingWhile 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

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Ikigai Misunderstood

What is ikigai?

In Japan, misogi is a Shinto purification ritual grounded in religious belief, rooted in the idea that kegare—ritual impurity accumulated through daily life, illness, misfortune, or contact with death—can be cleansed through contact with pure, life-giving water.

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