Attaining ikigai is not limited to having big goals in life. There are lots of ikigai sources that surround us. We only have to be mindful of these things or moments. Nick Kemp explains how people can feel a sense of ikigai: it can be the small blissful pleasures in life or even some life-defining moments.
Is ikigai your bliss? Well it can be.
According to Ken Mogi, ikigai is often about sensory pleasure, and he writes about this in his book The Little Book of Ikigai. It offers the example of having your morning cup of coffee or tea with your chocolate.
So I have my morning cup here of green tea, and I can enjoy the warmth of the cup in my hand, the smell of the tea, and the taste. And if I’m present, I can really savour this experience, and it could be blissful.
We can have these blissful moments to wrap our day. So many of our ikigai sources can be our bliss. But ikigai also fits well with existential positive psychology, meaning: the existential anxieties we face give us a chance to flourish.
From those experiences, we can become this authentic version of ourself. As a result, we discover a deeper understanding of who we are, and we grow. So this is the amazing spectrum of ikigai.
It can be these small blissful experiences involving sensory pleasure like having a cup of tea, or it can be these life-defining moments and discover a deeper level of who we are that brings out our self-authenticity.
So enjoy both these blissful moments where you can experience sensory pleasure, but also embrace the opportunities that existential crisis or anxieties bring in you, as they allow you to uncover your authentic self.