Contrary to some beliefs, ikigai is not something that we achieve. It is more of a feeling -- something that makes us feel alive, that our lives are worth living. Nick Kemp explains how Kamiya Mieko, a pioneering researcher of ikigai, defines our feelings as the most honest thing about ikigai.
Is Ikigai something you achieve? Or is ikigai something that you feel?
According to Kamiya Mieko, a pioneering researcher of ikigai, she wrote a seminal book: Ikigai-ni-tsuite, and I think of her as the “Mother of Ikigai.”
She stated in her book that the most genuine thing, the most honest thing about ikigai are our feelings. So ikigai is something you feel.
She defines this state when we feel ikigai as ikigai-kan. The word kan means feeling. Ikigai is something we feel. With that, I have this question for you: what makes you feel that life is worth living?