‘Ikigai’ is a Japanese word for describing the pleasures and meanings of life – from ‘iki’ (to live) and ‘gai’ (reason) – sometimes described as ‘the reason we get up in the morning’.
It has five pillars:
This is a lovely combination of several concepts which I find particularly useful. Continue reading “How Ikigai Can Help Us”
I was prompted to think about happiness last week when a note written on the subject by Albert Einstein was sold for $1.56m.
He gave it to a courier in Tokyo in 1922 instead of a tip. Having just heard that he’d won the Nobel prize for physics he told the messenger that, if he was lucky, the note would become valuable – how right he was!
But was he also right in what he wrote in the note itself? It said:
“A calm and humble life will bring more happiness
than the pursuit of success and the constant restlessness that comes with it.” Continue reading “Happier, calmer – and slower?”
Change can feel hard.
The prospect of putting in the necessary work can make us feel tired, just thinking about it.
What we want for the future can seem a long way off from where we are now. Continue reading “One (small?) step at a time…”
I came across an article recently challenging the assumption that everyone should either be in a relationship, or looking for one:
‘There’s a Word for the Assumption That Everybody Should be in a Relationship’ by Drake Baer. Continue reading “Single by Choice?”
I read an interesting BBC article recently: ‘Why paper is the real killer app.’ 
Even though I use my laptop, phone and tablet a lot for work and socially, writing the old-fashioned way – using pen and paper – still has its place in my life.
And it seems there are plenty of people who agree with me. Continue reading “Paper Still Has a Place in Our Digital World”
How much – or, how little – do we need? How much do we want?
How much (of anything) is ‘enough’?
Last year I wrote about the UK Channel 4 programme ‘Life Stripped Bare’. Simplifying and de-cluttering are topics that crop up fairly regularly these days and we might think they’re a recent phenomenon fuelled by trends inspired by TV programmes and self-help books.
But not so – I found this in ‘On the Shortness of Life’ by Seneca, the Roman philosopher and statesman (c.5BC-AD65) translated by C.D.N. Costa: Continue reading “Simply Enough”
Struggling to make decisions about what to buy friends and family for Christmas this year?
With less than three weeks to go, the pressure may be mounting – and funds running short.
On BBC Breakfast this morning there was a discussion about ‘The Four Gift Rule’ and I found a BBC article online about it, too. Continue reading “Something they want … or an IOU?”
Synecdochically… what a great sounding word!
You might not know what it means – and before watching lexicographer Erin McKean’s highly entertaining TED talk I’d never even heard of it.
McKean discusses the future of dictionaries in the age of the internet – which might sound dry but her presentation certainly isn’t – it’s full of life and humour and easy to understand. Continue reading “Synecdochically Speaking … and Word of the Year 2016”
Whole People 