‘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”
“While wandering a deserted beach at dawn, stagnant in my work, I saw a man in the distance bending and throwing as he walked the endless stretch toward me.
As he came near, I could see that he was throwing starfish, abandoned on the sand by the tide, back into the sea.
When he was close enough I asked him why he was working so hard at this strange task. He said that the sun would dry the starfish and they would die.
I said to him that I thought he was foolish. There were thousands of starfish on miles and miles of beach. One man alone could never make a difference.
He smiled as he picked up the next starfish. Hurling it far into the sea he said, “It makes a difference for this one.”
I abandoned my writing and spent the morning throwing starfish.”
This story by Loren Eisley has been told in lots of different ways and places and I love it. It fits so well with my beliefs that:
“The thought manifests as the word;
the word manifests as the deed;
the deed develops into habit;
and habit hardens into character.
So watch the thought and its ways with care,
and let it spring from love
born out of concern for all beings.”
Buddha
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…”
Whole People 