Discover the Japanese Philosophy- IKIGAI

Once I opened up for myself a Japanese philosophy IKIGAI, I found it very useful and it is well combined with my philosophy of life. My motto is simple-LIBERTAD, which means "Freedom" in every aspect of life. So what is then IKIGAI? Why does it becoming popular as the once became popular Danish philosophy "Hygge"? What magnificence it is hiding that people start to talk about that?

Well, it is about being happy with what you are doing. We might be talking about your career, hobby, etc. Actually, I want to say it is not about a philosophy it is about taking control of your life. It is about knowing what you want to achieve, and why you are waking up every morning. The main question is: What makes your life meaningful? Are you busy with what makes you feel stressed or are you engaged with what makes you feel happy? What is it for you to be happy? So to make it easy for you to understand, let me break it into main characteristics, and step by step we will stop at each one. So IKIGAI touches every aspect of your life. It is integrated with such main aspects like:

Your goals and dreams

Whatever your goals and dreams are, you have to enjoy the process of achieving them and be happy with the results. Are you satisfied and getting pleasure with what are you doing? Your learning and self-development

Think of a universe with an infinite source of knowledge. You have to never stop learning and exploring new things. There is still a lot to know. The journey of learning should be joyful and passionate. But by learning I don't mean that you should learn everything that is available, but what best interests you. Staying curious is staying young!

Your health and wellbeing

Your health and well-being are the first and the most important thing that you have to pay attention to. Take care of your health, be aware of what you are eating, and be physically active. Because your condition affects your overall productivity. We must know how to keep a balance between taking care of ourselves and making work done. Take care of your well-being: your mental, physical, and spiritual health. If you can take care of your well-being then you can take care of everything. Just keep balance and make a habit of keeping a healthy lifestyle. Learning these things means learning to love yourself. You know that your mind, soul, and body are well combined when they work together.

Your hobbies and free time

We are so different and have different interests. We have unique skills which we have to awaken and keep growing them. We must devote our time to developing our skills. Time is a gift for us and we must learn to use it properly. Do we spend time doing what brings us calm, and joy, and what makes our day happy? Your interests and hobbies will identify your career or your business. As I read on the blog page www.stylemate.com, the author was interviewing a lady from Turkey Ozlem Tuna, who owns a business in art. Since her childhood, Ozlem love to paint or create artificial handmade items. As a result, her hobby became her business. It is her main stream of income. And her business became world-famous and was announced as the World Wide Things Collection by UNESCO. She is still creating what she loves to do with the same passion as it was when she was a child.

Your relationship with your family and friends

We have to learn how to communicate with people and find for them time. If you are in a healthy relationship with people, you are happy and your surroundings are happy. So socializing with the right people is also so important. You have to know toxic people and people who push us forward. That means choosing your surroundings rightly, but do not feel guilty by keeping a distance from toxic people who might be even a member of your family or friend.

Your spiritual growth

How much time you are spending on spiritual procedures? You have to know how beneficial spiritual procedures are to your mind and body. It has an internally positive influence and changes will appear externally. Let's take even a meditation. So it is so crucial to have a balanced lifestyle. Your business and career

Just know which sphere of social life makes you happy and energized, and what you are the most passionate about. Whatever you are doing you have to enjoy what are you doing. Anyway, everything has its own difficult parts and stressful moments, but at least you are doing what you like to do. Warren Buffett says: "I do not take vacations, my job is a vacation, I am relaxing at my work and can work 24 hours and still be so energized." But of course do not overwork, do not become a "workaholic", everything should be balanced.

Your vacations and journey

In a busy world, we have to find ourselves time. How often are you taking holidays? Where do you want to travel? What kind of vacations and activities do you like? How much time do you spend on your rest? Whether it is sports activities, visiting any kind of performance or SPA salons-they should be relaxing, which makes you filled like a source of energy.

So these questions and advice must help you understand IKIGAI and find the right orientation in your life journey.

So let me tell you where it comes from. There is an Island in the southern part of Japan called Okinawa. People who live there, have naturally a healthy lifestyle: they do healthy diets, and they have low levels of stress. The active residents of these Islands are non-retiring, purpose-driven people who like what they are doing, which is a longevity factor. They know the balance between their jobs, hobbies, the rest, and spending time with their family or friends. These people are considered the longest-living and the happiest people in the world as most scientists' research proved this ideology of Okinawa Island's residents. Even neuroscientists proved: by keeping Okinawa's resident's lifestyle, people increase their hormones of happiness and reduce stress only by following this simple lifestyle and knowing their own values. Even the word "iki" means "life" and a "gai" means "value".

Look forward even if you are miserable now. Out of all this information consider three of the most important things to yourself; knowing your value, things you like to do, and things you are good at.

In the modern world, we have been pushed and forced to follow settled standards that don't align with our biological natural abilities.

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