Decoding Ikigai

Change is the law of nature, one learns to grow, move on and find happiness in that change, without much effort one becomes wiser enough to face the same or on the other hand surrenders oneself to the happenings. One feel lost and has delusion that the situation would pass smoothly of its own. We all know while passing through a jungle, one needs to be prepared mentally to face all the challenges and root out all the possibilities relating to it, and enter the same fully prepared and equipped. Life gives challenges to everyone, each one of us has to go through and pass the tests, which are difficult to face, no one can pray for the destiny like a very successful person, as the things those seem to illuminate do not have their own light like moon.

Ikigai is a Japanese word which means a reason of being. It is a Japanese secret to live long and happy life.  Many of us do not know the reason or have recognized the purpose of being here. People wake up in the morning and force themselves to go to their work place, which they do not like at all. There they are not giving their performances in a very effective manner, and performing halfheartedly, their only purpose is to earn money and feed their family while fulfilling their legitimate or illegitimate demands. They ignore the basic interests of the family, as they are unable to give their time to them, which is the most precious gift that one can give to one’s loved ones. They only leave behind the ill health for themselves. The members of the family also start ignoring their interests.

Many of us just live for the sake of living, eat for the sake of eating. Earn for the sake of earning. People spend the major portion of their life span in doing the job that do not interest them, they remain struck in that till their superannuation, finally one day , when they sit at home , thinking about what next, they feel that they have just wasted their talent in doing that job, and feel themselves old enough to try something new in their lives.

Life is a learning stage, the process of learning never ends, till our last breath. We keep on learning something new every moment.  Life is a gift; we cannot waste it. Retirement is the start of new beginning. To explore oneself in a different way, to recognize one’s ability, to know one’s passion and to decode ikigai are important . Very few people are able to decode their ikigai in the younger years of their life, whereas most of us find our ikigai in later years of our life or fail to decode it. Once you decode your ikigai, you will feel new enthusiasm in your life, take the risk for your own sake to follow the profession that suits your heart and mind, and you feel pleasure in doing so. The life will become easier and meaning full. My dad formally retired thrice from his very prestigious three government assignments, but actually not retired till date, as work is his passion, the secret for his good health and independence. Age is no bar for new initiation, it’s just a number, when a person finds his passion, he remains healthy and vigorous despite being ninety years old. When one understands and starts believing the maxim, ‘mens sana in corpore sano’, meaning thereby a sound mind in a sound body. The farmers, teachers, doctors, lawyers, politicians, musicians, artists, writes and all those persons who follow their passions as their profession never grow old, they have young hearts full of enthusiasm, be your own boss.

Seeking the instructions from the others, needs lesser use of brain, whereas the actual capacity of the brain is far more than that,  a person can choose better options for oneself. The more we engage our mind in the activities of our choice in a positive manner, without being creating guilt or harming the interests of others, the more we can explore ourselves. For finding one’s ikigai, one must maintain a journal and jolt down few lines daily, it would help to recognize your tastes, liking, interests and the fields that give you more pleasure. People have collected a lot of information, knowledge and experiences, since their birth or which they call age, while growing old, but for me age is just numbers, there is no age for learning and following our passion. One has the art within oneself to decode one’s ikigai, when we know that which food is our favorite one, also know about other things or persons whom we call our favorite one, then why we cannot recognize our passion, simply thinking in that direction and then doing action, one can be able to find one’s passion. Whenever we become clueless about any situation, we can seek answers from our own mind, as in such cases our subconscious mind, helps the conscious mind. Our subconscious mind has a remarkable potential as it has stored all he information that we have given it knowingly or unknowingly.

When a person finds his reason to be out of bed daily, he understands what his ikigai is. Living a stress-free life is an art, our presence on the earth is for a limited period, wherever one feels broken, miserable or struck in one’s life, try to explore what suits you most. Do the deeds to impress yourself only, potter makes the pots in a perfect shape not to satisfy others but to satisfy himself, because he knows the art and well aware of the fact that whatever he is creating with clay on his potters’ wheel, he is creating masterpiece, the best part is, he is following his passion.

Once I happen to visit a public office, the employees of that place were sitting in a very casual manner, laughing , giggling and cracking jokes, there was a person who seemed to be junior assistant, was not participating what the other employees were doing , he seemed out of the clan , I took the sigh of relief that there was someone from whom I can seek the guidance for my work, I feebly went to his table, when I wished him , he offered me the chair to sit down . He read from my face that I was upset from the atmosphere of the office. Making myself comfortable, the very first question that I slapped on his face was that when others were not working why he alone was doing the work and did not want to be the part of them. I was spell bound on his reply when he said that he loved his work and enjoy being there. His work was worship for him and since his childhood he had a dream to become assistant in this office, as his father was a peon and also retired from the same office, moreover he was there because of his choice and the other persons who were working there were only under pressure, as they consider themselves at wrong place. They had their dreams to follow, but did not have the courage to fulfill the same, the circumstances forced them to do these jobs. I realized that only the bold persons have the courage to take the risks in their lives that too regarding their passion to make it their profession. When we take one step towards the fulfillment of our dream or following our passion with faith in ‘HIM’, the Supreme, ‘HE’, starts walking with us while making our journey simpler.

I am very much fascinated and impressed by the Japanese book ‘IKAGAI’ written by Hector García and Francesc Mirallas, the very first chapter of this book is, ‘The art of staying young while growing old’.

A diagram by Mark Winn clarify this concept to the farther extent

The life must go on, go with the flow, the persons who live longer are not known for their earnings, but with their method of living, how they lived and treated their lives. The people are keen to know about the secret of their long life, if we give a closer look to their lives, they were simple people with high thinking.  For longer life one needs to eat less, exert a little and laugh more.

Smile no matter what you are going through, laugh as loudly as you can, let the bad pass away. No one is born to be unhappy or to live in poverty, decode your ikigai, give it the practical shape.

‘The people of Japan believe that everyone has ikigai – a reason to jump out of bed each morning’. An extract from the book ‘Ikigai’.

There are many secrets of life that can make us healthy and happier, but here I focus only on decoding IKIGAI, once you do that you will be able to find other secrets.

HAPPY READING