What does happiness mean to you?
What do you feel your purpose is in this lifetime?
These may seem like profound questions, and you're probably thinking "sh*t, Kam's getting real deep over here", but I can assure you, after raising this topic of discussion with friends and family; they often begin to express similar thoughts daily.
You see, one thing I've noticed a common trend with is this sense of rush and anxiety to pursue dreams and goals consistently, and I get it, but there needs to be balance in this life; Not only balance but there also needs to be time to reflect on the purpose of why we are doing what we do daily. Does what we do daily make us happy? Do you feel that you are ultimately manifesting something that helps not only you but also the people close to you and your community? I think we often end up pursuing our personal goals so much that we forget the importance of helping our communities and our loved ones around us.
This goes back to balance, ultimately pursuing selfish desires will be a downfall and vice versa. Understanding the impact of positive change and growth to help yourself and others is something I ask you to step away and think of.
Once we can start to think about answers to these questions and topics, it can often tilt towards a negative feeling or, a lack of something. This shouldn't be the case as these questions should be built on the practice of gratitude for what we have and then progress onto how we can shift specific aspect of our lives to serve our happiness ultimately. Then leads onto something that I believe in, Ikigai.
Ikigai refers back to an ideology in Japan of one's purpose in life. It's a way of living to ensure you are fulfilled with your journey in this life. Ikigai allows you to live a life based on your purpose in this life, but to me, it's also a system that practices gratitude and positive thinking to ultimately better your own health and relationships. This ideology focuses on various factors which are shown in the image below.
If you feel like there seems to be no spark for personal thought on these topics then you can proceed to ask yourself the following questions:
What do you love? (These speak to your passion.)
What are you good at? (These speak to your profession.)
What does the world need? (These talk to your mission.)
What can you get paid for? (These speak to your vocation.)
I'm sharing this with you all because as someone that suffers from anxiety, learning about Ikigai helped me learn about what factors have been impacting me. I've learned that Ikigai is a practice that needs to be implemented more in our lives to help remind us that we all have purpose and reason to be here. Just remember that this is a slow journey that doesn't change overnight, take your time with these questions.
Blessings,
Kam