Finding your ikigai. A new lens to transform your wellbeing & find deeper purpose.

I am currently engaged in some highly rewarding work as a mental health and workplace psychologist. My clients, like many of us, are navigating challenges such as depression, anxiety, addiction, uncertainty, dealing with overstretched leaders, even aggressive customers that leave them feeling… spent.?

Given the degree of collective pressure and suffering we currently face at work and at home, there is no better moment?to introduce this brilliant, oftentimes, transformative concept known as ikigai.?

Said to have evolved from the basic health and wellness principles of traditional Japanese medicine - this belief system holds that physical wellbeing is affected by one’s mental & emotional health, and sense of purpose in their personal and professional lives.

Ken Mogi, a neuroscientist and author of Awakening Your Ikigai (2018, p. 3), observes that the concept be translated simply as “a reason to get up in the morning” or, “waking up to joy.”

It is such a cool concept, and it is usually applied with a lens of pursuing passion and purpose, developing talent, making money, and helping others.?

How can we apply the principles of ikigai to our own mental health and wellbeing to enable better psychological functioning at work and at home?

• Cultivate joy and pleasure: Ikigai resonates with Cognitive–Behavioral Therapy’s emphasis on pursuing activities that produce enjoyment and a sense of mastery, specifically as a way to alleviate depression, and to ‘bring light through the veil of suffering’.?

This involves minimising the experiences that relate to pain and suffering, and strengthening the ones that relate to joy and pleasure. In other words, making room for some enjoyment in our busy lives.?

When was the last time we actually had real fun???

Experienced that joy that comes from a deep, breathless belly laugh with an old friend that just gets us, watching live music so immersive that it vibrates in our chests, or spontaneously busting out a “moonwalk" on the dance floor. There is something really intoxicating about embarrassing ourselves. It's also about finding joy in simple moments, and simply being present.

• Move our bodies, in nature. Ikigai is a state of wellbeing that arises from engaging in activities one enjoys, which also brings a sense of fulfillment. Exercise is one such example, significantly reducing depression and anxiety; returning us to a more natural state where we are embodied; we are animal, we are moving, endorphins are rushing.??

And it feels… awesome.?

Especially when we move our bodies in nature. We are so blessed to be surrounded by natural beauty, the type that nurtures our intrinsic human tendencies, our sense of “biophilia” - an innate love for the landscapes in which humans have lived for most of our existence.

Caveman style.?

It's no wonder that when scientists compare people on treadmills in the gym, with people who run in nature, they found a reduction in depression for the latter group.?

• Find values alignment:? Often misunderstood and/or underestimated, values are preferences and priorities that reflect what’s most important to each of us. They represent our truest, most authentic selves - masks removed. They create true meaning and provide us with the motivation to act.?

In the workplace, values are ubiquitous. Studies have also shown that an employee’s attraction to a particular organisation, their capacity to truly thrive within that organisation, and their subsequent tenure is, far more strongly influenced by values alignment than anything else.?

In the pursuit of your ikigai you might ask yourself - when did I last identify and evaluate my own core values? What ideals are driving all of my behaviour, attitudes and beliefs? For example, is it safety, family, adventure or integrity?

Reflecting on these transformative areas, consider how applying ikigai to your life might work for you?

Where you could unleash your own mental health and wellbeing through joy and pleasure, connection to self, to movement, to nature???

The journey might require self reflection, patience and deeper commitment to growth, but it is certainly one worth investing in that will return in true transformative dividends.