Are you doing what you love in your personal and professional life? Have you checked in with yourself or are you coasting; on autopilot?
You are gifted this one wild and precious life. Take some time – daily or weekly – to mindfully decide for yourself what you want it to look like. Three standard questions I present to my patients when I first meet them are:
- What do you do for play?
- What do you for creativity?
- What do you do for work? Do you love it? And, if not, what would you choose to do if you had no financial, familial or geographic constraints?
These are tough questions and I’m met with blank stares at times. But they stimulate thought and sometimes movement – no matter how small.
I’m a visual person, so having a construct to use helps me organize what I want from my life. The concept of Ikigai has intrigued me for a long time. Six years ago, I embarked on a journey that would take me on a more expansive career path than I’d been on most of my adult life. I was growing, morphing, and evolving – personally and professionally, and this concept spoke to me.
It helped that its origins are Okinawan. Long before we met, my husband spent seven years stationed there in the US Air Force. He speaks about his time there in glowing, reverent, utopian terms that make it easy to embrace anything about the culture of that island. According to The World Economic Forum (August 2017), “While there is no direct English translation, ikigai is thought to combine the Japanese words ikiru, meaning “to live”, and kai, meaning “the realization of what one hopes for”. Together these definitions create the concept of “a reason to live” or the idea of having a purpose in life.”
At first, I was confused about the difference between a vocation and a profession. It turns out – a vocation is something you are called to do whereas a profession is something you’ve been trained to do. Sit with this graphic for a while. Let your subconscious mind mull it over. Then put pen to paper and figure out what your ikagai or reason for living is.
To get the answers you’re looking for, you’ll have to clear the “static” of not feeling well physically and/or emotionally. To do that, you’ll need to slow the pace of your life and really pay attention. You may need medical care, therapy, energy work, meditation classes or yoga to find your center. If you need some help, we’re here at Omaha Integrative Care to guide the way!
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