Ikigai - your reason for being

In Japan, they state that everyone has an ikigai. A concept that shows your reason for being. Many say that ikigai is the single most powerful health benefit found to date, and without having tried all the health and vitality rituals out there, I can say, that within what I've employed and what I have tried for my own good, finding my ikigai, is the single most wonderful discovery to date.

Finding your ikigai is finding your purpose. It is in your ikigai that your light shines the brightest.

The past year I've experienced many shifts in my being. I've become me again after gotten lost for some time. I've experienced what some recognize as soul fragments coming back to me, so I can become whole again. For the first time in some years, I'm encountering myself again. I look in the mirror and I see me. I feel my heart and I feel me, but most importantly I feel alive and full of vitality. I am exploring myself in this human form again, and at times I feel that I'm exploring everything from anew. With a child like curiosity and endless love for what is. I find joy in everyday life and feel gratitude for all there is. I've felt and still feeling like a long awaited reunion, for some of these soul fragments to return home, to realign with self, so I can fully embody my soul in this current reality. There is still a good way to go, but at this very moment I'm finally more me than for a very long time.

The soul fragments occurs when we allow others to dictate our reality, when we lose the reigns to our own lives, through traumas, grief, abuse and other intense feelings. It is a mysterious occurrence, when that happens, but I believe it is important for our soul to stay true, to leave the body, as not to be lost in a reality that which is not ours. The soul knows which path it must go, and so when the human being acts and lives in dissonance to the souls path, the soul must leave, to stay "on track".

While I've been experiencing these soul fragments returning back home, I've become more aligned with my souls purpose. I've found my reason for being. It is such an exiting path I'm venturing, although I only know the very first steps, and nothing more, I'm completely at peace with what is, because I know I'm on track. I know that all is well.

Searching for my purpose, made me nuts. I kept trying so hard to do what I thought I was meant to do, instead of being. I kept listening to what people told me I should do, instead of just being. I kept worrying, for things that are out of my control. I got stressed easier than ever. Until one day, I got sick and tired of encountering closed doors, being joyless and exhausted. I said "FUCK IT". I started to just be. To be and allow the universal flow guide me. I started to listen to inner urges, and re opened projects, that where saved for a time when "I have the time"... And there in the midst of being, one revelation after the other started to occur, flow became constant and joy started to pop by. I encountered inspiration, creativity and beauty in the midst of being. Yet also uncertainty, something that always got me worried and stressed. But today it just feels good. To not know, yet knowing that all is well.

This feeling of uncertainty is a fact of life. You can impossibly know what will be, you can only know the now that you are in. It is all there is and all you have. And by embracing that, it all becomes clear. It all becomes very clear in fact. When we only have the now, we can then only just be, we can not strive to be, nor regret what we were. We can only be here now. So by being, you just are. Which is a basic human law, to be. We all are.

By being who you are, the reason for being emerges. You start embodying your entire being, and four elements guide you in your beingness. The four elements being the pillars of the ikigai concept.

- That which you love (your passion)

- That which the world needs (your mission)

- That which you are good at (your vocation)

- That which you can get paid for (your profession)

If you ponder on those four elements, you will get to somewhat the same thought that I've come to, namely that those elements are human rights. It is your right as a human being, to do what you love, to make a difference in the world with what you are good at, and live from it. It is your human right, however, in this fast paced life, we forget, our right. because we are to busy doing to survive, rather than being to live. By discovering, embracing, and allowing the four elements to guide you in life, you purpose becomes clear. Not clear in the sense you know exactly where you will end, no, clear in the sense that everything in life just makes perfectly sense. It is seeing all the pieces of the puzzle, from another perspective, and suddenly being able to skim the broader picture.

My final words are: if you want to find your ikigai, you simply have to stop doing and start being, by embracing the all of you.