Ikigai: The 5 Principles of Happiness in Japanese

Ikigai is the ability to find satisfaction, joy, and awareness in your daily activities. Anyone can learn this art, says neuroscientist and writer Ken Mogi, author of The Little Book of Ikigai.

In Japanese, this word is used quite often and for a variety of reasons, it can refer to small daily activities, and to significant achievements. Literally, “ikigai” can be translated into Russian as the meaning of life. It consists of two words – “iki” (to live) and “gai” (reason). But Ken Mogi offers a more understandable and figurative interpretation: ikigai is what makes you want to get up in the morning.

In the book, he tells the stories of a simple fisherman and chef with three Michelin stars, a young anime artist, and a 102-year-old resident of Okinawa. They are all happy because they have found ikigai in this life. And everyone has his own.

“Ikigai is in the details,” writes Ken Mogi. “The freshness of an early morning, a cup of coffee, a ray of sunshine, the long cooking of octopus meat, and the president’s praise carry the same weight. Only those who are able to recognize the beauty of all these things truly appreciate and enjoy them.”

According to a study by the Tohoku University School of Medicine in Sendai, northern Japan, people who acquire ikigai live longer, have better health, and achieve more in their professional and personal lives.

And there is a simple explanation for this: having found the meaning or business of life, finding something that brings joy every day, people begin to carefully monitor their health, give up bad destructive habits, experience positive emotions more often and feel sad less often. Therefore, for every person who wants to live a long and meaningful life, it is so important to find something for which you want to get up in the morning.

Of course, you don’t have to be Japanese to have ikigai. It is enough to become more attentive and conscious in everyday life. Ken Mogi identifies 5 pillars of ikigai.

1. Start small

To illustrate this rule, Ken Mogi recalls the story of famed Japanese chef Jiro Ono. His family was very poor and during his elementary school years he had to work in a restaurant in the evenings.

Later, when he opened his first sushi bar, he did not set himself the goal of founding the best and most sophisticated institution in the world. He was just trying to use his skills to make ends meet. Indeed, for a sushi bar, the simplest kitchen utensils and unpretentious furnishings were required.

He gradually improved his skills, equipment and interior. And today his restaurant is considered one of the best in Japan and even in the world. The chef understood perfectly how important it is to start small.

Starting small is about making small changes in your life that will gradually make it better: getting up earlier in the morning, setting aside an hour a day for physical activity or an interesting hobby, cooking healthy food, and so on.

2. Free yourself

To explain the second principle of ikigai, Ken Mogi gives the example of a child: “A child is carefree and unencumbered by social definitions. The child is not yet bound by the ties of a particular profession or social status. It would be wonderful to keep this childlike lightness for life.”

In other words, in order to find ikigai, you need to accept yourself and free your essence, wake up your inner child, learn to be more spontaneous, courageous and independent of the opinions of others.

3. Find harmony and stability

“Ikigai in Japanese culture has a lot to do with harmony with the environment, with the people around us and with society as a whole, without which sustainability is impossible,” explains Ken Mogi.

Personal ambitions are always satisfied with an eye to the state of society and the environment. After all, if they are not healthy, you will not be able to achieve your goals and realize your plans. In other words, you can go to your dream only by remembering other people, nature and the world around you. It is impossible to gain ikigai by hurting them.

4. Enjoy the little things

“Many people in Japan traditionally start the morning with sweets, usually washed down with green tea, although in recent years they are increasingly replacing it with coffee or black tea,” says Ken Mogu. “That also makes sense.

Dopamine will then be released in your brain, pushing you into action (getting up), followed by a reward (like chocolate and coffee).”

Happiness lies not only in something big (success, serving a great cause) and material (a good salary and a big house). Everyday happiness consists of little things: a delicious breakfast, a sunny morning, the opportunity to go to a child’s school concert or an evening bike ride. Mentally note the things that give you pleasure, rejoice in them and be grateful to fate for these little things.

5. Be here and now

The ability to be here and now is directly related to the ability to enjoy the little things and the ability to free yourself. In addition, the ability to be here and now is similar to the state of flow, about which the American psychologist of Hungarian origin Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi wrote a lot.

Flow or “being here and now” is a state when a person is so involved in his activity that everything else loses significance for him. He finds pleasure in work, and it becomes not a means to an end, but an end in itself. That is, you work not to earn money for a living, but because you get pleasure from it, fulfill yourself, achieve your goals and make the world a better place.

“So play music even when no one is listening to you. Paint pictures even when no one is looking at them. Write a story that no one will read. Inner joy and satisfaction will be more than enough for you to continue to live and do your job. If you succeed in this, then you have fully mastered the ability to be here and now, ”advises the author of the book.

And it is also important to understand that “there is no single optimal path to ikigai. Each of us must find our own way, making our way through the jungle of our unique qualities.