Bringing meaning and joy to every present moment is what makes up living your life to the fullest. The Japanese term “ikigai” means living your life being busy doing something that gives happiness, value and meaning to yourself. Discovering your own reasons to live is of supreme importance to have a life infused with bliss and satisfaction.
Ikigai is all about keeping your mind and body busy by finding positive, purposeful habits and practicing them in your life daily. And in this article, I’ll be sharing with you 6 key elements from the book about what does it mean to live a meaningful life, and how to make your every day always rewarding and worthwhile.
1. Keep your attitude positive and your heart joyful as each day comes.
Make it a daily ritual to release any negativity or resistance that may be lingering within you and not let destructive feelings of hatred, guilt and frustration stay longer in your mind and heart. Keep your heart happy by always filling it with thoughts of harmony, peace, love and laughter, and protecting it from things that block the flow of positivity within you. When you make it a habit to take care of your attitude towards yourself, to others and to your life, your external environment will be filled with things and experiences that serve and nurture you, not just intellectually but emotionally and spiritually as well. You will feel revitalized and fueled from within, feeling so alive and satisfied in every moment. The positive energy that you maintain within you and around you will continue attracting meaningful synchronicity in your life that will further your growth and personal development.
2. Maintain harmonious relationships around you.
The people that surround you and the relationships you maintain in your life are contributing and influencing the energy that you practice all day long. Keep only those who are adding well-being, positive influence and laughter to you, and choose to walk away from people who are not in alignment with your desire for peace and harmony. Meaningful interactions and co-creations with others will be made possible whenever your energies and intentions are aligned. Meaningful results, ideas and inspirations are then created when you come together with other harmonious and like-minded individuals. This sense of community and collaboration with people who inspire and lift your energy up is one of the important tools you can maintain to add value and satisfaction to everyday living.
3. Spend no time worrying and always live in the moment.
Worrying is spending your precious time in this moment to think about things that you do not have control over. It means creating stories in your mind about things that are not contributing to feeling good and being happy right now. As you worry, you lose this present moment and you put your energy towards a future event that does not exist. Remember that all of your energy and power are always in the present moment. You are accessing the fullness of who you are whenever your attention is right here and now. You will experience more meaning and fulfillment when you are appreciating each moment as it is, taking in what’s in front of you, and not unnecessarily occupying your mind with negative what ifs and things going wrong at a later time.
4. Live relaxed and unhurried.
Practicing mindfulness and doing things one at a time instead of endlessly multi-tasking is a much more effective way of utilizing your own energy and experiencing the flow in anything that you have to do. Living with a slow-paced lifestyle will eliminate the unnecessary stress that happens whenever you hurry yourself to finish many different things all at once. The meaning in whatever you do vanishes when you focus more on getting it done, the end result, rather than enjoying the process and the steps you take going there. Whenever you practice being mindful and focus your energy on a particular task at any given moment, you are creating harmony and flow within you, and are experiencing the moment fully because all of who you are is in the task at hand. Being able to breathe in deeply and to be at peace with what you’re doing right now will allow you to appreciate the meaning that each moment reveals to you. You won’t miss the delicious parts of your journey as you are not hurrying towards someplace other than right now.
5. Have a healthy diet and regular exercise.
Taking care of your life also includes caring for your own body. Filling your physical apparatus with nutritious foods, and creating a lifestyle that is active and less sedentary are ways of showing self-love and self-care. As you do these things, you raise the vibration of your body and positive energies can flow freely within you. When you take time to take care of yourself physically, you will feel so radiant and alive, and you will heighten up your energy to live out your dreams to the fullest. You will radiate vibrancy and positivity, and you’ll be able to accomplish your daily tasks and goals more effectively and purposefully.
6. Do the things you enjoy and never ever retire from it.
Engage more in the things that bring you joy, excitement, fulfillment and satisfaction whenever you do them. Big or small, it can just be as simple as reading inspirational books or cooking your favorite dishes, or it can likewise be learning new languages or traveling to different places. By keeping yourself happily busy everyday, doing the things that have meaning and purpose for you, you are filling your life with positive value in every waking moment. You give yourself reasons to get up in the morning with excitement and enthusiasm, and you build momentum for more positive and meaningful experiences to fill up all your days.
Your Turn..
What does it mean to live a meaningful life for you? We’d love to hear your own “ikigai”! 🙂
P.S. My book 100 Habits For Self Love is now free on Amazon Kindle Unlimited!
This ebook contains 100 positive mindset habits and daily self-care actions to adopt and practice in your everyday life. You may check it out on Amazon here 🙂
Blessings to you, and namaste 🙂
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