LIFESTYLE | MENTAL WELLNESS | IKIGAI | BUDDHISM
Eight small steps that can help us find meaning in our life
(like a noble eightfold path, but even more mundane)
We all know that life can really suck at times. Many of us agree that there are moments when we’d rather give up than continue. It’s all so disheartening. Mental stress. Loneliness. And these are “luxury problems.” We feel embarrassed and ashamed to feel that way, when some friend reminds us of the plight of the thousands and thousands of political and economic refugees that roam the globe. That’s if we even have a friend. Many of us have not. We might be picking up stuff only from news lines. About the continuing bloodshed in Yemen. The unnecessary war in Ukraine. Where children are drafted to fight other children, whom they are told are “the enemy.”
For sure, finding meaning in life seems a difficult, if not impossible task.
The questions keep hammering inside our heads:
why do I exist or to whom am I important?
what are my own goals? and how can I live up to them?
am I capable of a meaningful life at all, given the above and other factors?
does life in general have any value?神谷 美恵子
Kamiya Mieko
Ikigai Ni-Tsuite, 1966
