The story of IKIGAI is about a teenager whose world comes crashing down in a tragic and humiliating way. When looking at the road map for the journey to achieving happiness, you could pick any crossroad and it will take you one of two ways.
IKIGAI’s death was not in vain. He could have become another statistic. A statistic that is never heard of again in the annals of human history. Or, he could have lived a life filled with joy, meaning, self-worth, self-love, self-worth, and self-acceptance.
The third and most fulfilling intersection of what you love about yourself is that the intersecting circle will bring you into an unusual and fascinating Venn Diagram. For those of you who did not know, the three intersections are all connected through life. That is the first intersection, which is finding purpose. The second intersection is love, which is connected to an even more interesting intersection called self love.
If you have ever had the “love” of your life, it could be the “love” of your heart. In loving yourself, you have entered a gift of being unconditionally loved. That is the gift of unconditional love. It makes you feel loved as well as loving, and it is a wonderful feeling. The wonderful part is that by giving unconditional love, you give self-love in return.
The young Ikigai was not loved by his father and the reason for this was because Ikigai’s mother neglected him. He was left in the care of his elderly grandmother. The only time Ikigai’s grandmother expressed any emotions was when Ikigai misbehaved, something that is not allowed to happen in an old people’s home.
In a desperate effort to make Ikigai learn to love himself, his grandmother decided to move him from the old people’s home to a boarding school where he would be loved. Ikigai hated the thought of this and began to show signs of depression.
When this third intersection of what you love about yourself was given some power, the next powerful sign of Ikigai’s transformation was his ability to stop suffering from pain and disease. A direct result of the first two intersections of what you love about yourself. The ultimate intersection of love and self-love has been what Ikigai discovered, that the key to achieving the balance of everything that you love about yourself is self-love.
In Japan, this Japanese word is written Koi. Koi means the child in the ocean.
The perfect symbol of Ikigai’s life was Koi fish. In Japanese, Koi means the water. The Koi fish can take in a lot of water, as long as it has enough room in its stomach to hold water. Koi also means ‘gathering of water’.
Koi fish have a very rich in the ocean life in which they live and in that ability to take in so much water, Koi fish needs a strong heart to protect them from the natural elements. In Japanese, Koi means ‘heart’.
Nagasaki is where Ikigai met his amazing grandmother, and Koi fish are called ‘kikumon’ in Japanese. If you look in the dictionary, they will read ‘love of heart’.
If you find yourself sitting at the edge of your bed staring at your Koi fish, think back to the time when you first sat at the edge of your bed. How did you get there? How did your heart end up there? When you put all the pieces together, your Koi fish is telling you, ‘it is OK to love yourself’.
