Tag: Purpose

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Finding Your Ikigai: The Japanese Concept of Purpose

Finding Your Ikigai: Your life's purpose, and unlock a more fulfilling life.

Have you found your sense of purpose?

Our unique concept, the DNA of Flourishing, understands wellness and purpose as two tightly wound strands of the same string – without purpose, your wellness cannot reach its highest potential, and vice versa.

One concept of purpose originating in Japan, called ikigai, seeks to define your sense of purpose and help you to incorporate it into your everyday life.

How Do I Find My Ikigai?

The term ikigai originates in Japan. Its most direct translation is “reason to live”, but the concept it represents carries a much deeper meaning.

Your ikigai is an activity which brings meaning to your life, fulfils your purpose, and allows you to flourish.

Western scholars have conceptualised ikigai as comprising of four key parts:

  1. What you love.
  2. What the world needs.
  3. What you can get paid for.
  4. What you’re good at.

Where all four of these parts converge is said to be the path to your fulfilment.

This activity is not necessarily the only thing you need to live a fulfilling life, but ikigai practitioners use this formula to guide and inform them towards living with purpose.

This Venn diagram shows how each section intersects:

When searching for your ikigai, it may be easier to take these intersections one at a time, investigating your mission, vocation, profession, and passion first.

Finding Your Ikigai: Your life's purpose, and unlock a more fulfilling life.
Finding Your Ikigai: Your life’s purpose, and unlock a more fulfilling life

The Scientifically Proven Benefits of Ikigai

Is there scientific evidence for the existence of ikigai?

Perhaps unsurprisingly, yes, there is!

A large analysis in 2021 explored previous research on the health benefits of ikigai and collated the results. They found consistent evidence that a sense of ikigai is related to good physical health, and that it may even be protective of future health problems.

The researchers conducting this analysis suggested that developing a sense of ikigai can also benefit psychological health through the improvement of self-understanding, goal setting and achieving, and problem-solving skills. They even suggest that healthcare workers could use the concept of ikigai to enhance the wellbeing of people in their care.

The Long Term Impact of Ikigai

One of the studies they analysed was a huge scale piece of research undertaken in Japan, involving over 40,000 participants and spanning 7 years. The researchers in this study measured the participants’ sense of ikigai, then observed their risk of mortality.

What they found was astounding – participants who did not express a sense of ikigai were at significantly higher risk of cardiovascular disease, and they were more likely to experience fatal accidents. In fact, participants without a sense of ikigai were at an increased risk of mortality overall.

Ikigai in the UK

In 2019, researchers attempted to translate Japanese measurements of Ikigai into English and find out whether it could be applied in the United Kingdom. They found that ikigai was able to predict more positive mental wellbeing and lower scores on depression scales. This demonstrated that the concept of ikigai could be translated not only into the English language, but also into British culture and, potentially, to Western culture as a whole.

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Tips from Ikigai Experts: The Five Pillars of Ikigai

Finding your ikigai requires time, patience, and reflection. Consider each of the four sections in turn, then try to understand where your answers may intersect.

Japanese scientist Ken Mogi, author of The Litte Book of Ikigai and Awakening Your Ikigai: How the Japanese Wake Up to Joy, suggests 5 “pillars” of ikigai that can support you on your ikigai journey. These are:

Starting small

Making big changes may feel exciting, but they can be more difficult to implement and maintain. Start with small, easy changes, which will build over time to gradually create greater change.

Releasing yourself

Your ikigai is unique – just like you. Try not to think about how you and your values might compare to others, and focus instead on what feels authentic to you alone.

Harmony and sustainability

Consider how your actions impact others and the environment around you. A key part of finding your ikigai is understanding how you might align with the wider world.

The joy of little things

By paying attention to small things which bring you joy, you create a small moment of happiness. Ken suggests that starting the day with something small and enjoyable, like a good cup of tea, is a core element of experiencing contentment and, therefore, ikigai.

Being in the here and now

Ken believes that being in the present helps you to connect with your inner child, as children tend not to worry about the past or future. Connecting with your inner child can enhance creativity, flexibility, and freedom, and encourages a constant state of learning – all things that can help you to understand your ikigai.

Finding Your Purpose with Ikigai

Your sense of purpose is fluid and changeable throughout your life – ikigai encourages you to embrace yourself and your purpose in the present.

In this way, finding your ikigai is a continuously evolving journey of self-discovery.

When your sense of purpose is strong, it supports your overall wellness. Together, your wellness and your purpose create the DNA of Flourishing, allowing you to reach your potential and live your most fulfilled life.

Take a few moments to reflect on your ikigai: does your lifestyle meet all four of its requirements? Do you feel aligned with the five pillars of ikigai?

Just taking this time could be the beginning of your ikigai journey – take this step towards a deeper sense of purpose today.

Finding Your Ikigai: Your life's purpose, and unlock a more fulfilling life.
Finding Your Ikigai

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How To Practice Mindfulness: 3 Simple Steps for a More Fulfilling Life

The practice of mindfulness has developed over thousands of years, originating in ancient Eastern traditions and Buddhist practices.

Put very simply, mindfulness is a state of focus. When practicing mindfulness, practitioners pay close attention to their thoughts, feelings, and bodily sensations, and let them exist without judgement.

While mindfulness meditation is common, it isn’t the only way to practice mindfulness – any activity which encourages attention on and acceptance of the present could be considered a mindfulness activity.

For example, walking while paying close attention to the sensations you experience, or focusing on the taste and texture of a meal, could both be examples of mindful activities.

Traditionally, mindfulness must also be practiced with intention. Scholars and researchers believe that intentions in mindfulness commonly shift from self-regulation to self-exploration, and again, finally, to self-liberation.

How Modern Science Embraces Mindfulness

Modern psychological therapies have been instrumental in bringing the practice of mindfulness into Western culture.

Mindfulness forms the basis of a number of evidence-based psychological therapies, including Mindfulness-Based Cognitive Therapy, Dialectical Behaviour Therapy, and Acceptance and Commitment Therapy.

Research has found that mindfulness-based psychological interventions can improve symptoms across multiple conditions, including chronic pain, depression, and addiction.

Scholars have considered a number of potential reasons for the effects of mindfulness on psychological wellbeing

One is that mindfulness may rewire the way we perceive our experiences. We often feel enmeshed with the way we think and feel, interpreting our internal experiences as a part of ourselves. By standing back to observe our internal experiences, we can begin to separate them from ourselves, cultivating greater acceptance and self-compassion.

By changing our relationships with our experiences, we are able to pay attention to things that may have been too uncomfortable to think about before. This could allow us to understand and break bad habits.

For example, many of us turn to scrolling social media when we feel anxiety. This can end up consuming time that would have been better spent elsewhere, and often perpetuates a cycle of anxiety and avoidance.

Practicing mindfulness can enable us to step back from our anxiety, viewing it as a passing experience rather than allowing it to overcome us. When we are able to sit with the feeling, we are able to choose less comfortable but healthier coping mechanism, such as journalling, walking, or using an artistic outlet.

Other ways that mindfulness is suggested to support our wellbeing include building our resilience, helping us to clarify our values, and improving our mental and emotional flexibility.

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Practicing Mindfulness for a Fulfilling Life

Negative experiences are an unavoidable part of life. Resilience, flexibility, and acceptance are the core skills we need to navigate these difficulties.

Mindfulness provides the scaffolding we need to learn and practice these skills, creating the path to improved wellness and movement towards our purpose.

Strong senses of wellness and purpose are the fundamental aspects of living a truly fulfilled life. We call this The DNA of Flourishing.

How to Practice Mindful Meditation

Mindfulness meditation is an easy, accessible way to bring mindfulness into your own life. Getting started takes just 3 steps:

1. Find a few minutes of uninterrupted time.

Even those with the busiest schedules can find an opportunity to practice – just 2 minutes is enough to get started.

Ideally, you’ll be able to practice without being interrupted. Try to find somewhere private and comfortable.

2. Set your intention.

Go into the meditation with an idea of how you hope to feel at the end of it. Are you looking for peace, clarity, or something else?

Your intention can be anything that you resonate with, but don’t put too much pressure on achieving the desired outcome – remember, mindfulness is a journey of acceptance.

3. Notice without judgement.

Without judgement, pay attention to your surroundings, feelings, and thoughts. Not everything will be pleasant – there may be loud noises in your environment, a pain in your body, or stressful thoughts running through your mind.

Let all of these experiences be. Simply notice that they exist, without labelling them as bad or good.

Mindfulness is a Journey

These steps guide you through practicing mindful meditation, but there are plenty of other ways to practice mindfulness if meditation isn’t for you.

The key is to be consistent. Like all skills, learning mindfulness takes practice and persistence.

It may not be easy at first – it’s okay if you don’t feel like you achieved what you set out to. Be kind and compassionate with yourself and try again tomorrow.

When you continue your mindfulness journey, you will find that it becomes easier to focus your attention and find a sense of peace.

Every journey begins with one step; set aside a few minutes to try mindfulness meditation today.

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What Your Sense of Purpose Says About Your Health

Why do you get out of bed in the morning? When we feel well, we feel a driving force that moves us to begin our day, achieve our best, and fulfill our mission. We embrace a sense of purpose.

A strong sense of purpose is integral to your wellbeing – feelings of wellness and purpose act as driving forces for each other. When one flourishes, so does the other.


But what exactly is a sense of purpose?

In psychology, a sense of purpose means having a sense of meaning and direction in life – a goal to work towards. Your purpose can be big or small; great or humble. Your purpose is personal to you, and it will evolve with you as you grow and change.

Without a sense of purpose, we may feel lost and unsure about where we’re going. We may even begin to question why we do what we do.

The link between our purpose and mental wellness seems to be intuitively understood. But why is a sense of purpose so important?


Fact: Purpose is the Driving Force

Researchers have investigated this phenomenon, and they have discovered a tangible association between mental health and a sense of life purpose.

One huge landmark analysis of previous scientific studies, including over 66,000 participants around the world, found that people with a greater sense of purpose in life had significantly lower levels of depression and anxiety. The researchers conducting the analysis suggested that purpose might lead to both greater motivation to complete necessary tasks, and protection against discomfort avoidance.

Discomfort avoidance might look like procrastination, or hiding from things that we don’t want to do, even though we might need to. While avoidance may give us short-term feelings of relief, it can have a negative impact in the longer term. Avoidance can quickly become a habit, and it may lead to a cycle of anxiety.

The cycle of anxiety.

By nurturing our sense of purpose, we may be able to improve avoidant tendencies and find greater success in realising our goals.


Purpose Protects Our Resilience and Recovery

A study conducted in the USA tested whether our purpose in life might be associated with our resilience and ability to recover when things go wrong.

Their participants were able to recover more quickly after a negative event when they had a greater sense of life purpose. The researchers suggested that those of us with a greater sense of purpose have an improved ability to automatically regulate emotions, protecting us from the effects of a negative experience.

This may lead to lower perceived stress – another large analysis, this time involving over 100,000 participants, found that people with a greater sense of life purpose reported lower stress. In this study, the age, sex, race, and ethnicity of the participants had no effect on the association between life purpose and stress. Their life experiences, such as education level and psychological distress, were also unrelated to this outcome.

The evidence seems to point to a direct relationship between life purpose and mental wellbeing, no matter your personal background and identity.

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The Deep Connection Between Purpose and Wellness

Another US study found a two-way relationship between sense of purpose and physical activity over time in middle-aged and older adults – the greater the increase in their sense of life purpose, the more their physical activity increased over time, and vice versa. This relationship was tracked almost 5 and 10 years after the original measurements were taken.

Physical activity is a strong predictor for good mental and physical health, so it may not be so surprising that our sense of purpose can be linked to this too.

Scientists agree that by looking after our sense of purpose, we may increase our subjective feelings of wellness.

This is a core element of the Awakened.energy philosophy: the idea that our wellness and purpose are inextricably linked. We call it The DNA of Flourishing.


How to Find Your Purpose

Finding your purpose is a personal journey – no one can tell you what it is, or what it should be.

If you’re feeling lost or uncertain, there are some things you can do to find clarity.

1. Self-reflection

Reflection techniques, such as journalling, can help to organize and clarify your thoughts. By spending some quiet time thinking about what guides you, your purpose may become obvious.

2. Meditation

Meditation is the practice of focusing the mind. If self-reflection alone brings up lots of conflicting thoughts and feelings, practicing meditation might help you to reflect with greater intention and improved concentration.

3. Try Something New

If you feel you haven’t found your purpose yet, it may be a matter of trial and error. What new activities or challenges do you feel drawn to? Practicing those activities may bring you a sense of purpose you didn’t expect to find at first.

4. Examine Your Values

Most people find that their purpose aligns with their core values. Find a list of personal values and highlight which are the most important to you. What activities or goals might relate to those ideals?

5. Focus On What Makes You Feel Energized

When you do things aligned with your purpose, you feel excited, invigorated, and energized. Pay close attention to how the activities you’re already doing make you feel. For example, you go for a run and feel tired – but do you also feel accomplished and excited to run again? Do more of the things that make you feel this way, and you may find your sense of purpose expanding.

There’s no doubt that your sense of purpose is a powerful indicator of wellness, even carrying implications for your future mental and physical health.

Find out more about The DNA of Flourishing, and discover how exploring your sense of purpose could be the key to living a life that is more fulfilled.

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Revolutionize Your Health Journey by Making One Important Change

An image depicting tranquility, illustrating that wellness is a state of mind on the path to a fulfilling health journey.

Becoming the best version of yourself is a lifelong journey. Through every chapter, your health is your foundation for wisdom, endurance, and expansion.

Our approach to health encompasses all of the ways you fulfill your mission: we believe that a balanced life needs not just physical health, but also mental wellbeing, spiritual health, and embracing humankind’s spirit of progress, growth, and evolution.

When we created Awakened.energy, we envisioned a community built on connection and mutual growth. Our products are expertly crafted with you at the heart of our mission. As you grow, we support you every step of the way; in turn, as we grow, we share our advances with you to support your growth.

From the first steps toward a life that is truly fulfilling, we’re on this journey together.


Your Potential is Possible…

…but a fulfilled and balanced life cannot be achieved overnight.

Even when we pay close attention to our wellbeing, we often feel a piece of the puzzle is missing.

How do we find these missing pieces and put them into place, ready to become the most realized versions of ourselves?

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Unifying Wellness and Purpose

We often strive to attain our best selves through prioritizing our wellbeing.

The wellness industry has boomed in the past several decades, with the FDA estimating that 1,000 new dietary supplements enter the market each year. In the 1990s, there were around 4,000 supplements on our shelves – today, there are almost 30,000.

Safe to say, we are investing in our wellbeing.

Yet achieving wellness alone is not enough.

We experience a sense that our lives are incomplete when we do not also have purpose.

A lack of purpose can lead us to feel lost, confused, and distant. This has a ripple effect across all aspects of our wellbeing. Without purpose we may feel tired, low, and uncertain about the things we believe in.

Purpose and wellness are intrinsically related in this way: when one begins to fall away, so does the other.


A lack of purpose can lead us to feel lost, confused, and distant. This has a ripple effect across all aspects of our wellbeing.

An image depicting tranquility, illustrating that wellness is a state of mind on the path to a fulfilling health journey.
Wellness is a state of mind on the path to a fulfilling health journey


Life-Changing Scientific Discoveries

This idea makes intuitive sense to many of us – you already know that when you don’t feel well, you don’t feel purposeful, and vice versa.

This intuition is much more than a gut feeling. In fact, scientists have been able to demonstrate a proven link between purpose and wellness that exists across people from different cultures and life experiences.

In The Function of Meaning and Purpose for Individual Wellness, published in 2002, existing studies on purpose and wellness were analyzed together.

This paper found mounting evidence that a strong sense of purpose was associated with multiple facets of health:

  • Strong belief systems.
  • Personal identity.
  • Positive action taking towards goals.
  • Community engagement.
  • Resilience and stress reduction.
  • Ability to make sense of life experiences.

Studies continue to this day – in 2023, another research team in Canada found a positive association between sense of purpose and wellbeing that could be demonstrated in Indigenous and non-Indigenous communities alike, as well as across groups with different levels of education and income.

So, how can you use this knowledge to move toward achieving greater balance and fulfilling your potential?


The DNA of Flourishing

Fulfilling your potential requires these two vital factors: strong senses of wellness, and of purpose.

We often think of wellness and purpose as distinct, separate entities.

However, even the scientific research has proven that we must change this way of thinking and begin to see wellness and purpose for what they are: two strands of the thread of life, each one relying on and strengthening the other.

We call this the DNA of Flourishing.

The DNA helix wraps a pair of DNA strands around each other, fused by strong chemical bonds. Picture wellness and purpose the same way: these are two strands of ourselves, wrapped around each other, upheld by resilient bonds and the meticulous work of nature in action.


Bringing Purpose and Wellness into Your Life

What happens to your sense of purpose when just one of these is compromised?

Just as importantly, what happens to each of these when you lack a sense of purpose?

These facets of wellness can be mapped onto six core facts of purpose:


When you pay close attention to the connection between your wellness and your purpose, you reach a new level of awareness. You become more conscious of how each one feeds into the other, gaining the ability to create a more balanced life.


Reaching Your Potential

By creating this balance in your own life, you open the door to fulfilling your highest potential.

Within our society we place a great emphasis on wellness, which is a vital ingredient; but when we neglect to attend to our purpose, we fall short. We miss out on an entire half of the puzzle, and wonder why the picture is unclear.

A change of mindset can change your life.

Empowering yourself to achieve your highest potential begins with seeing your wellness and purpose as one interwoven fabric: strong, powerful, and connected.

Using the DNA of Flourishing as a throughline connecting our vision, goals, and everything we do, we support you to achieve balance and fulfilment in all areas of your life.

At Awakened.energy, your wellness is our purpose. We’re proud to grow together, to support each other, and to connect as we envisioned from the very start; continuing this journey with you, every step of the way.