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Reawaken your Ikigai - your inner compass guiding meaningful purpose, fulfillment & joy in life.
- Sue Stranger
- Dec 1, 2025
- 4 min read
Updated: Dec 18, 2025
Remembering your reason for being.
Your Ikigai already lives within you. Let this ancient wisdom guide you home to your natural rhythms.
There comes a moment in life when the deeper parts of us begin to stir — a quiet yearning, a subtle tug toward something truer, older, more aligned with who we really are. Many people feel this as restlessness, confusion, or a sense that life no longer fits the way it once did. For others, it arises as a longing for clarity, meaning, direction, or a more harmonious pace.
For me, this moment became the doorway into the inspiring philosophy of Ikigai, not the westernised version, rather the deeper rooted traditional concept.
Originating in ancient Japanese culture, Ikigai (生き甲斐) translates to “a reason for being.” Ikigai-kan (生き甲斐感) is the "felt sense of a life worth living".
Ikigai-kan is not something you think your way into - it is something you feel.
A sense of deep knowing. The knowing that your days, in their small and ordinary moments, matter.
Ikigai-kan arises when life is lived in natural rhythm, when what you love, what gifts you offer this world, and how you move through the world are in gentle alignment. It is the embodied feelings of acceptance, meaning, purpose, connection, sustainability, harmony and belonging in mindfulness and heartfulness.
Not constant joy. Not perfection. But a deep, sustaining sense that this life, as it is unfolding, is worth living.
Ikigai-kan is often found in simple places: tending the garden, sharing tea, walking beneath trees, offering your gifts in service, feeling part of something larger than yourself.
It is less about striving toward purpose and more about remembering how to live in relationship with yourself, with others, and with the living world.
Reawakening your Ikigai is not a destination or achievement, or even requiring grand gestures, but an embodied practice - a way of living each day in mindful presence. Ikigai invites us to cultivate a fulfilling, harmonised life that nourishes our physical, emotional, mental, and spiritual selves in alignment with the natural world and community — our true human-nature.
Ikigai is less about finding yourself and more about remembering yourself. It is a homecoming.
Ikigai: An Ancient Wisdom Living Within Us
Ikigai is not something we “invent”; it is something we reawaken.
Within your DNA lies intuitive ancient wisdom — the deep knowing that guided your ancestors to live in rhythm with seasons, land, community and purpose. When you slow down enough to listen, you begin to recognise that this wisdom has not disappeared; it waits patiently beneath layers of expectation, conditioning and busyness.
Through gentle reflection, nature connection, and inner listening, Ikigai helps you:
reconnect with your natural passions and talents
awaken perspectives that enrich your sense of meaning
realign with your core values
honour your cultural and ancestral roots
find your sacred place within community and the living world around you
Your Ikigai becomes a living compass — guiding, grounding, evolving.
Reawakening Your Ikigai
How can we reawaken our Ikigai? Ikigai is not just one thing, it can be many, and we begin with the small 'things' in our lives;
Start small with the little things, these culinate over time and have a ripple effect throughout our whole life
Return home to our inner wisdom - the seeds of your Ikigai already reside within us
Releasing yourself and accepting yourself in your uniqueness and humanity
Aligning your life with harmony and sustainability in all life areas
Cultivating sensory pleasures, finding joy in the little things, turning small actions into pleasureable moments
Being with the here and now - cultivating child-like curiosity with mindfulness and heartfulness, releasing expecations, judgements and conditioned roles
Ikigai is alive — it grows with you.
The key is to stay in tune with yourself, to cultivate curiosity, and to lean gently into opportunities for self-discovery and growth. By regularly reconnecting with your Ikigai and fine-tuning your inner listening, you awaken intuitive wisdom — trusting your body, your feelings, your instincts and your creativity to guide your life.
This is how you create a meaningful, purposeful existence that flows naturally from who you are.
The Gifts of Living Your Ikigai
When you begin honouring your Ikigai and aligning it with your lifestyle, clarity emerges like sunlight through a forest canopy. With clarity comes understanding — a deeper sense of who you are, what matters to you, and how you wish to contribute to the world.
The benefits ripple across your entire life:
clarifying priorities, reducing overwhelm, stress and anxiety
embodying a holistic vision of your life
cultivating belonging and connection through meaningful relationships and contribution
making decisions aligned with your values, and establishing healthy boundaries
developing resilience and adaptability in times of change
experiencing a sense of accomplishment, fulfilment and inner connection
fostering creativity, innovation and playful learning
Ikigai doesn’t erase life’s challenges; it helps you meet them with clarity, mindful presence, compassion and self-trust.
Remembering Your Reason for Being
Finding your Ikigai is ultimately a remembering — a returning home to yourself. It is the art of aligning your inner world with the outer world, weaving purpose into your everyday life, and honouring your true human-nature.
It is a journey of belonging. A journey of meaning. A journey of awakening your sacred place in the wider living web of Earth.
Your Ikigai already lives within you. Let it guide you home.
If you feel the calling to return home to your human-nature, let's share a conversation about how personalised coaching can help guide you along your path of remembering.
With deep respect & care
Sue
Certified Ikigai Coach
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