by Matthew Rehrl MD | Ikigai, Writing Habits
Look around your bathroom and your bathtub (perhaps next to your soap or bubble bath?). Those dogeared books and magazines you read in the tub? There is a good chance they have got something to do with your ikigai.
by Matthew Rehrl MD | Ikigai
Although I believe the word ikigai—in the Japan of prior generations—is a nuanced concept encompassing life’s purpose and value, for better or worse, it has been transformed into a visual meme: a four-part, colorful Venn diagram. It’s now a...
by Matthew Rehrl MD | Ikigai
One benefit of studying physics and engineering is that it gives me some insight into the difference between the theoretical and the practical. For example, although quantum physics and general relativity give a better theoretical description of the universe than...
by Matthew Rehrl MD | Ikigai
Ikigai is not equivalent to happiness. (There is an excellent Ancient Greek word for happiness: εὐδαιμονία [eudaimonia], which has a complicated relationship with its cousin ἀρετή [arete, or excellence].) Nor do I think ikigai is essential to happiness. There are...
by Matthew Rehrl MD | Ikigai, Writing, Writing Habits
I don’t think the pursuit of excellence is linear, like this: beginner’s mind → journeyman → mastery Rather, I think it is a continuous, cyclic, equilibrium: beginner’s mind ⇄ journeyman ⇄ mastery ⇄ beginner’s mind
by Matthew Rehrl MD | Ikigai
Is studying the concept of ikigai, and then trying to apply it to one’s own life, a form of cultural appropriation? To answer this question, let’s first take a look at a few definitions of cultural appropriation. Here is a very small sampling of some of the various...
