Ikigai (生き甲斐, pronounced [ikiɡai]) is a Japanese concept that means “a reasonfor being”. The word refers to having a direction or purpose in life, that which makes one’s life worthwhile, and towards which an individual takes spontaneous and willing actions giving them satisfaction and a sense of meaning to life.
Which of these are your ikigai or will/reason to live and be?
Feel free to choose the first 3 and share .
The reason to be…
1To not perish without a passion
2To not miss all the great deeds
3To sample all the great senses
4.To ride on, no matter the storms
5.To never back down
6.To dare to dream, no matter
7.To be unconventional
8.To love unconditional
9.To see hope beyond all odds
10.To tune inwards and sense wellbeing
11.To choose health in every now
12.To learn as much as you can
13.To understand life in the living
14.To rebel and be free of the mundane
15.To make a name and garner fame
16 To make merry till the light shines
17.To be a reason for others to live
18.To play with life and risk it all
19.To live in this now no matter what
20.To protect my ones from harms way
21.To sense love living life lovingly
22.To explore and see the far off lands
23.To lead others and create prosperity
24.To act upon every possibility
25.To show the way for others to follow
The will to live …
Whatever is your reason or will to be may be, may you find happiness and contentment in your chosen path.
Life often challenges and surprises you
So make each moment matter as you live.
And not for single day
Just exist without living
Such is the will to live.
Today I am happy to be sharing both my vision and my verses in synching with the flow… Have enjoyed this process of many learnings in blending my art to merge and emerge along the way…
I would love to have your feedback on both my painting and poetry.
Presenting My Artwork Synchrony. Music Credits: Lara’s Theme Song Dr. Zhivago
In Synchrony
What is it that powers and energizes our movements? What calms and eases us in. All is, in the flow… Of our breath in this now.
And how it can flow enveloping and encompassing, Connecting and complementing each other like an elegant dance!In the inhale and exhale
All is in the learning To flow and dance with life! In Synchrony!
1. Intelligence Quotient (IQ): this is the measure of your comprehension ability”, solve maths; memorize things and recall subject matters.
2. Emotional Quotient (EQ): this is the measure of your ability to maintain peace with others; keep to time; be responsible; be honest; respect boundaries; be humble, genuine and considerate.
3. Social Quotient (SQ):
This is the measure of your ability to build a network of friends and maintain it over a long period of time.
People that have higher EQ and SQ tend to go farther in life than those with high IQ but low EQ and SQ. Most schools capitalize in improving IQ level while EQ and SQ are played down.
An individual with high IQ can end up being employed by a person with high EQ and SQ even though the person has an average IQ.
Your EQ represents your character; your SQ represents your charisma. Give in to habits that will improve these three Qs but more especially your EQ and SQ.
EQ and SQ make one manage better than the other.
Pls don’t teach children only to have higher IQ , but also to have higher EQ and SQ.
Now there is a 4th one :
A new paradigm
4. The Adversity Quotient (AQ):
The measure of your ability to go through a rough patch in life and come out without losing your mind.
AQ determines who will give up in face of troubles and may abandon their families.
*To parents*:
Expose children to other areas of life than academic. They should adore manual work (never use work as a form of punishment), sport and art .
Develop their EQ, SQ and AQ. They should become multifaceted human beings able to do things independently of the parents.
*Finally*, do not prepare the road for the children. Prepare the children for the road.
I am saddened when I come across the mention of race by color. I am saddened that still people are called black or white or brown or yellow.
We are called out for the shades of our skin, when the truth is, we are so much more. We cannot be confined or defined by narrow eyes.
The fact is, people, see colors differently, and they may not see all the same colors while seeing the same things. There is research on how our individual brains react differently to different wavelengths of light.
Technically speaking the colors we see is an illusion created by our brain. We are not yet certain exactly how animals see perceive us and in which colors.
Why then this prejudice in words to describe life. Humanity knows no color or creed.
Why are we still resorting to identify people into boxes, giving way to mental pictures, and conformity? We are capable of liberating ourselves to see the bigger picture.
A dance article recently published an article that sends out a message of how Misty Copeland is a black dancer who succeeds.
Yes, we have an unequal world filled with all the ‘isms’ and the issues they bring along. It is unfair and discriminatory and biased in so many ways. Not just in race, but in species, gender, age, weight, height, class, creed, caste, religion, status, authority, education, power, and wealth.
Yet the inner light of the being surmountable all odds. And life shines through the heart of the movements.
The world must come together, as it is time to release these frames of false convictions and find in itself the ability and strength to support one another in the power of life that’s beating within us all.
Let us see beauty and talent in all colors and not attribute efforts and success to any color by birth.
When we remove reference of being a particular color we bring to light the truth of the soul and the spirit of freedom to be.
In that light, everything is illustrated in the illumination from within.
These last 3 days of sharing my artworks has been quite an enjoyable experience. It has opened up new vistas of thoughts in envisioning.
My Painting on Day 3 was titled :
The Spirit of Dance
Many of your Word interpretations were quite in synch with it.
Wanted to reflect the simple joy of dance movements in the freedom of being, each as unique as the dancer.
Thoroughly enjoyed reading and responding to each of your creative responses for all three of my artworks.🙏🏼
All of your words are truly incredible and so very imaginative.
Thank you so much for joining in this little experiment in creativity.
Hope to share more of my works and continue this series in the future.
Speaking about my artworks that I posted…
All these Artworks are my paintings from back in time that I happened to chance upon again. I wanted to see if they still meant the same to me in time. I then thought of sharing it in a post the way I did, just for the little collaborative creativity and joy in the sharing.
The multitude of meanings in it, for each of you and the interpretations put forth in the responses were truly each a journey in itself.
In these times of lockdowns the world has had time to pause and reflect and has perhaps chosen to engage with varied creative enrichments in much deeper and fulfilling ways.
Do let me know if you enjoyed playing along these last three days as much as I did.😇
Thank you all again for traveling alongside with me and my artworks for the last three days, as we mutually forged new paths of perceptions in the perspectives. 🙏🏼
Savvy
Every day for three consecutive days I am sharing one of my own paintings from my Artworks Collection.
Every painting will be shared without the title. I would love to understand what your interpretation is of the painting. Then the next day I will reveal my original title and thoughts on the painting.
Here is a share of my Painting on Day 2
Please write the first 3 words that come to mind the moment you see it.
Lets together see if what I have tried depicting through my painting has reached you. Or better still you may have your own interpretation which I would love to read.
Must add, absolutely fascinating word interpretations to yesterday’s painting.I appreciate you for playing along and contributing with your interesting word choices. Some of your words have truly made me think again, so thank you for that! Please play on, I look forward to your words to my picture today.
As promised… Day 1: My yesterday’s painting share was titled Faces I ave always enjoyed and love drawing the human face & profile. I created a face in a face and kept shaping the profiles, side by side depicting the many dimensions to the face, as I continued to flow through with it. There is certainly a whole lot of blues depicting the moods and the mind. My interest in drawing the human face also made me write these two poems:
Today’s post is a compilation in collaboration, My reader and good friend for many years now Ashok Subbarao and I share our views in a collaborative way. He suggested if we could do a post together. And sent me his article. And I added my contemplations. So his prose and my poetry interweave in these words ahead.
Living on the Edge
Are we the cause of all the suffering We are not only the cause We are the reason For the ‘State of Earth’ today.
We have breached all laws of nature We have plundered and massacred Not only our own But innocent voiceless sentient beings.
Our crimes are heinous Our ways unethical Morality or humanity It is completely missing.
The Plundering Humans
The continuous growth of consumerism and the insatiable hunger for more and more utilities and luxuries to fulfill the simple necessities of life have made countries plunder nature’s precious resources. So much so that humans have grown so selfish to uproot green cover of forests and waste life-giving water that nature started showing signs of decay in the form of various natural calamities. This was not an act of revenge but as an intrinsic part, nature to balance and sustain itself.
Yes, life can be lived with simple food, basic needs, and uncluttered living as the rest was provided by nature itself and that too, totally free.
However, man’s greed knows no bounds. With focussed developments in the era of industrialization and in the present age, the technological advancements to boot, man’s demands kept increasing, and these
are what a human being thinks are his basic needs.
Across the world today. Our acts are turning violent Our actions correlate To the price, we all must pay!
We speak without kindness We act without empathy We are ruthless and hopeless. Without integrity and trust.
Tilting natures precious balance By our callous and self-serving ways. Our earth has taken a toll Bearing patiently in witness mode.
The rising temperatures across the world is a result of felling forests for newer colonies, roads, factories, offices, multiplex and what have you; thereby increasing the need for air conditioners which provide relief inside a house, but the amount of energy and power that is sucked out and throwing of heat in the atmosphere is creating more heat.
I would not be surprised when the day is not far when there would be so much heat that the AC compressors too would burst. What will we do then? But humans are so naive and adamant without care.
Man has broken every law of nature Now nature needs to self-repair Humankind must change their ways Seek ways to maintain and sustain the earth.
Centuries of abuse and neglect Nature has no time to be silent It’s truly now or never. Nature must begin to equalize.
Just being human is not enough We must practice our humanity Else the wrath of nature Can no longer be contained
Our ways had got out of hand Life was getting unbearable And so beyond control And way beyond hope.
The only solution is for countries worldwide to totally ban the destruction of forests in the name of development, introduce more public transport so that people stop buying more and more cars which emit gases in the air and encourage people to plant more trees and reverse materialism. This could be a small beginning in restoring balance, for nature will remedy itself.
Today the earth is revolting in its own sweet way and proving to humankind that if they do not amend their ways to sustain, the planet will render us humans as not just powerless, and perhaps the entire existence of humans can be erased. Nature along with is splendor accompanied by other sentient beings will reclaim their space. It is a simple way of nature saying “Hello Mankind I am alive too!.”
In the madness of being modern The malady of our times Values and ethics were trashed Respect and regard were binned.
Stress and tension Anxiety and panicking Sleeplessness and fatigue Plaguing the world over.
Materialism and indulgence Hitting an all-time high In greed apathy and indifference. We took our world for granted.
And vis-à-vis the present pandemic called Covid-19, I cannot but remember the three monkeys as depicted in the picture. See No Evil, Hear No Evil and Speak No Evil a message given by Mahatma Gandhi the apostle of peace.
And it is so ironic that today, we have to cover all the three with a mask. Can we shed the artificial mask that we have been wearing for so long and promise mother earth to behave more sensibly and wisely? Probably we might be pardoned and some semblance of sanity may return to our lives.
Now nature has put humans in cages Animals and birds roam free Roads are empty, rivers are cleaner Pollution has given way to purer air.
While mankind is locked down Nature is restoring to sustain herself Truth is its the only way left to survive! There is perhaps no other way!
Hello Mother
Hope you’re feeling alright
May the sun shine through the day
And may sky stay blue
May the waves be gentle
May the moon be bright and beautiful
May the stars sparkle & twinkle for you.
Hello mother
Forgive us for we have wronged you
We were too busy being selfish
That we never cared for our mother
You withstood it all & bore so much
I admire your resilience
How do you tolerate us so mother
For mistakes unpardonable?
How forgiving can u get?
You are the great teacher
Yes, you showed us the signs
That we simply chose to ignore
How callous of us to think
We could go on forever
Without mending our foolish ways.
Hello Mother
We hope you can breathe easy
Through the days and nights
As you hear natures sweetest tunes
Of swaying breeze & waltzing waves
Of chirping birds in joy
Of streams gurgling by
Of rivers refreshed in the flow
Life is regenerating in relief.
If only hope, faith and trust prevails
In peace and goodwill
Then our actions can speak
Louder than words!
Hello Mother
On this Mother’s Day
Hope you have a beautiful day
Today and every day!
When can you give and share with joy? And what happens when you give and share …
When your cup is overflowing !
A state of abundance
This is an extreme state where you are having so much to give. You are overflowing with possibilities in the potential.
When you give from here,
You may not miss anything.
You may not know the joy of sharing and giving as you have so much more.
Maybe you are giving because you want to get rid of whatever you are giving.
Maybe you want to self balance.
Maybe you want to share with those unfortunate.
Sharing the good always helps.
But do u know if the one you share it with truly wants it or uses it well.
Or do you give no matter
Even if it goes to waste
Because you are overwhelmed. Then that is not giving but discarding.
When your cup is half full!
When you are having some and then you share some, then you are sharing from your heart and brain.
Youunderstand and feel for those in need.
You share because you have something to share, may be not much but you know in your heart
That as you keep sharing you create space for more to come. You are balancing yourself between needs and wants.
You are careful in what you give but you give from your heart, from a space of love.
Such a giving arises from equanimity.
When your cup is almost empty!
When you give from nothing much to give maybe you are hyper extended already.
You may know but choose to ignore it
Else you may be unaware that there is not much left.
In both these cases the giving takes more out of the giver, so much so that it may soon cease.
What can u give when there is nothing to give?
You will give may be beyond your ability but then you will tire soon, feel used and exhausted.
This is a state of tilted balance not a great way to give.
We all may have experienced this at some point or other in our lives.
While giving from a place of love and trust it never goes wrong. We do need to feel the joy in giving. As long as your heart says go on, you must, else notice what’s making your hearts feel different and pay attention. You may learn something more on it!
When the giving & receiving complement each other it is truly ideal. But most often that is not the case.
However, giving is best shared when it comes from a place of trust faith & confidence in the giving that there is always going to be something to give.
When giving is mutual there is a flow and there is abundance.
When giving is from contentment there is gratitude and vis versa.
When giving feels enough it’s best to assess why it feels so!
In greater understanding, the giving flows…
Life is never stagnant
Its meant to flow
Be a giver Giving always finds itself receiving
Life is a circle.
Savvy Raj 
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