The Life Well Lived Is a Life Worth Experiencing

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The Life Well Lived Is a Life Worth Experiencing

Ikigai (i-key-ga-ee) is a word that has been defined as “one’s reason for being” or “a life worth living.” This Japanese term comprises two characters – “life” (生き) and “to be worthwhile” (甲斐). The experience of ikigai is typically associated with engagement in meaningful experiences and activities to which one devotes effort, attention, and focus (Kumano, 2018). The origin of the term is traced to ikiru-kahi, itself a composite of the words “to be alive” and “worth.” Psychiatrist Mieko Kamiya (1966) is attributed as the first to popularize the term in her pioneering work Ikigai ni Tsuite (What makes our life worth living). Since then, numerous popular press books have been written about ikigai. Arguably the most popular is Ikigai: The Japanese Secret to a Long and Happy Life (Garcia & Miralles, 2016), one of 2,000 books listed on Amazon about this concept of well-being. The popularity of the concept, particularly its association with longevity, has also been featured in an episode of the 2023 Netflix documentary Live to 100: Secrets of the Blue Zones. 

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The Well-Being Paradox in Latin America: What Should Be Protected and What Can Be Learned

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The Well-Being Paradox in Latin America: What Should Be Protected and What Can Be Learned

As primals world beliefs researcher Jer Clifton once said during his Research Methods and Evaluations class, most research begins with an observation and a question. Without realizing it, my capstone project for the University of Pennsylvania Master of Applied Positive Psychology (MAPP) started with some observations that evolved into questions a few years before I officially began the program. 

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African Perspectives on Well-Being: A Conversation With Angelina Wilson Fadiji, PhD

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African Perspectives on Well-Being: A Conversation With Angelina Wilson Fadiji, PhD

One of the first things I noticed when I began to investigate positive psychology and, particularly, after I discovered the Master of Applied Positive Psychology (MAPP) program at the University of Pennsylvania, was the faces of its professors, practitioners, and the program’s alumni. Most of theirs were much lighter than my own.

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On Work and Well-Being: A Conversation With Jane Dutton, PhD

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On Work and Well-Being: A Conversation With Jane Dutton, PhD

Whether your 9-to-5 takes up only 8 hours of your day or your work seeps into many areas of your life, whether you work for yourself or for a major organization, we suspect most would agree that finding well-being in the workplace is an essential component of living a good life. But it isn’t as easy as showing up every day with a smile or deciding to be satisfied with what your job entails. Workplace well-being gets down to the foundation of what we are seeking with our work, who we are working with, what the organizations we work for prioritize, and the context of our lives outside of working hours.

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