The Neuroscience of Being Human
The Neuroscience of Ikigai
How a Japanese word for 'a reason for being' became one of the most robustly evidenced psychological constructs in the world, and what brain science reveals about why a sense of purpose lengthens life, protects cognition, and stabilises mood
1,820-word article with 17 Harvard references.
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Ikigai is not a lifestyle slogan and it is not a Venn diagram. It is a centuries-old Japanese concept describing the everyday sense that one's life is worth living, and it has become the subject of some of the largest and longest prospective cohort studies in modern psychology. This fully referenced article explores what ikigai actually is, how the brain registers and benefits from a sustained sense of purpose, why people without ikigai die earlier from cardiovascular disease and dementia, and how clinicians, employers and individuals can cultivate this protective biological state without falling into the misleading four-circle diagram that has come to dominate the Western imagination.
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