Pete Alexander2x TEDx Speaker and best-selling author helping transform burned out workers into engaged colleagues.

Stress Relief Tool - Visualize Your Ikigai

28 Apr 2021 · 2 min

Watch on YouTube

2:00

The video explains the ikigai concept as a "reason for being" that emerges when four elements—what you love, what you’re good at, what the world needs, and what you can be paid for—overlap. It shows how a Venn diagram can visualize this overlap, promising improved health and a sense of purpose when the alignment is achieved. The speaker then introduces a related visual method, the transformational mandala, which maps key life areas (love, health, wealth, personal self‑expression) around a central self‑symbol to maintain balance. The Leighton Model is presented as a specific form of this mandala that highlights life domains needed for long‑lasting stress relief. Both tools are described as dynamic, allowing users to update and modify the visual representation to keep life areas balanced and serve as a reminder for ongoing stress management.

Chapters

An ikigai is most often translated as a reason for being. The premise is when you bring together what you love, what you're good at, what the world needs, and what you can be paid for, that is when you found your ikigai. Once you found your reason for life, your health will improve. Now, a Venn diagram shows the ikigai right there in the middle of what you love, what you're good at, what the world needs, and what you can make income from. Finding the answers to these 4 questions and figuring out how they will work in alignment will provide you with a sense of peacefulness and purpose. A similar visual approach is a transformational mandala where you draw a circle in the middle that represents you or your spirit. Then you draw additional elements around your center circle that represent the most important areas of your life, such as love, health, wealth, and personal self-expression as it relates to your inner spirit, with the goal of keeping all these key areas in balance. Now, the Leighton Model is a diagram and a kind of a form of transformational mandala because it shows the parts of your life that need to be in balance to sustain long-lasting stress relief. What's fun about both the ikigai and the transformational mandala is that you can update and modify the the areas of your life that are important and keep a visual representation as a remainder to maintain balance.