Falling Apart

Living Ikigai is living a life of integrity

Image from video by Andymation

Someone asked me a question yesterday.

How do you get it all done?

My answer surprised them.

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I don't, at least not anymore.

There were times in my life when I balanced a high-stress job, the illness of a child, and being emotionally present for a disabled wife, all while trying to maintain everything else.

I coached my kid's sports, volunteered at church, and had a well-kept lawn….you get the idea.

I became exceptional at compartmentalizing my feelings to juggle all those things.

When my son needed life-saving brain surgery, I buried the worry and kept going with everything else. People marveled that I was so calm under such circumstances.

Neither they nor I realized at the time that I was living without integrity.

Integrity, in this sense, means wholeness.

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We live integrated lives when we are operating as the whole person in our Ikigai.

📌 When we try to 'balance' rather than live in harmony with our essence and purpose; eventually, we start to disintegrate.

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Funny how in trying to 'hold ourselves together' in such circumstances, we are contributing to our disintegration.

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🌀 I don't try to do it all anymore. While not everything gets done, the great irony is the essential things do, and I'm doing them as an integrated person.

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