Have you found your ikigai?

According to the Japanese, everyone has an ikigai [eye-KEY-guy].

This is your heart's calling, what you live for, your raison d'tre.
Whether it's your family, career, athletic endeavors, artistic pursuits,
or selfless devotion to a greater good, ikigai is the passion and
purpose of your life.
Finding akigai can sometimes require a deep and lengthy search
of self. Fully realizing ikigai can often take much practice. This
work is regarded as 'great' since it is believed that one's ikigai is
the source of lasting happiness, satisfaction and meaning to life.
With ikigai, you hold the key to life's peak experiences in your hand.
Do you need help finding your ikigai or feeling it's powerful energy
more fully in your life? A good place to start is by clearly
identifying those inner character strengths that have developed
within you, such as courage, curiosity, and creativity. And then
proactively applying these strengths to:

Reach 'Flow'
Identify and pursue goals and activities that engage you more fully, enlivening your sense of passion and
purpose, increasing your presence in the NOW, and allowing you to flow more frequently into heightened
states of awe and wonder

Feel Pleasure
Develop and excite your pleasurable emotions and sensations, helping you reconnect with your body,
enhance your sensuality, and blossom into higher states of joy, ecstasy and bliss

Do Good
Gift yourself back into the world in ways that help make it a better place, giving you a greater sense of
purpose, meaning and contentment.
Research in positive psychology shows that authentic happiness is deeply rooted in our ability to align our character
strengths with these three pursuits.

A good place to start!

Your FREE Character Strengths Survey and Coaching Session
The VIA Institute on Character spent several years exploring what is best about human beings and how to put these
characteristics to work helping people become healthier and happier. They created a 140-question online survey that
has been used more than 1.3 million times by people worldwide to accurately identify their personal character
strengths. You can take this survey and review your results with a professional positivity coach* AT NO COST.
Simply email your request to:

Paul Nelson
paul@raisingecstasy.com
You'll then receive an email with instructions on how to take your online survey and arrange for your coaching
session.
Both the survey and coaching session are FREE, but for a limited time only. (Sorry, this offer is good only for those who live in the
continental U.S.)

* About Paul Nelson

Like an experienced sherpa helping explorers climb Mount Everest, seekers wishing to reach the summit of their ikigai experience
will benefit from the help of a trusted guide who knows the terrain. Paul Nelson, M.Ed. is a professional positivity coach (ikigai
sherpa!) who specializes in helping men and women reclaim their joy, sustain their happiness, and realize their fullest expression as

ecstatic human beings. Before starting his coaching practice, Paul served as a Staff Therapist at a Boston-area mental health center
and as a Clinical Researcher managing studies related to schizophrenia. Paul also has extensive experience as a HeartCoach,
helping people with heart disease and associated risks factors make critical lifestyle changes related to nutrition, exercise, smoking
and stress (re: heartcoaches.com). Paul earned his B.A. in Psychology from the University of Massachusetts and an M.Ed. in
Counseling Psychology from Harvard University. He received his training as a coach through iPEC/NE Coaching, Wellcoaches
Corp., and the Institute of Coaching.
In addition, Paul is a life-long student of transpersonal psychology and the worlds wisdom traditions. He has personally studied with
Ram Dass, Trungpa Rinpoche, Joseph Goldstein, Jean Shinoda Bolen, Deepak Chopra, Jean Houston, Dan Goleman, Clarissa
Pinkola Estes, Thomas Moore, native American elder Medicine Story, and other 'keepers of the wisdom-lore'. He has studied
Creation Spirituality with Matthew Fox, Tantra with teachers from the Divine Feminine Institute, A Course in Miracles with Robert
Perry, Shamanism with Michael Harner, and the Abidharma (the ancient text of Buddhist psychology) with Robert Thurman. Paul
has been practicing vipassana meditation for more than twenty-five years.
Paul is the author of 'The Seven Steps for Cultivating Authentic Happiness' which is available on his FB page--Raising Ecstasy.
Copyright 2014