Ikigai.

The main organ that intervenes in our decisions is our brain, which through the operation of its approximately 90,000,000,000 neurons, supported by its glial cells, perceives the environment and processes it through both external sensory stimuli (vision, hearing, touch, taste, and smell), as from internal afferents (interoception), and integrates or builds our world, considering ourselves according to family, social or historical concepts or mandates. It is impossible for us to escape the influence of the environment in which we were born, grew up, and developed.

Today the neurosciences speak of an indivisible unit: the body, brain, mind, and environment unit (BBMEU), so there is no way to separate our individual intervention from the life situations in which we find ourselves. Clearly, we cannot hold others responsible for our choices, since we are always deciding what to do with what happens, how to interpret our emotions, and what assessment we make of the intentions of others.

It is known that we have two neuronal response systems, one is fast response, (our emotional or limbic system) that intervenes almost immediately (approximately 250 milliseconds), to ensure our survival and protect us from "apparent danger", reacting instinctively to stimuli, since the second system, a slow system, requires more time and even uses more energy, which makes it very energetically costly for the organism and it is from the Prefrontal Cortex that the operations of the Executive Functions are carried out (inhibit, imagine, calculate, predict, interpret and so on), which takes control to be able to manage emotional impulses and cognitively resolve which attitude to take, which is convenient for each one of us. It is often difficult to avoid automatic responses to situations that we consider dangerous, whether real or imaginary since our brain does not distinguish between an imagined or supposed thought and a real situation, so the suggestion is to pay close attention to our thoughts because they actually trigger a cascade of neurotransmitters and hormones throughout our bodies.

The imagined universe can be as real for your body and your life, like reality itself, therefore it would be desirable for you to use this ability to create in your mind the world that you really want so that you can live appreciating each moment as what you really want. It is, a wonderful opportunity to enjoy your loved ones, your achievements, and your pursuits so that you can find what the Japanese call: «Ikigai» that is to say our reason for being, something that the Japanese culture suggests that each one of us has since when we came into the world and that whoever discovers it, can live happily for the rest of his life. Clearly, when you resolve any internal conflict and discover what you are passionate about doing in life, you will no longer have to work, for the simple reason that the pleasure of doing what you love always entails feeling fully fulfilled and generating positive emotions and hormones of care, maintenance, and growth of all the cells of your body, maintaining privileged health as opposed to living submerged in toxic environments, performing unpleasant tasks and surrounded by complex situations that constantly cause stress.