Ikigai Workshops

What Should I Do with My Life?

This foundational once-a-year workshop series can be taken as a stand-alone or as a prerequisite for ongoing classes.

For upcoming dates (and to register), see the registration page.

Do you sense it’s time to head in a new direction … or refresh the path you’re already on?
Have you made big contributions, done important work, but aren’t sure it’s your purpose on this earth?
Are you just starting out and want to make certain you’re putting yourself on the right track?
Are you having difficulty choosing among the many interesting things that attract you? Or struggling with having no dreams?
Did you long ago sacrifice your best life to compelling yet inconsequential dreams with little connection to what truly matters to you?
Do you know what you’re meant to do, but so far have spent your life “stringing and unstringing your instrument” while your ‘song’ remains unsung?
Have you thought about taking a sabbatical or looking ahead to ‘encore’ work or a fresh start in the 3^rd act of life?
Are you satisfied with your life, but curious how to enhance it even further?
Are you looking to guide a young person in keeping in touch with the beauty he or she is here to offer the world?
Are you close to your best work and life but not entirely on it? (This can make all the difference.)
Do you sense something more satisfying and joyful is waiting for you—if only you were brave enough to go looking?

In Part I and Part II of the What Should I Do with My Life? series, we listen to radio interviews; view film clips; study the stories of persons who know they are on the right path—and how they know this; and, most important, examine our own lives through a wide variety of exercises.

In Part III of the What Should I Do with My Life? series, we apply our discoveries and take them to the next level, including drawing on the power of nature to reveal important facets of ourselves that get lost in the noise and hubbub of our busy daily lives. Guided by a series of questions, prompts, and insights from various traditions to tap more deeply into our own wisdom, we spend a portion of time among the gardens or walking the wooded trails at Ault Park (Mt. Lookout, Cincinnati).

Part IV of the What Should I Do with My Life? series takes us through two culminating exercises to support us in acting on all we’ve learned about “What matters to me? What did I come to this earth to contribute, experience, and learn?”

“An unlived dream will sit on your heart like a sumo wrestler,” writes lawyer-turned-author Tama Kieves.

Identifying what those dreams are takes reflecting, experimenting, and listening. After years of being ignored or going unrecognized, an authentic life’s work (and an inspired life) doesn’t magically emerge full-blown at the end of a workshop; instead, we are required to wait expectantly as the mystery of our life unfolds according to its own timing. Yet, now we have the tools to encourage them out of hiding, to recognize them, and to live them joyfully, courageously and fully.

Click here for feedback of workshop grads.

What’s included:

A chock-full-of learning series with time between sessions to consolidate and integrate what you’ve learned. You may enroll for the entire series OR Parts I and II only.
Personalized, nurturing small-group setting.
Varied learning formats: lecture, large-and-small-group discussions, dialogue, audio-visual—and some play, movement, and whimsy too.
At-home and during-workshop exercises, both individual and small-group.
Special pricing on Dr. Spence’s companion book, Life Medicine: Wisdom for Extraordinary Living.
Annotated resource lists for your own further exploration.
A warm workshop environment: at studio s on Hyde Park Square (Parts I & II); in the instructor’s 1891 cottage in the historic Observatory district atop Cincinnati’s Mt. Lookout (Parts III & IV), and at Ault Park (Part III).
A facilitator with four decades of experience guiding adults, including creating and offering numerous award-winning courses & workshops. (See also the “What People are Saying” page on this website.)
The assistance of What Should I Do with My Life? workshop graduates who will help you get the most out of your own workshop experience.
Opportunity to meet like-minded folks intent on making the most of their lives and work.
Eligibility for next-step workshops and groups to keep you inspired and moving ahead.

We’d love to have you join us as we explore together!

For upcoming dates (and to register) for this once-a-year workshop, click here.

For any questions before or during the workshop, please feel free to email nancy@yourikigai.com

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