Compass of the Times 268

Discovering Your Aspiration

Keiko Takahashi

Excitement—Something More Important Than Rest

We have already passed the halfway point of 2026.

I hope the past six months have been truly fulfilling for all of you. As we head into the second half of the year this month, July, I would like to take this opportunity to reflect on what it means to live a fulfilling life.

No one would deny that the brain plays the most central role in human activity.

It is said that the brain is responsible for seven functions: 1) life support, 2) sense and cognition, 3) motor control, 4) memory and learning, 5) generating emotions, 6) thinking and decision-making, and 7) creativity.

These functions cover the entirety of human life. In other words, the functions of the brain are indispensable for human existence.

The brain works tirelessly, moment by moment, day after day, across such a vast range of functions. This is why people say that the brain needs sufficient rest.

It is believed that deep sleep provides the brain with this rest.

However, rest is not the only thing that the brain needs to function vibrantly. It is said, on the contrary, that even more important are certain kinds of stimulation.

Stimulation, such as excitement and things that captivate the mind, is said to be even more essential for the brain’s vitality than rest.

If you think about it, those captivating feelings with excitement and thrills—so-called moving experiences—draw out our motivation and bring hope for the future. These experiences release pleasure-inducing substances such as dopamine, activating the brain and producing positive effects on the entire body.

As we prepare our bodies by muscle training, expanding our interests with excitement and focusing on new information and learning, this also leads to the training of our brain. Conversely, if we stop using our brain, its functions will weaken, much like unused muscles, and it will atrophy.

Activate the Sensor That Helps Us Discover Our Aspirations and Blueprints

This is not something that applies only to the brain as an organ. In our lives as well, the things that excite us, strongly captivate us, move us, and make us become passionate about, hold special meaning.

There is something important within those things that excite us, make our hearts flutter, and draw us in.

Within them, an aspiration worth pursuing, staking out our whole life, may be hidden. A Blueprint¹ in life, meant to be realized in the future, may be harbored. Or perhaps they are guiding us toward the “choice of life,” which makes a major turning point.

This is because we all possess within us what we might call a “soul sensor.”

This means that deep within our minds, we are inherently equipped with the power to discover what we truly seek, what life is meant to fulfill, and the experiences our life is calling us to have.

Of course, even when we are excited, thrilled, or attracted, it may simply be a reaction to the desires or greed of our superficial consciousness. It may also be that we are being captivated by the world’s trends and hot topics.

However, even amid such muddled excitement or flutter, we can still discover the sense that brings us closer to the true aspiration of our soul, our Blueprint of life, and the purpose and mission of life. Deep down in our heart, we can capture what resonates with us or moves us.

I hope you will move forward, believing that the power is alive within you, to draw closer to what you truly wish and to the Blueprint your life is meant to fulfill.

The more consciously you use that sensor, the more accurate it becomes. I encourage you to ask yourself every day whether your inner sensor is functioning correctly.

Facing the sense of excitement will undoubtedly lead you to fulfillment in life. I hope you will live each day believing in this.

Editor’s Note:

1. Blueprint

Originally, a blueprint is referred to as plans showing how to build something, such as a building or a machine. From there, it has come to refer to diagrams or plans for just about anything or for diagrams of the future that ought to be. It is the reality that we seek to realize and aspire to achieve. In the Study of the Soul, the term is also imbued with the meanings of the Idea (ideal form) hidden in all things and the promise made with the Great Existence, with God. (Excerpted from p. 105 of The Golden Path by Keiko Takahashi)

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