Do You Feel Life is Worth Living?

In Japanese, the phrase ikigai translates to "life worth living". In a Japanese study, researchers looked at how a belief that life is worth living affects mortality. 43,391 Japanese adults were asked the question "Do you have ikigai in your life?". Among the subjects who died over the next seven years, a significantly higher number of them expressed that they did not have a sense that life was worth living. These people also had a higher risk for cardiovascular disease and other external causes of mortality.