About - Ikigai Café

Welcome to Ikigai Café, a philosophical compendium for the pursuit of life worth living. May you be full of curiosity, awe, and wonder as you embark in this journey to find your reason for being.

Ikigai Café was created as an amalgamation of Loreen’s philosophical insights; not seeking to be in the place of automaticity, authority, and autobiography — but to be in a place of genuine openness for examination and expression.

Not automatic but meticulously pondered
Not authoritative but curiously ruminated
Not autobiography but archetypically explored

This compendium is a living container of all things that matter and that which contribute to the betterment of our understanding of the meaning of life (but by no means shall attempt to define with certainty, the meaning of life).

As a living container, the impressions within this compendium is not exhaustive nor definite — meaning, that this container shall continue to evolve as the author, the curator, and inquisitor in one — learn and unlearn her discernment of the world and its constructs.

This is the space where thoughts in abstraction are made manifest into the world through words.

The ideas, stories, and realities presented within this container become the artefacts of integration. Whether it is insight obtained from rumination, conversation, or lecture — the words made manifest into the world are given the life to possibly instigate curiosity, awe, and wonder to whoever it resonates with.

May the human who thirsts for insight find the artefacts herein most quenching — may it inspire you to find courage to take action when needed, remain steadfast when challenged, and become spirited when feeling listless.

About Loreen Buenavista,CPA,MBA

Designer of intentional spaces that harness collective wisdom to instigate awe and wonder. 🦋✨

Loreen is a facilitator and people-connector. She creates containers that draw in the wisdom of the collective to spark creative insight — helping both the individual and the collective feel wholesomely supported, get energetically inspired, and equipped with renewed clarity.

She taps into the flow state through series of serious-plays and the embodiment of child-like curiosity, awe, and wonder; Therefore, allowing for the emerging of a renewed sense of the self, and the opening of pathways for creative energy: to courageously carry through challenges in real-life, in business, or in relationships.

Loreen is passionate about the exploration, discovery and realization of hidden potential – be it her own or the people she mentors with. She sees herself as a lifelong learner and is actively in pursuit of new knowledge and experiences.

She openly embraces ambiguity and likes to challenge herself to get comfortable with the unknown by creating structure and moving forward with a plan, thus narrowing the region of darkness. She is committed to the deliberate practice of deep work, the conscious effort to sustain flow and reach the depth needed for knowledge work in a hyper-distracted world.

She is an advocate of experiential and social learning. She believes that collective cognition, coupled with serious-play are the means to accelerate the unlocking of human potential.

Work Experience

Loreen has over eight years of experience in one of the Big 4 Accounting Firms (EY) and the largest professional services firm in the Philippines. She started her career in tax and accounting, helping companies with their external compliance reporting requirements for two years. She then spent the majority of her career in the firm's Advisory practice, helping companies implement their performance improvement initiatives for finance and accounting.

Integral to her role as an engagement manager was forming and leading teams for the staff augmentation of the shared services center of one of the world's leading multi-national consumer product company. Her other roles include managing client relationship, resource planning, and project quality & delivery.

Loreen left her career in Accounting and Business Consulting to pursue post-graduate studies with MBA through Acton School of Business (Hardin-Simmons University -- Austin Instructional Site). Through Acton, she underwent the entrepreneurial trial-by-the-fire to earn herself a seat at the "pit": where grit, commitment, and sweat equity (100-hour work weeks) are the qualifications to be worthy to be seated and treated among equals in very engaging and collaborative Socratic discussions.

After graduation, she interned at Acton Academy which is at the forefront of transforming the way the world learns through experiential learning. She contributed on new projects with focus at equipping young learners the skills of sovereignty at owning their learning experience.

At the onset of the pandemic and through the new working world post-pandemic, Loreen worked on several independent projects to create online interactive, collaborative, and social learning spaces with the mission of discovering the individual’s gifts that are aligned with work that is meaningful. Loreen co-created workshops and programs that uses collective cognition and flow to spark insight, and shared, embodied connection to inspire action.

Loreen is a designer, curator, and facilitator of online experiences that help spark insight which then inspire (creative) actions.