Ikigai: The Japanese Secret to a Long and Happy Life :Book Summary
“Ikigai is a concept of Japanese origin that means finding happiness in being busy. It explains how diet and Okinawa’s climate contribute to record-setting old age.” “Ikigai derives its name from two Japanese words: iki, meaning life or alive, and kai, meaning an effect, a fruit, or a result.”
Chapter one.
“You will have a long and happy life if you find and live in your ikigai”
The goal is to find a sweet spot between all four components because ikigai is about helping you live a balanced life. And this brings us to why no word in Japanese means “retire:” When you find your ikigai, you’ll want to work until you die or your body gets too weak to work. Why? Because you love the work, and your motivation is not something external. “Blue Zones” are the five zones where people live the longest. These are called the “Blue Zones.” Okinawa ranks top on the list, followed by Italy's Sardinia, California's Loma Linda, Costa Rica's Nicoya Peninsula, and Ikaria in Greece. The secrets of a remarkably fulfilling life in the Blue Zones are healthy eating, exercise, meditation, and finding and pursuing a life purpose. We will further unravel these as the summary progresses.
Chapter two
Some scientists believe
that technology makes it possible to reach biological immortality. Another
group of scientists assumes there is an age limit we can't exceed. Some of them
have concluded this age limit is 120 years since cell regeneration stops at
that age. All these theories are still under research, so there's yet to be a
viable conclusion. However, Blue Zone residents have proven that you can
preserve your body by tending to your mind and, thus, live more decades. An
active and adaptable mind generally helps people live longer.
Your mind will decay if you allow it to remain inactive. Scientifically, some vital neural connections will deteriorate if you don't engage them through mental exercises. This effect reflects reduced reactions to the environment, common in older people who allow their minds to deteriorate after retiring. Many people are unaware of this, so they unknowingly will enable it to happen.
Some mental exercises to avoid being idle include:
• Learning a skill
• Playing board games
• Taking a dance class
• Teaching Another thing that ages people too quickly is excessive stress.
Having conducted several studies, the American Institute of Stress has attributed most health problems to stress and how it inhibits the activity of certain vital hormones that fight heart disease, depression, and anxiety. Regular mindfulness practice will reduce stress, which will help you become healthier and more productive. Some popular mindfulness activities include breathing exercises, meditation, and yoga. Most centenarians have worked well into old age. Living a sedentary lifestyle causes various diseases, affecting your heart and immune system. It also stimulates your appetite and makes your body age quickly.
Some simple activities to incorporate into your daily life will help boost your immune system and make you healthier:
• Walk to work or take a twenty-minute walk each day.
• Take the stairs instead of the elevator.
• Spend your time socializing or taking part in leisure activities.
• Embrace healthy eating habits.
• Make sure you get enough sleep.
• Be intentional about your daily
routines. Replace negative patterns with positive ones.
Chapter three
The meaning of life is to embrace finding your purpose and taking steps toward it. Anything else you do will lead to frustration. Gladly, there are many strategies you can use to find and live your purpose. One of them is logotherapy, developed by psychiatrist Viktor Frankl. Many people are in work situations that do not suit them. Consequently, they get plunged into an existential crisis — feeling hopeless and drowning in guilt, fear, and anxiety from believing their lives have no meaning.
If this is you, here are some tips from logotherapy to overcome it:
• Observe and discover what you’re meant to do in life.
• Be flexible about your reason for being.
• Eliminate worry — it is counterproductive.
• Learn to laugh and make people laugh.
• Never forget that you have control over your actions.
Another thing that can help you discover and advance your purpose is Morita therapy, created by Japanese psychiatrist and philosopher Dr. Shoma Morita. It teaches letting out and embracing emotions instead of trying to control them. Dr. Shoma Morita recommends changing your feelings through actions. The concept is that instead of bottling them up, you increase the range of your emotions until you can change how you feel.
The fundamentals of Morita therapy are:
• Accept your feelings.
• Do what you should.
• Find your life’s purpose. Morita therapy lasts for about 21 days and comprises four phases:
• Phase 1: Isolating yourself and taking a rest (five to seven days)
• Phase 2: Light occupational therapy (five to seven days)
• Phase 3: Occupational therapy (five to seven days)
• Phase 4: Going back to social interactions and “reality”
Chapter four
Discovering your ikigai begins with identifying when you are happiest and what makes you forget your worries. Psychologist Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi calls this state “flow.” Flow is a state of 100% concentration when you’re doing something you love and are good at, your mind is ordered, and you’re having fun. Irrespective of what you do, everyone attains flow through the same process.” “DePaul University and Chicago scientist Owen Schaffer has come up with seven steps for achieving flow:
• Stay objective in what you do.
• Possess skillfulness. • Measure your level of skill.
• Have a destination in mind.
• Identify obstacles to surmount.
• Identify skills needed.
• Block out distractions. Several strategies can help you achieve flow more easily. Strategy 1: Choose a task with a considerable level of complexity.
Strategy 2: Be clear about the goal you want to achieve.
Strategy 3: Focus on the task at hand. Don't try to multitask. Choose one
activity and pour your all into doing it well
Chapter five
A supercentenarian is
anyone who has lived for at least 110 years. Currently, there are about 450
supercentenarians, though only 75 have confirmed their ages. Listening to
supercentenarians provides insight into what we need to do to join their ranks.
Misao Okawa is one such person. She lived 117 years and 27 days and cared for
herself for 110 of those years. When asked about her secrets, she said they
were healthy eating and quality sleep. Jeanne Calment is another
supercentenarian. She passed away at 122 as the oldest person in history.
Calment smoked until she was 120 when she could no longer see to bring a
cigarette to her lips. Jeanne Calment had a good sense of humor even in old
age. Walter Breuning, the second oldest man of verified age in the United
States, died in 2011 at 114. In one interview with The Associated Press, he
shared that people should never be afraid of death because we were all born to
die someday. If we learn anything from these supercentenarians, it's that we
should all face life with confidence.
Chapter six
Okinawa is one of the regions most affected by the Second World War. Yet, its citizens have recovered, surpassing the world's longest-living people. As mentioned in previous chapters, the residents of Okinawa boast a track record of healthy eating. In addition, there were no trains in the province when the authors wrote the book, so when residents are not driving, they are walking or cycling. People rarely die of cardiovascular diseases in Okinawa, and diet and regular exercise certainly have a lot to do with it. Makoto Suzuki, a heart specialist at the University of the Ryukyus, studied Okinawa's diet and published a body of work on it some years ago.
The following are vital conclusions from the book:
• They eat lots of vegetables.
• At least five meals a day contain fruit and other greens.
• Their diet fundamentally has grain.
• The only sugar they consume is cane sugar.
• Their salt intake is very low, half of what those in other Japanese areas consume.
• Their calorie consumption is low. Here are some
foods that Okinawans eat to stay healthy and live long: tofu, carrots, goya
(bitter melon), cabbage, nori (seaweed), onion, soy sprouts, soybeans (boiled
or raw), sweet potato, peppers, sanpin-cha (jasmine tea)”
Chapter seven
Resilience is about bouncing back after a fall to do what makes your life meaningful. Never give in to challenges that seek to discourage you by staying flexible and focused on why you do the things you do. Change the things you can, but do not allow the things you can’t change to change you. Here's a simple exercise to cultivate resilience: ask yourself what the worst-case scenario is in any given situation. Then train yourself to react to this extreme circumstance if it happens. Meditation is another practice that will enable you to build resilience. It will help you to live in the present and acknowledge the impermanence of things. Lebanese American essayist and risk analyst Nassim Nicholas Taleb believes that antifragility is better than resilience.
To become more antifragile, do the following:
• Be proactive by having multiple income streams, making new friends, picking up new interests, and not letting life take you by surprise.
• Go all in with certain things and spread out your investment in others.
• Do away with things that make you fragile.”
Conclusion
Powerful forces are seeking to distract us from leading meaningful lives. Money, fame, attention, and success are some examples. Life is imperfect, but we can learn to do what we love, what we are good at, what the world needs, and what is rewarding as we work through the imperfection. Doing what is meaningful to us can be a great antidote to despair. There is no one-size-fits-all strategy to connect with our ikigai because our situations are different. However, the Okinawans have shown us some clues that can guide us in our search for meaning. The long-living people of Ogimi share their wisdom in these ten principles: Curiosity and intuition are strong internal guides that help you find your ikigai. Don't lose your grip on them. In addition, be busy doing what makes you happy and fills your life with meaning.
• Keep doing things of value that shape the world around you till you die.
• Stop living in the fast lane to enjoy a better quality of life.
• Eat a little less than your hunger demands.
• Keep friends you can share your worries and good stories with.
• Exercise to release hormones that make you happy.
• Smile often. It wins you more friends and helps you see a world full of possibilities.
• Connect with nature to recharge your batteries.
• Maintain an attitude of gratitude.
• Make every day count and leave the past in the past.
• Discover the passion inside you that gives meaning to your days.
Try this Take some time to find and connect to what you love, what you are good
at, what the world needs, and what you get paid to do. Aligning your purpose is
a great way to achieve a fulfilled life.
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