IKIGAI – The Value of Living is a concept and method of living a happy and sustainable life in Japanese style. At present, I believe that many people would like to have and live like this.
Okinawa , Japan, has a lot of long-lived people. And by long-lived, we don’t mean 80 or 90 years old. We’re talking about people who live to be 100 years old and above. People often say that the sooner you die, the better because it means you have less karma and it will pay off quickly. But the people of Okinawa don’t think that way. They live longer than the average person, and they are very happy with every moment they have on this earth.
The book I’m going to recommend today is IKIGAI: The Japanese secret to a long and happy life, written by Hector Garcia, who moved to Japan after completing his PhD in Computer Science, and he works for CERN in Switzerland, and Francesc Miralles, a Spanish writer, interpreter, and musician. Their book will help us find reasons to wake up happy every morning, feel that death is scary, and that a long, healthy life is the greatest blessing.
“We can live a long and happy life if we find and live with our own IKIGAI.”
The Japanese concept of IKIGAI is like the foundation for finding happiness in the busyness of life. IKIGAI comes from two Japanese words: IKI, which means life or existence, and KAI, which means effect, fruit or result. It explains why there are so many long-lived people living in Okinawa. Their daily lives revolve around the concept of Ikigai.
“Our Ikigai is the combination of everything we love, everything in the world we want, everything we pay to do, and what we are good at.”
Ikigai is meant to help you get your life in order. It brings us to the reason why Japan doesn’t have a word for “retirement.” When we experience ikigai, we don’t stop working until we reach the end of our lives or our bodies become too weak to work. Why do we have to do that? Because we love what we do. The secret to a great life is eating well, exercising, meditating, and finding and pursuing our life purpose.
“We can slow down our aging process if we stimulate our minds and reduce our stress levels.”
There are many different theories and opinions when it comes to the aging of humans. Some scientists believe that technology can help humans escape the rapid aging process. Some assume that there is a limit to age that we cannot overcome. However, the people of Okinawa are proof that they can preserve their bodies with their thoughts, and they have been able to preserve them for decades.
“The best bet for good health and long life is regular exercise of body and mind.”
If we leave our brains unmotivated, they will slowly decay, or in scientific terms, important neural connections will deteriorate if we do not make an effort to exercise our brains. However, we can exercise our minds and our brains in the following ways.
- Learn new abilities
- Play board games
- Join a dance class
- Giving knowledge or teaching someone about something we are good at
“If we want to gain more control over our thoughts and stay present, we need to learn to practice mindfulness.”
In general, mindfulness practice can help reduce stress. It helps us to be healthier and use our thoughts more effectively. There are many popular mindfulness activities such as breathing exercises, meditation, and yoga. In fact, stress is not always a bad thing. Our bodies need low levels of stress to exercise our brains as well. Most people work well until they get old. Sitting still and not stimulating yourself for long periods of time often leads to various diseases. Therefore, these brain and mind training activities can help us to strengthen our immune system and make us healthier.
- Walk to work or take a walk for 20 minutes a day.
- Take the stairs instead of the elevator.
- Participate in social activities
- Replace fast food with healthy fruits.
- Get enough sleep
- Or replace our daily routines that we know are having negative effects with new ones that have positive effects on our bodies.
Logotherapy
Logotherapy , a treatment in which patients are assisted in the process of finding their personal meaning in life, was developed by psychiatrist Viktor Frankl. Many people find themselves in situations that are not suitable for them. As a result, they fall into crisis, feeling hopeless, overwhelmed with negative feelings, fear and stress from the belief that their life is meaningless. Here are some tips from Logotherapy to help us get through this.
- Observe and find out what we were born to do?
- Be very flexible with yourself in what you want to be or do.
- Get rid of your worries, because they destroy everything.
- Learn to laugh and make others laugh.
- Remember that we are the ones who control our own actions.
Morita therapy
Morita therapy was created by Japanese psychiatrist and philosopher Dr. Shoma Morita. It involves releasing our feelings rather than controlling them. The basic principles of Morita therapy are:
- Accept your feelings
- Do what should be done
- Find your life purpose
Morita therapy lasts for approximately 21 days and is divided into four phases.
- Take time off and rest (5-7 days)
- Begin light occupational therapy (5-7 days).
- Do occupational therapy (5-7 days)
- Return to social life and face the real world.
Instead of holding on to your feelings in your body, let them flow through you and transform into positive energy.
“Eat healthy food and get enough sleep.”
We can learn valuable lessons about longevity and health from people who have lived many years beyond the average person, such as supercentenarians , anyone who has lived to be at least 110 years old. Some say there are only about 450 supercentenarians alive on Earth, but of those, only 75 have been confirmed. For example, Misao Okawa lived to be 117 years old simply by eating a healthy diet and getting enough sleep. Jeanne Calment smoked until she was 120 and died of natural causes at 122.
“Okinawa’s food is rich in antioxidants, and residents value regular physical activity.”
Okinawa is a city with an abundance of food. They don’t have trains in the city and they don’t use cars. They travel by bicycle or on foot. Makato Suzuki, a heart specialist from the University of the Ryukyus, studied the antioxidant-rich foods in Okinawa and wrote a book about it several years ago. The main points in the book are summarized as follows:
- They eat a lot of vegetables.
- They eat fruits and green vegetables at least 5 times a day.
- They eat grains as their main food.
- Cane sugar is the only sugar they eat.
- Salt is something they consume very little, less than half of what most Japanese people in other parts of the world consume.
- They consume low-calorie foods daily.
- Tofu, carrots, goya (small melon), cabbage, nori (seaweed), onions, bean sprouts, soybeans (boiled or raw), sweet potatoes, pepper, sanpin (jasmine tea) are some of the foods they eat to maintain good health and longevity.
“Learn how to take advantage of the effects of aging caused by stress and anxiety.”
Pursuing goals is really about challenging ourselves, developing the skills we need to improve ourselves, having a fighting spirit and never giving up. Not giving up on things that come our way is a challenge we should approach with all our might, allowing ourselves flexibility in our lives and focusing on what we are doing. We have the right to change what we can do, but we must not let those things change us first.
“Those who resist their own vulnerability will benefit from chaos rather than revert to the status quo.”
Antifragile means someone who can withstand all the bad things that come their way and still grow up with grace. To become a better antifragile, here’s what we need to do:
- Be proactive, have multiple streams of income, make new friends and always try to find new interests.
- Go all out in every way and try to diversify your investments in many directions.
- Let go of the things that make us weak.
Conclusion
Powerful motivators are the obstacles that distract us while we are searching for meaning in life. Money, fame, attention, and success are just a few of the things that people strive for. Life is not perfect, but we can learn to do what we love, do what we are good at, do what the world needs, and do things that reward us through our work. Do we choose to do things that tell us how meaningful our life is?
Everyone’s IKIGAI is different, but the people of Okinawa are an example of how we too can find meaning in our lives. Here are 10 rules of IKIGAI from the wisdom of long-lived residents.
- Do something valuable, something that can affect the world you live in until you die.
- Stop living a fast life and start living a quality life.
- Eat less than you feel hungry.
- Keep the best friends with whom you can share your bad stories.
- Exercise to build happiness hormones
- Smile often, it will make you more friends and help you see the world as full of possibilities.
- Communicate with nature to recharge yourself.
- Maintain an attitude of gratitude.
- Do every day as good and as full as if it were your last.
- Find your inner inspiration. What gives meaning to you?
“Live your life by being busy with things that make you happy and fill your life with the meaning you seek.”
