Ikigai: The Japanese Secret to a Long and Healthy Life
Ikigai is a Japanese concept, which roughly translates to "the happiness of always being busy." It is a key ingredient to a long, healthy, and meaningful life. The authors of the book interview some of the oldest people in Japan to understand how ikigai has shaped their lives. The key takeaways are:
- Do work that aligns with your purpose
- Work in a state of flow and limit distractions
- Pursue meaningful challenges but limit your stress
- Get between 7 to 9 hours of sleep every night
- Avoid a sedentary lifestyle and prolonged periods of sitting
- Eat whole foods; cut sugar, salt, and excess calories
🚀 First Impressions
Finding meaning in one’s life is key to living a long and healthy life, according to the Japanese concept of ikigai.
The search for purpose is one of the most elusive challenges we all face in our lives. So during my recent flight from Berlin to Barcelona, I decided to listen to the audiobook version of "Ikigai: The Japanese Secret to a Long and Happy Life", written by Hector García and Francesc Miralles.
The book touches on various aspects of longevity and the search for purpose, including:
- Antiaging secrets and the role of ikigai in longevity
- Finding purpose through the lens of Logotherapy and Morita Therapy
- Dietary advice and healthy habits for a long life
All of this is playfully interwoven with anecdotes and life wisdom from some of the oldest living people in the world.
💡 Actionable Takeaways
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Pursuing work aligned with your purpose (ikigai) creates favorable conditions for flow, a state of total absorption where nothing else seems to matter.
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Excessive amounts of stress accelerate aging; manage it with regular exercise, a clean diet, mental training, and healthy sleep habits.
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Prolonged sitting can lead to hypertension, increase your appetite, and curb your desire to engage in activities.
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Seven to nine hours of sleep per night is optimal; more can make you feel lethargic.
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Avoid frequent task switching, as it increases mistakes, decreases your ability to remember what you did, and disrupts flow.
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A healthy diet emphasizes less sugar and salt, moderate calories, high nutrient density, whole foods, and avoiding overeating.
✍️ Best Quotes
"We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act, but a habit."
"The grand essentials of happiness in this life are something to do, something to love, and something to hope for."
"He who has a why to live for can endure any how."
📒 Summary
Ikigai is a Japanese concept, which roughly translates to "the happiness of always being busy." It brings flow, happiness, and a sense of purpose to life, and it plays an important part in longevity.
Antiaging Secrets
A healthy mind is built on good sleeping habits, ideally seven to nine hours per night. Sleeping more than nine hours can leave you feeling lethargic and negatively affect your energy and productivity. Sleep stimulates melatonin production, which lowers the risk of various forms of cancer, cardiovascular and neurological diseases.
Maintaining lower stress has a positive impact on health and longevity. Lower stress helps you develop better habits, as it decreases the tendency to drink alcohol, smoke, and indulge in other unhealthy behaviors. At the same time, a meaningful life isn't stress-free. Seeking challenges that stretch your skills and a healthy dose of pressure is beneficial.
Prolonged sitting is a common health risk in modern life. It can cause hypertension, obesity, and poor metabolic health. Avoid this by using a standing desk for office work, taking regular walks, and engaging in an active lifestyle.
Finally, a common trait among people who live long is that they have a positive outlook and strong emotional awareness (i.e. understanding and managing your emotions) both help you live longer, healthier lives.
From Logotherapy and Morita Therapy to Ikigai
Finding purpose, or ikigai, has been explored by various schools of psychology, two of which are Logotherapy and Morita Therapy.
Logotherapy is a therapeutic approach and school of psychology built on the belief that the search for meaning is the most powerful driving force in humans. It was founded by Viktor Frankl, who was imprisoned in multiple Nazi concentration camps. Despite his circumstances, he found purpose by conceiving a meaning-centered approach to psychotherapy. It teaches that meaning is not created but discovered. The goal is to orient your life toward that journey of discovery, and in doing so, find a deeper sense of meaning.
Morita Therapy offers a complementary perspective rooted in Japanese Buddhism. It was developed by Shoma Morita, a Japanese psychiatrist, who conceived an action-centered approach to mental well-being. Morita Therapy teaches us to accept life as it is. Its principles include: accept what you feel, do what needs to be done, and remain open to discovering your purpose.
Ikigai and the State of Flow
Flow is a state in which you are so absorbed in what you're doing that nothing else seems to matter. According to Owen Shaffer of DePaul University, several conditions help achieve this state:
- Knowing what to do
- Knowing how to do it
- Knowing how well you are doing
- Knowing where to go
- Perceiving the right level of challenge
- Being free from distractions
Flow can be seen in the engineer lost in an interesting problem, the programmer deep in their code, or the gamer fully immersed in a challenge. What these experiences share is a clear objective and a task that stretches your skills just enough.
Lessons from the Oldest People
Ogimi, a village in Okinawa, has the highest life expectancy in the world. Its oldest residents share a few simple principles that contribute to their longevity:
- Stay active
- Have friends and people around you
- Cultivate good habits
- Live an unhurried life
- Maintain an optimistic outlook
- Be passionate about what you do
Dietary Advice for Longevity
Some of the foods recommended by experts to combat aging are:
- Vegetables such as broccoli and chard, for their high concentration of water, minerals, and fiber
- Oily fish such as salmon, mackerel, tuna, and sardines, for all the antioxidants in their fat
- Fruits such as citrus, strawberries, and apricots; they are an excellent source of vitamins and help eliminate toxins from the body
- Berries such as blueberries and goji berries; they are rich in phytochemical antioxidants
- Dried fruits, which contain vitamins and antioxidants, and give you energy
- Grains such as oats and wheat, which give you energy and contain minerals
- Olive oil, for its antioxidant effects that show in your skin
- Red wine, in moderation, for its antioxidant and vasodilatory properties
Purpose and Life's Challenges
The pursuit of purpose unfolds in the broader context of life, which brings challenges. What's common among people with a strong sense of purpose is that they pursue it with resilience regardless. Both Stoicism and Buddhism offer valuable insights for cultivating resilience.
Both Stoicism and Buddhism are methods of practicing well-being. They share a common thread on enjoying life's pleasures without being controlled by them. Stoics deepen this through the practice of negative visualization: imagining worst-case scenarios in order to be prepared if certain privileges are lost.
Antifragility goes beyond resilience. The resilient absorb shocks and return to the same state, the antifragile gets stronger when exposed to stress. To cultivate antifragility in your own life, it is worth:
- Creating more options and avoiding over-dependence on any single salary, friendship, or interest.
- Seeking situations where potential gains far outweigh potential losses.
- Actively identifying and removing fragility from your life before it becomes a liability.
