Ikigai: The Japanese Secret to a Long and Happy Life, Summary

Ikigai: The Japanese Secret to a Long and Happy Life, summary

Introduction

The book Ikigai is written by Héctor García and Francesc Miralles. This book is a must-read for anyone who wants to live a happy, productive, meaningful and long life. The authors of this book look into the life of the people of Okinava-an Island in Japan- to find out why they live happy and long life. In Okinava, there are 25.55 people over the age of 100 for every 100,000 inhabitants-which is far more than the global average.

Ikigai is a Japanese concept that can be roughly translated as “The happiness of always being busy”. Most Japanese people never really retire. They keep on doing what they love as long as their health allows. Keeping your mind active is a way to live a healthy life because a healthy mind will promote a healthy body. Besides keeping your mind active there are many other factors that can prolong our life-like following a good diet, exercise, forming social ties and finding purpose in life. Let us look into all of this in detail and thereby find the secrets of a happy and fruitful life. Let us begin.

Chapter 1: ‘The art of staying young while growing old’

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According to the centenarians in Okinawa, ‘our Ikigai is the reason we get up in the morning’. Purpose in life or finding meaning in life is a very important tenet of life. Once you find your purpose, you have to keep working on it and never retire. As mentioned earlier, most Japanese don’t retire. They keep on doing what they love to do with their life. This is all because of the strength of their ikigai. You must find your ikigai too and you will reap the benefits of the Okinawans.

‘The five Blue Zones’

Blue Zone is a term given to geographic locations where we find some of the world’s long-living people. Okinava is obviously one of these five blue zones. The author Dan Buetter coined the term “Blue Zone” and more details of the same can be found in his book of the same name-“The Blue Zones“.

While analysing the five blue zones, the author found that they all have many things in common. All the blue zones were islands. Members of these communities gave importance to diet, exercise, finding purpose in life and forming strong social ties. They consumed little or no meat or processed foods.

‘The 80 Percent secret’

“Hara hachi bu”. This is a common saying in Japanese which can be translated as “Fill your belly to 80 Percent”. We are humans living in modern society with a prehistoric brain. Back when we were cave dwellers, food was in shortage. Whenever we came across food, we filled our belly to 100 Percent. Unfortunately, we still have that instinct in our DNA. It’s not at all good for your health. So like the Okinawans fill your belly to 80 Percent since it is obviously good for your health.

Japanese deliberately use small plates to limit the amount of food served. You can use similar tricks too. Okinawan diet includes tofu, sweet potatoes, fish vegetables etc. More about the Okinawan diet in the coming sections.

‘Moai: Connected for life’

‘It is customary in Okinawa to form close bonds within the local communities’. An example of this is Moai-which is an informal group of people with common interests. The Moai members make a monthly contribution. This payment allows them to participate in meetings, dinner games etc. Moai also supports its members financially by allowing surplus money to members in need. Hence Moai helps to maintain the emotional and mental stability of the members. This in turn boosts the life expectancy of the people.

Chapter 2: ‘Little things that add up to a long and happy life’

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‘Active mind, youthful body’

“men’s sana in corpore sano”. This is a Latin phrase which translates as “a sound mind in a sound body”. You must keep both your mind and body active in order to stay younger. You can keep your body active by regular exercise. A lot of sitting will age you. Take daily walks, it’s highly beneficial for the mind and body. Engage in sports and games. Use stairs instead of an elevator or escalator. All this can help to keep your body active.

In order to keep your mind active, you must present it with new information. This can ideally be done through reading books. You can also try learning a new skill or try learning a new musical instrument etc. Our brain needs enough stimulation to keep in shape. Feed it with new information to keep it active. Dealing with new situations, learning something new, playing games and interacting with other people seems to keep our mind in good shape. You must make sure that you get enough sleep also. Your mind and body also need downtime to rejuvenate themselves.

‘Stress: Accused of killing longevity’

Stress causes more harm to our mind and body than we think. As cave dwellers, stress helped us to stay alive in a harsh environment filled with predators. But our brain thinks we are still in that cave-dwelling era. You must take care to keep your stress under control. A small amount of stress can help us to get our work done in time. But the level of stress we are experiencing now is way too much to be healthy.

Meditation, breathing exercises and yoga can help to reduce stress. A positive attitude can also reduce your stress. Have a stoic attitude and see everything with a positive attitude. This will help your mind and your body.

Chapter 3: ‘From Logotherapy to Ikigai. How to live longer and better by finding your purpose’

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In this chapter, the author explains briefly Logotherapy and Morita therapy. I see both Logotherapy and Morita therapy to be very useful. So I highly recommend you to read this chapter with deep focus.

‘What is Logotherapy?’

Logotherapy is a therapeutic approach developed by Viktor Frankl. Logotherapy helps people find their purpose in life. Viktor Frankl is a psychiatrist and psychotherapist who survived the Nazi concentration camp in the 1940s. He is the author of the best-selling book “Man’s search for meaning”. His therapeutic approach logotherapy pushes patients to consciously discover their life’s purpose in order to confront their neuroses.

“He who has a why to live for can bear almost any how”. These are the words of the German Philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche. His quote summarizes the basic idea of Logotherapy. What we want in life is not a peaceful existence but a life filled with optimal challenges. If every day is the same and there are no challenges or tasks to win at, life will be boring. Most us of play games and attend competitions to full fill our thirst for challenges.

It is highly advised to find your life’s purpose(Ikigai) and work towards achieving it. However, you don’t stop when you achieve the purpose you set initially. Instead, you should raise your standards higher and work towards achieving them. Life is a journey in which you must enjoy every moment and every achievement.

‘What is Morita Therapy?’

Morita therapy is a Japanese psychotherapy developed by Shoma Morita. It focuses on teaching patients to accept their emotions without trying to control them. It teaches us to accept our desires, anxieties, fears and worries and let them go.

The author tells a fable to explain his point clearly. A donkey that is tied to a post by a rope will keep walking around the post in order to free itself. But this in turn will make the donkey more immobilized and attached to the post. The same thing happens to people with obsessive thinking.

The Basic Principles of Morita Therapy

1. ‘Accept your feelings:‘ If you have obsessive thoughts in your mind, don’t try to control them or get rid of them. Observe them like the weather. You can’t predict or control them. You can only observe them.
2. ‘Do what you should be doing’: Focus on your present and do your work.
3. ‘Discover your life’s purpose’: Find the purpose of your life and try to achieve it.

Chapter 4: ‘Find flow in everything you do’

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“We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act but a habit” -Aristotle

“Flow is the state in which people are so involved in an activity that nothing else seems to matter. The experience itself is so enjoyable that people will do it even at great cost, for the sheer sake of doing it” –Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, Flow: The Psychology of Optimal Experience.

We all have felt this flow in our life once in a while when we immerse ourselves in an activity we like. It may be a game of football or an evening spent reading your favourite book while sipping tea. It is a wonderful feeling. Try to achieve a flow in everything you do. There are several strategies for that.

‘Strategy 1: Choose a difficult task(but not too difficult)’

You must choose an optimally challenging task. If the task is easy then you will be bored. If the task is too difficult you will quit. For example, if you choose to read a book, read one that challenges you but is still not too difficult that you would give up reading. Once you find an optimal task and engage with it, you will reach the state of flow.

‘Strategy 2: Have a clear, concrete objective’

It is important to have a clear goal in life. You must have a compass with you to guide you in life. Nevertheless, you should ensure that you don’t obsess over your objective. Once your objective is set, you must plan on how to reach your objective and then work towards achieving it. Once the plan is ready, focus on the process than the product.

For example, if your objective is to write a book, make a plan on how to write a book within a stipulated time. Once the plan is set, you must concentrate on writing a couple of pages daily according to your plan. Don’t obsess over finishing your book. Just focus on the process of writing a couple of pages per day. With enough days spent on writing daily, you will produce a book in time.

‘Strategy 3: Concentrate on a single task’

Multitasking is a myth. You can’t handle two or more cognitively challenging tasks at the same time. You may be able to wash dishes while listening to music since the cognitive load is less for those activities. But to achieve a state of flow you must concentrate on one task at a time. Get rid of all your distractions and focus only on one task and you will achieve the state of flow.

Conclusion

In this summary, I have conveyed some of the core messages of the book. It’s in no way a substitute for reading this excellent book. So if you like this summary, I encourage you to purchase the book and read it fully. It has helped me to find purpose and peace in life. Even this blog that you are reading is because of the impact of reading books and one important book among them is “IKIGAI: The Japanese Secret to a Long and Happy Life “