IKIGAI

Curious to know the secret of long and happy life? Then 'Ikigai' provides you with the perfect answer - a book by  'Hector Garcia' and 'Francesc Miralles'. Here, I am sharing the important lessons that I have learnt from this Japanese way of long and happy life.

Okinawa is one of the province in Japan with highest life expectancy all over the world. The book shares the secret of people living here. And broadly, those secrets are - people here have found their 'ikigai'; also they follow anti-ageing diet and include mental and physical exercise in their daily lives. Let's look at them one by one in more detail.

1) IKIGAI 

•'iki' means 'to live' and 'gai' means 'reason'. 

•Ikigai describe the 'why' behind our lives, it gives the reason to get up in morning, it keeps us 'happily busy' , inspire us to stay active until very end, it's something we continue to do even after retiring . In short, it gives purpose to our lives.

• Thus making our each day happy and giving us a reason to live more. 

•Ikigai is something which is common between your passion, profession, vocation and mission. 

•Logotherapy is used for the people who faces difficulty in finding their ikigai.The therapy pushes the patient to find their life's pupose which helps to break the past chain and overcome obstacles. 

•Still struggling to find you ikigai ? Try answering the question, the answer would be your ikigai -

i) What do you enjoy doing, such that you forget all your worries? 

ii)What is it that you do without watching the clock again and again? When time just flows without noticing, since you are so much immersed in it.

iii) What is it that you keep doing everyday even when there is no need to do that? 

•There can be more than one answer to these questions. Infact people can have more than one ikigai. But you have to choose wisely to stay on the right path. To achieve the 'flow' in any particular task - 

i) Don't choose either too difficult nor too easy task- if it's easy you will be bored and if difficult then you may give up. 

ii) Have a clear and concrete objective. But don't get obsessed with it otherwise you will certainly commit error and won't win. Focus on the 'process' not the 'result'

iii) Concentrate on single task as multitasking isn't productive. 

iv) Meditation - is training of mind and it helps to attain 'flow' more quickly. Meditation is of different types but purpose is same - calming mind, observing thoughts and emotions, focusing on single object. 

2) EATING HABITS AND DIET

•Japanese repeat 'Hara hachi bu' before and after eating - it means 'Fill your belly upto 80%'. 

• Japanese tend to eat less as their meals are presented on many small plates (mostly 5), instead of serving all the food on one plate . 

•Consuming too many calories make us lethargic as significant energy is expended on digestion alone. Calorie restriction  decrease levels of IGF-1 (Insulin like Growth Factor 1), a protein that helps ageing. Reducing calorie intake also protects us against obesity, type 2 diabetes, inflammation and cardiovascular disease. 

• They eat atleast 5 serving of fruits and vegetables everyday with enough variety. Diet include vegetables, potatoes, legumes, soy products like tofu, rice, fish. Sugar is rarely consumed, instead cane sugar is used. 

• Inclusion of antioxidants (like tofu, carrot, cabbage, onion, soybean, sweet potato, tea, dried & citrus fruits, Red wind in moderation) is also ensured as antioxidants slow down the oxidation process in cells, neutralizing free radicals that cause damage and accelerate ageing. 

•Tea - Sanpin cha( Jasmine tea) is preferred on  Okinawa Island, with 3 cups of serving everyday. It is a mix of green tea and jasmine flower. Types of tea - 

i) Green tea - It is air dried without fermentation thus retains active elements. It helps control colestrol, lower blood sugar, protects against bacterial infection etc.

ii) White tea - Has high concentration of polyphenols and thus more effective against ageing. White tea is the natural product with greatest antioxidant power in world. It's equivalent to dozens of orange juice glasses.  

3)PHYSICAL EXERCISE 

• Simple exercises like walking is more than sufficient instead of doing 'gym like' exercises. Focus should be on how regularly and frequently you are doing them. All we need to do is 'make some movement'

• Metabolism slows down by 90% after 30 minutes of sitting and burning of bad fat also slows down. After 2 hrs, good cholestrol decrease by 20%. Just getting up for 5 minutes make things get going again. 

• There are different kinds of physical exercises that you can try like yoga (originated in India), Taichi (China), Radio Tasio. They offer significant health benefits.

•We have to combine this physical exercise with awareness of breath (by noticing it) so as to control our mind and ensure that it's not carried away by daily worries.

4) MENTAL EXERCISE 

• Mind and body are connected. Maintaining an active and adaptable mind is a key factor of staying young. 

• Lack of mental exercise cause our neural connections to deteriorate hence reduce our ability to react to surroundings. 

• Doing 'ingrained habits' doesn't require thinking anymore. This create tendency to stick to routines. Since older people have more ingrained habits thus they always wants to do same thing. There is a need to break these rules and confront brain with new information to help brain revitalize. 

• Neurons starts to age in our twenties. To keep our brain active -- deal with new situations, learn something new everyday, play games. 

5) STRESS LESS & SLEEP MORE 

• Stress promote cellular ageing by weakening cell structures called 'telomeres'. 

• Sustained state of emergency/stress affect neurons and inhibit release of certain hormones, the absence of which cause depression. Secondary effects include insomnia, anxiety, high blood pressure. 

•Avoid high stress lifestyle to avoid premature ageing of bodies. Although little stress is good. 

• Practice 'mindfullness' to reduce stress. That is being present in the 'present moment' by limiting the thoughts that are out of control. 

• Sleep is anti-ageing -- Sleep generates melatonin Melatonin is powerful antioxidant, it strengthen immune system, contain element that protects against cancer, promote insulin. Thus take atleast 7-8hrs of sleep daily. 

•However, melatonin production decrease after 30yrs of age. Then you have to compensate this by eating balanced diet and avoiding stress. 

• Some common activities seen on the island that may have helped them to reduce stress are--:

 i)A strong community bond - People help each other during emotional as well as financial problems. Hence reducing stress.

ii) keeping vegetable garden. 

iii) following their local culture and tradition. 

#If you found the information useful, please share and comment.