I recently completed reading a very inspiring
book – IKIGAI – The Japanese Secret to a Long Happy Life. In this article, I am
going to talk about my learning from the book. The book touches the various
aspects of life which can help us achieve long happy life. It is based on
ancient, well-practiced Japanese technique called – IKIGAI.
The people of Japan believe that everyone has
an IKIGAI – a reason to jump out of bed each morning, a reason for living. According
to the residents of the Japanese village with the world’s longest-living
people, finding it is the key to a happier and longer life. Having a strong
sense of IKIGAI - the place where passion, mission, vocation, and profession
intersect—means that each day is infused with meaning. It’s also the reason
many Japanese never really retire (in fact there’s no word in Japanese that
means retire in the sense it does in English): They remain active and work at
what they enjoy because they’ve found a real purpose in life - the happiness
of always being busy.
The book starts by explaining the study of 5
blue zones where the life expectancy of particular regions around the world is the highest. It then discusses the diet intake and similar routine of people from
those regions that help them live longer with a bit of philosophy to measure
one’s attitude throughout their lives. This is the core concept of emotional
awareness and has similarities with mindfulness and stoicism. Advancing further
the authors introduces the concept behind “finding a purpose to exist” sharing summarized
insight from Viktor Frankl’s logotherapy concluding in-depth differential
between psychoanalysis and logotherapy with few key ideas.
The first of the many interesting concepts that I
came across is the Morita therapy, introduced during the same time as
logotherapy by a Zen Buddhist Shoma Morita, unknown to me before. The key
principles and the four phases of this therapy are summarised to well in this
book and will be another post for me to elaborate. To help the reader to
achieve the basic understanding of Ikigai, authors then introduce Mihaly
Csikszentmihalyi’s research on the state of being completely immersed in one’s the present moment also known as flow.
As shown in the Venn diagram above, this
“existential fuel” lies at the intersection of what you love, what you are good
at, what you can be paid for, and what the world needs. It is unique for
everyone and can change in the course of life. In that sense, IKIGAI is
much more than a passion or profession. This framework would make for a great
discussion on topics like social entrepreneurship, and it would have been
useful for the authors to include such an analysis. If one has a sense of
purpose in life, the concept of retirement does not matter. The authors draw on
research into logotherapy (discovering purpose) which focuses on the future,
spirituality and reframing current contexts. Perspectives can be reset by
examining the present from a future state and contrasting the present context
with worst-case scenarios. It is important to accept feelings of anxiety, fear,
or worry; however, one should not succumb to them or even try to eliminate
them.
People who live the longest have a positive
attitude and a high degree of emotional awareness. They can manage their
emotions during times of setbacks. Meditation “slows down the centrifuge” of
the mind. Mindfulness increases peace of mind and helps appreciate the more
important as well as the finer aspects of life. While a low level of pressure
and occasional stress may be beneficial, continuous stress is physically
harmful and can cause fatigue, depression, irritability, insomnia, and anxiety.
A strong sense of humor and smiling at people (even strangers) help as well.
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