Ikigai: The Japanese Secret for Happiness

Ikigai in a Nutshell

In simple words, ikigai is your reason for being. It is the reason you flow. You dedicate your life to that thing and live an un-stressful, calm, and long life. This book is best for those who are searching a meaningful life and for those who want to live a better life.

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There’s no word for retirement in Japanese

Observations say that the older Japanese people are active even in their final years. The secrete for living a long life is to keep your mind active.
Scientifically speaking, our neurons start aging while we are in still twenties. But we can slow this process if we learn something new every day, challenge our mind, play some games and interact with others. That makes a positive impact on our physical and mental health too.

Stress-free life

Stress is our response to the threat we feel. In old times, we humans used to feel some stress when we used to feel real threats, like starvation, or the attack of a predator. On the other occasions, we used to feel relaxed. Threats used to pump high doses of cortisol and adrenaline, which was healthy. At this age, we feel constant stress; our work, competition to perform well with someone or ourselves. We get threats like our cellphone notifications or email from the boss/peers. These are not real life-threatening phenomenons. These constant low doses of cortisol flow can cause serious health problems.

“We have to learn to turn off the autopilot that’s steering us in an endless loop. We all know people who snack while talking on the phone or watching the news. You ask them if the omelet they just ate had onion in it, and they can’t tell you”

“One way to reach a state of mindfulness is through meditation, which helps filter the information that reaches us from the outside world. It can also be achieved through breathing exercises, yoga, and body scans.”

Little stress can be beneficial

Give something for yourself a little challenging each day which will motivate you to keep going, else you will lose your flow.

Walk or do some normal exercise, lot of sitting will age you

Walk for the work or do walking for at least 20min a day. Keep yourself active physically and mentally. Play with children, replace junk food with fruits; be conscious of your daily routine.

Models kept secret: Sleep and sleep well

A good 8hr sleep can improve our health. It gives our skin, a glow.

Ways to find the purpose (Ikigai)

logotherapy

“Well, in logotherapy the patient sits up straight and has to listen to things that are, on occasion, hard to hear.”

1) Patient is frustrated and anxious, feels empty.
2) Its because he/she has the desire to have the meaning of life
3) Patient finds the meaning (at some point)
4) Of his own will patient will accept or reject it
5) This newfound passion helps him to tackle any obstacles and sorrows

“He who has why to live for can bear with almost any how“

“We don’t create meaning, we discover it.”

Morita Therapy

Principles
1) Accept your feelings
2) Do what you should be doing instead of worrying, recovery will come on its own
3) Discover your life’s purpose. We can’t control emotions but we can take charge of our actions

Steps for Morita Therapy
1) Person lives in isolation for a week, without entertainment or any external stimuli
2) Light Occupational therapy(5-7 days): The patient performs a repetitive task while still being alone. He keeps track of his feelings and writes them down.
3) Occupational therapy(5-7 days): The patient performs tasks that require physical movement. At this stage, the patient can talk with people but just for the work.
4) The return to real life: as the patient returns to the real world, he keeps doing meditation and occupational therapy. The main objective is not to get affected by the social or emotional pressures

“If you are angry and want to fight, think about it for three days before coming to blows. After three days, the intense desire to fight will pass on its own.”

Ikigai

Going with the flow

“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.”

Seven conditions to achieve flow
1) Knowing what to do
2) Knowing how to do it
3) Knowing how well you are doing
4) Knowing where to go
5) Perceiving significant challenges
6) Perceiving significant skills
7) Being free from distractions

Strategies to achieve flow

Choose a difficult task but not too difficult

Choose a difficult task to complete. The difficult task can motivate us to complete it. After completing a difficult task, we get that feeling of learning something new or achieving something that we thought was never possible.
A too difficult task can be demotivating as well as a too-easy task can’t motivate us.

Have clear concrete objective

It’s easier to achieve flow when we have a clear objective in front of us. We can set an objective (or goal) for each day and focus on that particular task without doing any multitasking.

“Having a clear objective is important in achieving flow, but we also have to know how to leave it behind when we get down to business.”

Consider, a writer wants to finish a novel in three months. The objective is clear; days go by, he has not even written a word. He promises himself that he will write tomorrow but fails to meet his expectations each day. He gets frustrated.
The problem is focusing more on the objective than the process.

“A happy man is too satisfied with the present to dwell on the future.”

Concentrate on a single task

Our brain is not designed to perform multitasking. We should do one task at a time.
In a world, full of distractions, where we can get distracted just by a notification, we can follow certain things to keep our focus.

1) to be in a distraction-free environment
2) To have entire control over what you do
3) try Pomodoro techniques (where you focus on one thing for 25min)
4) Designate one day of the week for technological fasting; tech-free Sunday
5) go somewhere that has no WiFi
6) Switch off/ DND your phone while working on something
7) Respond to emails/chats only at a particular time of the day(or week)
8) Train your mind to get back on the flow when you feel distracted

“Studies indicate that working on several things at once lowers our productivity by at least 60 percent and our IQ by more than ten points.”

Flow for artists

“Concentrating on one thing at a time may be the single most important factor in achieving flow.”

Many geniuses in japan are very passionate about their work. They achieve it with the flow. Their flow is very important for them.

“The key is always having a meaningful challenge to overcome to maintain flow.”

“Artists know how important it is to protect their space, control their environment, and be free of distractions if they want to flow with their ikigai”

“Art, in all its forms, is an ikigai that can bring happiness and purpose to our days. Enjoying or creating beauty is free, and something all human beings have access to.”

Microflow

It is necessary to achieve flow just for extremely difficult or valuable tasks. We can achieve a microflow in something which is not that challenging. Tasks that feel simple can be extremely complex. By doing those tasks with the flow, like washing dishes, we can achieve our microflow (bill gates do it & Richard Feynmann used to do it).

Rituals

“When doing business in Japan, process, manners, and how you work on something is more important than the final results.”
“The happiest people are not the ones who achieve the most. They are the ones who spend more time than others in a state of flow.”

“Flow is mysterious. It is like a muscle: the more you train it, the more you will flow, and the closer you will be to your ikigai.”

“You stay in your time. You don’t go backward. I think if you relate to the time you’re in, you keep your eyes and ears open, read the paper, see what’s going on, stay curious about everything, you will automatically be in your time.”

Words of wisdom

People who live longer in Japan seem to achieve their flow in what they do. They focus more on the process than the objective and find their ikigai. They maintain strong relations with the relatives and peers and seem to be happy each time (Moai), never stop working and keep themselves active.

“The grand essentials to happiness in this life are something to do, something to love, and something to hope for.”

Diet

1) Japanese eat a wide variety of food. A study showed that they ate 206 different foods regularly.
2) They eat at least five servings of fruits and vegetables every day.
3) Grains are the foundation of their diet. They eat white rice every day
4) They rarely eat sugar

Hara Hachi bu

Japanese follow 80% rule in which they eat only up to 80% of their belly. They say it “Hara Hachi Bu,”. (eat until you are 80% full). It ensures that we won’t be having any post-lunch laziness while pushing our stomach too much.

Exercise

A small amount of movement is needed for our body each day.
Here are few techniques
1) Radio Taiso
2) Yoga
3) Tai chi
4) Qigong
5) Shiatsu

How to face life’s challenges without letting stress and worry age you

“One thing that everyone with a clearly defined ikigai has in common is that they pursue their passion no matter what. They never give up, even when the cards seem stacked against them or they face one hurdle after another.”

Resilience is not the ability to persevere in difficult conditions but it is the ability to focus on important things rather than what’s urgent.

七転び八起き (Nana korobi ya oki) (Fall seven times rise up eight)

“God, give us grace to accept with serenity
the things that cannot be changed,
Courage to change the things
which should be changed,
and the Wisdom to distinguish
the one from the other.”

Both Buddhism and stoicism are focused on controlling our pleasure, desires, and emotions. The goal is not to eliminate all the feelings and pleasures from our lives but to eliminate negative emotions.

Wabi-sabi

“Wabi-sabi is a Japanese concept that shows us the beauty of the fleeting, changeable, and imperfect nature of the world around us. Instead of searching for beauty in perfection, we should look for it in things that are flawed, incomplete.”

Ichi-go ichi-e

“Ichi-go ichi-e teaches us to focus on the present and enjoy each moment that life brings us. This is why it is so important to find and pursue our ikigai.”

Ten rules of Ikigai

1) Stay active, don’t retire
2) Take it slow, don’t be in hurry to chase anything
3) Don’t fill your stomach, eat just 80%
4) Surround yourself with good friends who will support you in everything
5) Get in shape for your next birthday: keep exercising every day.
6) Smile: A cheerful attitude will help you make friends and establish strong relationships
7) Reconnect with nature: often visit nature to recharge yourself
8) Give thanks to your family, friends, and your nature
9) Live in the moment, don’t worry about the future, and don’t regret your past be in the present
10) Follow your ikigai. There is a passion inside you, a unique talent that gives meaning to your days and drives you to share the best of yourself until the very end. If you don’t know what your ikigai is yet, your mission is to discover it.

Read the book (again)