I'm always fascinated by the fact of people living for so long. I don't want to die, not early but never perhaps. I want to live and live and live forever and see all the changes and advancement we pursue technologically and as humans. Well, that's impossible (yet) but that resulted me of reading Ikigai: The Japanese Secret to a Long and Happy Life by Hector Garcia and Francesc Miralles. Frankly, I didn't feel like reading this book when I started; one: it is a personal development book; which would be not so exciting, two: I thought I'm perfect. Doing what I love, being happy and motivated. But it turned to be a different experience.
Before anything and everything, if you're wondering what is Ikigai? Well, short answer: purpose to live. Long answer: read this blog till the end. The book started with people of Okinawa, Japan, where most of the world centenarians(100+) and super-centenarians(110+) live. After losing over 2 lakh people during WW2, the local lived by the principle of ichariba chode, that means "treat everyone like a brother, even if you've never met before". The secret to happiness turned out to be feeling a part of community, They value teamwork, and so are used to helping each other. Nurturing friendships, eating light, getting enough rest and doing regular but moderate exercise are part of good health. But, at the heart, these centenarians keep celebrating birthdays and cherishes every new day, that's their Ikigai.
They never retire.
Many Japanese people never really retire. They keep doing what they love as long as their health allows. As a matter of fact, the idea of retirement simply doesn't exist there.
If you breakdown the term Ikigai(in Japanese), a 4 letter word, has its significance meaning; Life, to be worthwhile, number one and to be the first (a leader), beautiful or elegant.
As great power comes great responsibility, longer life comes from better diet. Members of these communities consumes little meat or processed foods, and drink alcohol in moderation. Well, few research states that moderate consumption is better for health, well not drinking at all in the healthiest. Also, they follow "the 80 percent secret" means fill your belly to 80 percent. Overeating and wearing down bodies with long digestive process accelerates cellular oxidation. Although, they don't actually quantify 80, but they stop when they start to feel full, no extra snack post lunch. Even the foods are served in small plates to reduce the intake. In average people of Okinawa consumes 1800-1900 calories a day while countries like US consumes 2200-2300 calories resulting in a better BMI of 18-22 than 26-27 to the latter. Personally, I don't feel this is possible at all. Restricting myself to not to eat once belly starts to feel full, and no snack or dessert later is hard. One stupid excuse I give myself is, if you don't enjoy what you eat and what you love, then when? guess that's the difference between Okinawans and the rest of us. And that 80 includes healthy, antioxidant-rich foods. ARE YOU SERIOUS!!?
How to live forever?
If we could solve the escape velocity equation, then we might live forever. For more than a century, we've managed to add an average of 0.3 years to our life expectancy every year. But what if the technological development allows us to add one full year!? Then we might live forever. Confusing? Imagine you're a rabbit who's chasing a carrot. The carrot moves 0.3m per minute (say), and you move 1m per minute. And that carrot is 60m(avg life expectancy : 60 years) ahead of you. Every minute, you move a meter, 1,2,3 and so on.. and the carrot moves 0.3metre every minute from 60; 60.3, 60.6, 60.9, 61.2 and so on.. Now the point where you and the carrot meets will be probably your end. That's basic math, Arithmetic Progression. Around ~85-86th minute, you'll get your carrot. Same for life, when you were expected to live for only 60 years, now you can live up to 85 years. That's 25 years! Now imagine the carrot moves same 1m per min as you, you'll never reach the carrot, till infinity and you'd never die, mathematically. That's what aging's escape velocity is about.
How do they manage stress?
They accuse stress as it kills longevity. Research states that premature aging has lot to do with stress. A study subjected a young doctor to a job interview, which they made even more complex problems to solve for 30 minutes. At the end, when they took his blood sample, they discovered his antibodies reacted to the same way they react to pathogens. This triggered proteins not only neutralizes harmful agents, but also damages healthy cells leading to age prematurely. There were few more studies however every study concludes, "the greater the stress, the greater the degenerative effects on cells". Well, personally I like to work under pressure. Pressure circumstances brings the best out of me. If I've a due next week, I'll probably start it the day before due, the undue pressure makes me work more efficient, well that has a darker side as well.
Science has shown that sleep is a key antiaging tool, because when we sleep we generate melatonin. It offers various benefits to our body but the production of melatonin decreases after age thirty. Finally I get a thing that's common between me and the Okinawans. Along with sleep, a positive attitude helps leveraging longevity. As stress under pressured circumstance has an adverse effect, a positive attitude of how I could get out of this mess with a positive attitude would reduce the effect of degeneration.
So, does only Japan have therapies and practices for a longer life? No, even the rest of the world follow. Logotherapy. It is different from psychoanalysis, where it centers on psychology, delves into the past of an individual and retrospective. Where as logotherapy looks toward the future and also includes a spiritual dimension and faith. But is it as effective as Japanese' Ikigai? Basically, ikigai and logotherapy both primely focus on longevity. A famous aphorisms about longevity states: "He who has a why to live for can bear with almost any how".
According to logotherapy, discovering one's purpose in life helps an individual fill that existential void. We all have the capacity to do noble or terrible things. The side of the equation we end up on depends on our decisions, not on the condition in which we find ourselves. There's another form of purpose-centered therapy called Morita Therapy. It's basic principles are to accept your feelings, Do what you should be doing, Discover your life's purpose. May be the way this therapy works could be different but both works for the same goal, a happy and long life.
Aristotle once said, We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act but a habit.
How important is a flow? And what it is?
When we are focused on a concrete task without any distractions, we're in a flow. How to achieve flow? Choose a difficult task (but not too difficult), Have a clean and concrete objective, and Concentrate on a single task. These three simple steps ensure us a flow with minimal distractions. The MIT Media Lab, encourages us to use the principle of "compass over maps" as a tool to navigate our world of uncertainties. A detailed map may lead you deep into the woods at an unnecessarily high cost. A good compass, though, will always take you where you need to go. Concentrating on one thing at a time may be the single most important factor in achieving flow. Humans aren't computers that adept parallel processing. Personally, I find it hard to digest, we all just multitask in one way or the other. Writing while listening to songs/youtube, Binge watching while eating and many more tasks. But are we really efficient? Scientific evidence shows that it has the opposite effect. Even those who claim to be good at multitasking are not very productive. In fact, they are some of the least productive people. That hurts. Switching back and forth between tasks like computer is humanly impossible and it makes you unproductive.
How to do mundane tasks?
When we do laundry, paperwork.. Is there a way to make these mundane tasks enjoyable? Perform a whole sequence of movements of these mundane task to get a microflow. If we're not truly being challenged, we get bored and add a layer of complexity to amuse ourselves. Our ability to turn routine tasks into moments of microflow, into something we enjoy, is key to our being being happy, since we all have to do such tasks. Even Bill Gates washes the dishes every night and says it helps him relax and clear his mind. He achieves microflow by repeating the established set of rules he's made for himself: plates first, forks second, and so on. Thus, find your sequence and enjoy your microflow.
Supercentenarians
When the author interviewed supercentenarians, their responses were: "Eat and sleep, and you'll live a long time. You have to learn to relax", "I've never eaten meat in my life", "Everything's fine", "If you keep your mind and body busy, you'll be around a long time", and this one is pretty savage; "I just haven't died yet". These all were said by people who were 117,116,122,114,111 years young. An artist has mentioned in his postscript; "All that I have produced before the age of 70 is not worth being counted. It is at the age of 73 that I have somewhat begun to understand the structure of true nature, of animals and grasses, and trees and birds, and fishes and insects; consequently at 80 years of age I shall have made still more progress; at 90 I hope to have penetrated into the mystery of things; at 100 years of age I should have reached decidedly a marvelous degree, and when I shall be 110, all that I do, every point and every lines, shall be instinct with life." As we see more and more examples about centenarians and supercentenarians, we presume that they spend most of their time in bed, supervised under someone for care. NO! They still wake up early for sunrise, goes for a walk and behaves what I couldn't do in my twenties. They are always busy, but they occupy themselves with tasks that allow them to relax. We didn't see a single old grandpa sitting on a bench doing nothing. They're always coming and going- to sing karaoke, visit with neighbours, or play a game of gate ball. They just plan what they will be at the age of 110 whereas, we find it difficult to what to do a week later? Unbelievable!!
"Don't worry", "Cultivate good habits", "Nurture your friendships every day", "Live an unhurried life", "Be optimistic". It seems so simple and easy to do these and as they portray it. But, not worrying for things when we're thrown under bus, every single time is just unrealistic. The mental strength to do so and proceed with a positive attitude is nothing short than magic.
Miracle Diet
According to WHO, Japan has the highest life expectancy in the world: 85 years for men and 87.3 for women. Okinawa is one of the areas in Japan that were mostly affected by WW2. However, Okinawans recovered from the destruction, they came to be some of the country's longest living citizens. Okinawans managed to follow eating less than ten grams of salt per day. As said earlier 80 percent- So, eat less to live longer? Without taking it to the extreme malnutrition, of course, eating fewer calories than out bodies ask for seems to increase longevity. The key to staying healthy while consuming fewer calories is eating foods with a high nutritional value and avoid those that add to our overall caloric intake but offer little or no nutritional value.
Along with their diet, their moderate yet consistent habit of doing exercise helps them stay active and healthy throughout. They don't hit hard at gyms, they don't sweat a lot, just basic 5-10 mins of exercise and they walk. Radio taiso, Yoga, Tai Chi, Qigong, Shiatsu, are few such forms of exercise that they do from 10s to 110s. Breathe better, live longer.
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. ichi-go ichi-e, "This moment exists only now and won't come again". Somewhere we all get lost in permanence with everything that's around us. Be it of stone buildings; houses, schools, universities, offices, hospitals, temples, churches, mosques, etc. that gives us the sense that nothing changes, makes us forget about the passage of time. Where as, Japanese architecture, are built in spirit of wabi-sabi. The tradition of making structures out of wood presupposes their impermanence and the need for future generations to rebuild them. While this may sound foolish, but the idea of impermanence is lost somewhere in the process. Wabi-sabi teaches us to appreciate the beauty of imperfection as an opportunity for growth.
Anti-fragile
Fragile used to describe people, things that are weakened when harmed, and the robust or resilient for things that are able to withstand harm without weakening. But what's the word for getting stronger when harmed? Antifragile. How to be antifragile? "Create more options", "Bet conservatively in certain areas and take many small risks in others", "Get rid of the things that make you fragile". There was simple yet effective financial advice as well- whatever the amount you save, put 90% of it in any index-funds or FD which promises safer returns. While bet with the remaining 10% conservatively, divide that 10% to 1% each for a startup. In a possible scenario, three companies might fail (you lose3%), three might stay stagnant(you get what you invested), three might increase (you gain 3%) and one last company which might increase twenty-fold yielding 2000% of returns.
Conclusion
Our ikigai is different for all of us, but one thing we have in common is that we are all searching for meaning. When we spend our days feeling connected to what is meaningful to us, we live more fully; when we lose the connection, we feel despair. Always remember this 10 rules of ikigai: Stay active; don't retire, Take it slow, Don't fill your stomach, Surround yourself with good friends, Get in shape for your next birthday, Smile, Reconnect with nature, Give thanks, Live in the moment, Follow your ikigai. Well, these are so easy to say and we've heard these thousands if not lakhs of times and yet we feel our life have no purpose and meaning. Its perfectly alright if you haven't found your ikigai at the age of 20, or be it 80. It's the ability to wake up the next day with a smile and keeping your body and mind active for longevity.
Personally, with all the modern distractions and commitments, I don't think how much of Japanese culture could be incorporated in our daily life style, we just can't stay in a remote place just like Okinawans. We can't be without eating processed foods, Chats and have a proper sleep without any hinderances. But remember, its okay to fail one day or two, but never the purpose that you wanted to pursue. I can't imagine how much I'm going to follow by myself at the first, however if it can be done, just get it done. Don't worry. And, if you made it till the end, A very big thank you to you from my heart as it was my 10th book (we're stepping into double digits!) and it all happened in a span of 6 months and a longgg way to go! To my dear readers, always remember; Life is not a problem to be solved. I'll see y'all with another blog soon, until then stay happy, be happy, do what makes you happy!!
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