IKIGAI - How to live a long and fulfilling life ?

Recently when an old friend of mine recommended me this book titled "IKIGAI", I thought this would be another Japanese attempt on quality and process improvement (obviously I was proven wrong as it turned out to be on life improvement). I bought the book and kept it in my "to be read queue" as I was busy with some other book at that time. One beautiful day, I got a Whatsapp forward from someone talking about this book and how great it was and how it changed his life blah blah blah. Now obviously, I didn't want to quit reading my ongoing book however this certainly created a bit of curiosity in my mind and I prioritized this book in my list mentally. So here I am today presenting you the extracts from this book for you. This books has ability to change the way you live your life. However that can only happen, If you really start following the life lessons from the book very religiously. 

What's the big deal with this book ?

The book is mainly based on people in an island named Okinawa in south of Japan. Here, the average life span of people is highest in the world. It means average people in Okinawa live longest life in the world. Almost one third of the population completes a century of age here that too with a fit body, an active life and self reliance.

But how on earth is this possible that there is an place in the world where the average people live 16 years longer than rest of the world (average life in Okinawa is 87, 84 for Japan and 72 for the world). This is the puzzle that this book tries to answer. 

There are mainly two reasons due to which the people in Okinawa live a longer and healthier life.

First and the most important is because they know their IKIGAI and second is due to their lifestyle. Lets start with IKIGAI first. 

IKGAI - What is it ?

 In very simple words, it means your purpose in life. The Japanese meaning of this word is "Life to be worthwhile". Let me explain you with this chart below:

We all like to do few things that we love the most for e.g. someone loves writing, someone loves cooking, photography and so on. Similarly there are few things that we are good at for e.g. we may be good at singing or writing or dancing however we may or may not love doing that. Next is to identify what the world needs for e.g. does the world need more doctors, singers , dancers or engineers. Next is to find out what you can be paid for ? If you are able to find something which satisfies all four conditions, probably this is your IKIGAI. You should seriously consider pursuing that as it has high probability giving a purpose to your life. The book does not go in details on this topics and just concludes by saying that Okinawans mostly know their IKIGAI. I am bit disappointed by this as I expected the book to present more on IKIGAI. By the way I recently saw an You Tube video of a person who was running a channel on Travel. When I read more about the person, I realized that he had quit his day job to start that You Tube channel. I thought my be that was his IKIGAI as It must have fulfilled all four of above conditions. 

Second most important aspect covered in the book is the lifestyle and food they eat. 

Lets start with food first:

The 80% Rule:  Don't confuse with Pareto rule of 80/20. This is how Okinawans eat their food. They only eat till they are 80% full. It means they stop eating when they stomachs are 80%, its like avoding that desert which you eat even after your stomach says "Enough".There are lot of theories and research to prove why eating below your hunger can keep you healthy longer. 

Use many bowls to serve food : One trick they follow while eating to to serve in small bowls which makes you feel as if you are eating lot. This practice keeps them away from eating in excess. Okinawans have been practicing this for decades and been living long and healthier lives. 

Daily Diet: Okinawans daily diet is full of vegetables-roots, such as sweet potatoes, and yellow and green vegetables like pumpkin, bell peppers, bitter melon, and seaweed.  They believe in having a rainbow color at their dining table that means have fruits and vegetables for all colors in a rainbow. Such food can lower inflammation and improve immune system function. The eating plan is rounded out with tofu and mushrooms. They do eat rice but in smaller quantities than a traditional Japanese diet-preferring yellow or purple sweet potatoes as a source of carbs.

Lost of fruits and Vegetables and less of meat: Okinawans eat lots of fruits and vegetables which we know confer many health benefits; it’s high in plant protein; contains seafood; and is rich in whole grains. These qualities are consistent with what we know to be a dietary pattern that encourages health and longevity. They eat 206 different types of foods. So variety also helps. 😎

Drink Sanpin-cha: A tea mix of green tea and jasmine flowers. Okinawans drink an average of three cups of Sanpin-cha every day.

No Sugar Low Salt: Osikawans eat lowest quantity of salt in whole world. They consume 50% less salt than rest of Japan. They consume just 7 grams of salt while the rest of Japan consume 12 grams. They rarely eat sugar and if they have to, they take cane sugar. Their sweet consumption is just one third of Japan consumption that means they eat approx 75% less sugar as rest of Japan. In all they consume just 1785 calories per day while it is 2068 for the rest of Japan and around 2400 for the rest of the world. 

So eat less for longer life!

Then comes Lifestyle:

Moani - Connected for life. In Okinawa, people form communities with like minded people who look out for each other. This is called as Moani. For some, it even becomes their IKIGAI to serve the community. People who are part of a Moani are engaged in number of activities, they form small groups, have their own monthly contributions and participate in meetings, games and dinners. This provides them their daily dose of happiness and purpose for life. People with common interest meet on regular basis mostly during afternoon and have good time and laugh together. 

Active life vs Exercise: People in Okinawa believe in living an active life rather than exercising daily. Most of the people have their own vegetable garden where they prefer to work on their own on daily basis. They prefer to walk instead of driving whenever they could. 

The book also talked about various body, mind and soul connection disciplines such as Yoga, qiqong, tai chi, Radio taiso, Shiatsu among others. The book specially mentioned about Surya Namaskar method and how to perform this correctly (something to be proud of as an Indian).

 

10 Rules of IKIGIA: Finally the book talks about these 10 rules, if followed can bring enormous change to our life. 

Now since you have read the summary till here, you might want to avoid reading the entire book however if you could, would be highly beneficial. In the end I would like to thank you for reading this far and conclude with this Japanese quote: