# Ikigai - *** ## title: Literature Notes: Ikigai - [[Literature notes]] - Along with healthful diet, simple lifestyles in the outdoors, green tea, and subtropical climate, it is ikigai - Only staying active will make you want to live a hundred years - Japenese Proverb - Ogimi , a rural town on the north end of the island - Shikuwasa is a fruit with anti oxidant punch - Moringa tea is brewed in Ogimi - ichariba chode = "treat everyone like a brother even if you have not seen them before" - one of the secrets to happiness of Ogimi;s residents is feeling like a part of a community - ^^Nurturing friendships, eating light, getting enough rest, and doing regular moderate exercise are all equal part of the equation of good health.^^ - Those who discover their ikigai have everything they need for a long and very joyful journey through life - Ikigai - The art of staying young, while growing old - satisfaction, happiness and meanings ikigai brings - having a purpose is so important in japan, that an [[idea]] of retirement does not exist in their culture - Strong sense of community, clearly define ikigai are just as important as diet - ikigai literally means worthwhile life - 5 blue zones - Okinawa, ikigai + moai (close knit group of friends). - sardinia italy. veg + cohesive community - Diet, exercise, find a purpose in life and forming strong social ties. - They dont do strenuous work, but do move very often, taking walks and working in their vegetable garden. Gardening which involves low intensity movements is a practice almost all of them have in common. - Hara hachi bu , eat only till you are 80% full. over eating will wear down the body with long digestive process and accelerate cellular oxidation. - The extra side dish, the snack we eat when we know in our hearts, we dont really need it. Will give pleasure in the short term, but not having them will make us happier in the long run. - Okinawans consume a daily average of 1900 calories. rich in tofu, sweet potato, fish (3 times a week) and veggies. - Moai : Connected for life - informal group of people with common interests who look out for one another. for many, serving the community becomes part of ikigai. - Members of the moai make a set monthly contributions to the group. This payment allows them to participate in meetings, dinners, games of go and shogi (Japanese chess), or whatever hobby they have in common. - being part of it, helps maintain financial and emotional stability. If a member is is trouble, she or he can get advance from the group savings. - The feeling of belonging and support gives the individual a sense of security and helps increase life expentancy. - Antiaging secret - Little things that add up to a long and happy life - active, adaptable mind are key factors in staying young. - brains created new connections when it is presented with new information - "You begin exercising your brain when doing a certain task for the first time" - Our neurons start to age when we are in the twenties, however this process is slowed by intellectual activity, [[curiosity]] and desire to [[Learn]] - Stress: Accused of killing longevity - Premature aging has shown that stress has a lot to do with it. because the body wears down much faster during periods of stress - Antibodies had reacted to [[stress]], the same way they react to pathogens, activating the proteins that trigger an immune response. - Central premise of stress reduction method is focusing on the self. Noticing our responses, even if they are conditioned by habit. - This can be achieved by breathing exercises, yoga, and body scans - A little [[stress]] is good for you - Those who faced challenges and put their heart and soul into their work lived longer than those that chose a relaxed life. - A lot of sitting will age you - spending too much time sitting at home or work not reduces muscular and respiratory fitness but also increases appetite and curbs the desire to participate in activites - walk for atleast 20 minutes a day - participate in social or leisure activities - replace junk with fruit - play with children or join a sports team. (this stimulates the mind and boosts the self esteem) - Attitude - Stoic - serenity in the face of a setback. it lowers anxiety and [[stress]] levels. unhurried deliberate lifestyles. - From logotherapy to ikigai - how to live longer and better by finding your purpose - Why do you not commit suicide? - find reasons to live. - he who has a why to live for can bear almost any pain. - existential crisis on the other hand is typical of modern society in which people do what they are told to do, or other do, rather than what they want to do. They often try to fill the gap between what is expected of them and what they want for themselves with money or pleasure, or by numbing their sense. - without the obligations and commitments of the work week, the individual realizes how empty he is inside. - once you do this you can look back on life as you grow old with peace, he did not envy those who are still enjoying their youth. he had amassed such a broad set of experiences that they showed for what he lad lived for someting - We dont create teh meaning of our life, we discover it. - **Morita therapy** - the west believe that thinking influences feeling and actions. East patients are thoought to accept their emotions without trying to control them. since their feeling will change as a result of actions. - ^^**Accept old emotions, create new emotion via actions**^^ - Accept our desires, anxieties, fears and worries and let them go. A donkey that is tied to a post by a rope will keep walking around that post in an attempt to free itself. - **Welcome your emotions** - They are like the weather, we cannot predict or control them. We can only observe them. - **Do what you should be doing** - What action should we doing right now, focus on that. - 4 phases of Morita therapy - 1st week - isolation and rest - no external stimuli. - he lies down for most of the day - is continually visited by theraphist - continually observe the rise and fall of his emotion. - When he gets bored and wants to start doing something, he starts the next phase - 2nd week - light occupation theraphy - walks in nature and does breathing exercise - gardening, drawing or painting - 3rd week - occupational theraphy - climb mountains or chop wood - can speak to other but only about the task at hand. - 4th week - real life - When you are angry postpone action by 3 days. The intense desire to fight will pass on its own. - Finding Flow in everything you do. How to turn work and free time into spaces for growth[\*](\(\(83c4ebaf-1641-4fb8-90e6-792ac4555cd9\)\)) {{[[r/moved]]}} - Flow is getting **completely immersed** in the experience. Not thinking about or distracted by anything else. Your ego dissolves, and you become part of what you are doing. - like when **lydian is playing the piano**. his hands just move. brain comes later. - We've felt our sense of\*\* time vanish \*\*when we lose our-selves in any activity we enjoy. - Questions to discover your ikigai? - What makes us enjoy doing something so much that we **forget about our worries.** - When are we happiest - **What will you pay to do** - cricket surely does come to my mind. but would i pay to do it when i am expected to win? - Focus on increasing the time we spend on activities that bring us to this state of flow. - Experience is so enjoyable that people will do it even at great cost, for the sheer sake of doing it. - What happens to our mind when we are in the state of flow. - **Mind is in order.** #box1 - If you find yourself often distracted. Here are seven strategies to get into flow - know what to do - know how to do it - know how well you are doing it - konw where to go (if navigation is required) - perceive significant challenges - perceive significant skills - be free from distraction - Strategy 1: Choose a slightly difficult task - {{table}} - **Easy** - **Challenging** - **Beyond our Abilities** - Boredom - ^^**Flow**^^ - Anxiety - If the task is too easy it is will boring, too difficult you will anxious. It should be slightly challenging, to get you into the flow - Strategy 2: Clear concrete objective - Compass > Map. - In an increasingly unpredictable world moving ever more quickly a detailed map may lead you deep into the woods at an unnecessarily high cost. A good compass, though, will always point you in the right direction. - **^^It is very important to reflect on what you hope to achieve before starting to work^^** - Having a clear objective is important, we must also know to leave it behind, when we get down to business. - When a olympic athlete compete for a gold medal, they cant stop to think how pretty the medal is. If they stop to think for a minute how proud they will be to show the medal to their parents, they'll almost certainly commit an error at a critical moment. - As soon as you take your first steps, and then the next small one, you will slowly get into the pleasant flow. - {{table}} - **Vague Objective** - **Clearly Define Objective** - **Obsessive Desire to achieve a goal while ignoring process** - Confussion, time and energy wasted on meaningless tasks - ^^Flow^^ - Fixation on the objective rather than getting down to business - Mental block - ^^Flow^^ - Mental block - Strategy 3: Concentrate on a single task - When you multitask your brains get trained to pay attention to every stimulus. Instead train your brain to reject any external stimulus and stay focussed #focus - Tips - Turn off phone 1 hr before and after sleep - **Put away phone before you achieve flow** - **once a week technology fasting** - **email only twice** a day (define clear time) - **start** work session with a **ritual** you enjoy and **end** with a **reward** - Train your mind to return to the present when you get distracted - Divide activities into a group of tasks, and **assign places** and time for each groups its own place and time. eg: research for a blog post in home in morning. write in library in afternoon, and edit in couch in night - **bundle** routine **tasks** like sending out invoices, making phone calls etc. - Takumis are artisans in japan who are doing their job like a monk meditating with extreme focus, they dont even turn their head to look at someone who just entered their room! - Always have a meaningful challenge to overcome inorder- to maintain flow. - When anyone sets out to create something, his or her responsibility to use nature to gift it life. During his process, the artisans become one with the object they are creating and become one with it. - People practice the art, even if they retire from commercial aspect of it. - Even a elevator operator goes into flow by dancing through the motion. Whistle while painting. Even mundane tasks we get bored and add a small layer of complexity to the task. - When doing business in japan, process and manner are more important than the final result. Rituals are more important than rules. Happiness is in the doing not in the results. - the happiest people are not the ones who achieve the most. The **happiest** **people** are the ones who spend more **time** in the state of **flow**. - **Flow** is **discovered** by **doing** not thinking. Also it is like a muscle. The more you doing , the more you train it. - Words of Wisdom from centenarians - Only two meals a day, and working for as many years as he could - Secret is smiling and having a great time - There are no bars and only a few restaurants in Ogimi, but those who live there enjoy a rich social life that resolves around community centers. - ^^Do important tasks with calm and no rush^^ - Don't worry. The secret to a long life is not to worry. - And to keep your heart young. Open your heart to people with a nice smile on your face. ^^agathin azhagu mugathil theriyum^^ #realizations . If you smile and open your heart, your grandchildren and everyone else will want to see you - The best way to avoid anxiety is to go out and say hello to people. Then i go home and care for my vegetable garden. In the afternoon, I spend time with friends - If you keep your fingers busy you will live to see one hundred years - Nurture your friendships everyday - The secret to a long life is to go to bed early, wake up early, going for a walk. Living peacefully and enjoying the little things. Getting along with your friends. Spring, summer, fall, winter... enjoying each season, happily. - Observations - one hundred percent of the people we interviewed keep a vegetable garden. - they feel cared for like family kinda neighborhood - celebrate all the time, even little things. Music, song and dance are essential parts of daily life. - They are very proud of their traditions and local culture. - They are passionate about everything they do, however insignificant it may be - They are always busy, but they occupy themselves with tasks that allow them to relax. - Diet - Walk - Eat less than 10g of salt / day - Ate 206 different kind of foods including spices - Atleast 5 servings of veggies and fruits everyday - Vegetables, potatoes, legumes and soy products such as tofu are the staples of an Okinawan diet. More than 30 percent of their daily calories come from vegetables - rarely eat sugar - ((d434e7cb-cb4e-40da-8c61-ad241960c65c)) - Small plates of rice, veggies, miso soup and something to snack on. - Nutrition/Calorie ratio to be really high. Body should spend less energy digesting to generate more energy. - try to fast 1/ week? - Drink 3 cuprs Sanpin cha jasmine tea - reduces heart attack risk - strengthening the immune system - relieves stress and cholesterol - Antioxidants - Salmon, mackeral, tuna, sardines - Citrus fruits - Dried fruits - Oats - Olive oil - Red wine - - Do Yoga - Resilience and Wabi sabi - One thing that everyone with clearly defined ikigai has is that they clearly follow their passion and dont give up no mater what - Resilience is not just the ability to persist, but the ability to focus on important things rather than just the urgent , and to keep ourselves from getting carries away by negative emotions - Create antifragility, using shock events to make your system and process to benefit and come out stronger than before. - The way you face difficult situtions make a big difference to our quality of life. - You can enjoy the pleasures of life as long as they dont control you. - Seneca put things into practice by not having servants for a week - Advices to practice negative visualization before going to sleep - Reach a state where negative emotions, like [[fear]], greed are absent. - Wabi Sabi - Instead of searching for beauty in perfection, the japanese enjoy the beauty in the flawed. - Only things that are imperfect, incomplete and ephemeral can truly be beautiful, because only those things resemble the natural world. - ichi-go every moment with friends of family, is unique, cherish it, it will never come back - Japanese is built with wood, so that feature generations can rebuild them. - Japanese architecture is antifragile, after a shock, they are rebuilt better. - The unexpected always happens sooner or later - Get rid of things that make you fragile - Stop snacking between meals - eat sweets once a week - avoid spending time with people who are going through toxic phases - avoid spending time doing things because we feel obligated - Epilogue - #happiness is always determined by your heart - When we spend our days feeling connected to what is meaningful to us, we live more fully, when we lose the connections, we feel despair - Modern life estranges us more and more from our true nature, making it very easy for us to lead lives lacking in meaning. Powerful forces like money distract us on a daily basis; dont let them take over your life. - ^^Our intuition and [[curiosity]] are very powerful internal compasses^^ to help us connect with our ikigai. Be led by [[curiosity]] to fill you with meaning and happiness - Dont worry too much about finding your ikigai. Life is not a problem to be sovled. Just remember to have something that keeps you busy doing what you love while being surrounded by the poeople you love - Surround yourself with great friends, friends are the best medicine, there for confiding worries over a good chat, sharing stories that brighten your day, getting advice, having fun!! Living! - Live in the moment, stop regretting the past and fearing the future. Today is all you have. - source - Ikigai - The Japanese Secret to a long and happy life