Can we just take a moment and appreciate how beautiful this book cover is! There is a famous Japanese proverb “Only staying active will make you want to live hundred years.” IKIGAI – It is a Japanese word which means the purpose of life, a reason to jump out of bed each morning. According to Japanese Philosophy every human has Ikigai, all one has to do is to find it to live long and happy life.
This book is written about the study on Japanese people who live long and happy life. And let me tell you how much I enjoy reading this book! This book share insights from Japanese philosophy on the lasting health of body, mind and spirit.
This book emerged from the research on people of Okinawa Island in Japan. The Island of Okinawa in Japan where there are 24.55 people over the age of 100 for every 100,000 inhabitants – far more than global average. This book is about knowing some answers such as what is meaning of life? Is the point just to live longer, or should one seek a higher purpose? What is the secret behind the people of Okinawa who live long and happy? How one can find his/her Ikigai? How to handle stress? How to face life’s challenges without letting stress and worry age you? How to turn work and free time into spaces for growth?
It turns out the secrets of happiness and long life for the Okinawa people are:
- Nurturing friendships, feeling like part of a community, they practice teamwork from an early age, and helping one another.
- Eating healthy, light and fresh. There is common saying in Japan ” Hara hachi bu” which means “Fill your belly to 80 percent” which means not eating full stomach.
- Getting enough rest.
- Doing regular, moderate exercises.
- Simple life in the outdoors.
- Ikigai that shapes their life.
This book helps you to find your Ikigai. There is a saying that develop hobbies, one that fills your pockets, one that fills your soul, one that helps to stay in shape, and one that helps you to learn/grow. In simple words, Ikigai is finding what you really enjoy doing and different hobby provides different purpose in your life.
Quoting some of my favorites line from the book.
“Everything can be taken from a man but one thing: the last of the human freedom – to choose one’s attitude in any given set of circumstance, to choose one’s own way.”
“He who has why to live for can bear with almost any how.”
“We all have the capacity to do noble or terrible things. The side of the equations we end up on depends on our decisions, not on the condition in which we find ourselves.”
“We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act but a habit. – Aristotle”
“We’ve all felt our sense of time vanish when we lose ourselves in an activity we enjoy.”
“Add a little something extra, something that takes you out of your comfort zone.”
“Simplicity and attention to details.”
“He keeps practicing for years until he finally does.”
“Can someone really retire if he is passionate about what he does?”
“Happiness is in the doing, not in the result.”
“Focus on enjoying your daily rituals, using them as tools to enter a state of flow.”
“Never stop learning.”
“Do everything with a sense of calm. They are always pursuing their ikigai, but they were never in a rush.”
“One thing that everyone with a clearly defined ikigai has in common is that they pursue their passion no matter what.”
“The only moment in which you can be truly alive is the present moment.”
“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.”
“The resilient resists shocks and stay the same: the antifragile gets better.”
“Bet conservatively in certain areas and take many small risks in others.”
“Happiness is always determined by your heart.”
SO WHAT IS YOUR IKIGAI?
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