IKIGAI - My Take on Japanese's Secret to a Long and Happy Life

This is my blog on my 2nd book of the 2nd week of 50 week 50 books - 100 blogs challenge that I have promised myself to engage in. Ikigai came across as a light read which talks in general about different things that could help us to live a meaningful life. It talks about finding your own meaning and purpose of life so that whatever we do is done with a sense of service which itself will nourish our souls. It has taken example of people,  who happen to live a very long life, living in a small town of Okinawa in Japan.  Some of them have even crossed 100 years of age. Their accounts try to give us the secret to the long and happy life. Let's see what all those secrets were:

1. What is Ikigai - The definition of Ikigai as stated on web states that it means one's reason for being. It also states that Ikigai is the part where there is a convergence of one's passions, beliefs, values and vocation. The ones who follow Ikigai and its concepts undertake life with willingness and a satisfying sense of meaning. Some of the concept of Ikigai:

• Never Retire - Never ever truly retire from your work because the day you truly retire your brain muscles also start to degrade at a faster rate which could lead to faster ageing process.

• Eat Till 80% Full - Don't fill your belly with excessive eating. Eating till you feel you are 80 percent full is a good way to start controlling your diet. 

•  Stay Connected for Life - We humans are social animals and we need connections in life to survive. Have good connections in life on whom you can rely on. A sense of community gives you a sense of security which is very important to live a goof life.

    2.   Antiaging Secrets - We can incorporate these general tips to live a long life:

•  Don't Sit for a Long Duration - As it is being commonly said these days sitting for our generation is what smoking was for the previous generation. Try to move after sitting for a while. 

• Sleep Enough - Try to sleep for 7-9 hours everyday. Sleep is the most powerful anti-aging secret which many of us bereft ourselves with. 

•  Exercise and Meditate - A sound soul lives in a sound mind and body. Moderate exercise daily and meditation of some form is enough to reduce modern stress which is an inseparable component of daily lives.

    3.  Find Flow in Everything you do - Flow is the state when time seem to vanish and we lose ourselves in the activity we enjoy.  We are completely immersed in the experience and not thinking or being distracted by anything or anyone else.  Lets see how to achieve flow:

• Choose a difficult task but not too difficult. By doing this neither we will get demotivated by the enormity of the task nor we will get bored by its easiness. The challenge will be just right for us to feel motivated.                

•  Have a clear objective of what you wanna do. 

•   Remove distractions - Set a routine that if you are going to do something then you will be doing that activity uninterrupted for a particular duration of time and then take a break that too for a particular duration. 

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