Ikigai
Ikigai : by Hector Garcia
Give new information
to Brain. That’s brain exercise!
Repetition brings expertise! That’s the best way to improve! We do the physical exercise consistently. How about the mental exercise?
Along with repetition we need to do some new activities in a day that
improves the mental health, says Hector. For instance, running the last 200m backwards in
the daily jogging exercise surprises your brain, puts efforts on it and the
mental exercise gets done. Once this becomes routine make a small change again.
There is a tension between what is good for someone and what they want
to do. This is because people, especially older people, like to do things as
they’ve always done them. The problem is that when the brain develops ingrained
habits, it doesn’t need to think anymore. Things get done quickly and
efficiently on automatic pilot, often in a very advantageous way. This creates
a tendency to stick to routines, and the only way of breaking these is to
confront the brain with new information.
Our neurons start to age while we are still in our twenties. This
process is slowed, however, by intellectual activity, curiosity, and a desire
to learn. Dealing with new situations, learning something new every day,
playing games, and interacting with other people seem to be essential antiaging
strategies for the mind. Furthermore, a more positive outlook in this regard
will yield greater mental benefits.
Mental exercise
Lack of
physical exercise has negative effects on our bodies and mood, a lack of mental
exercise is also bad for us because it causes our neurons and neural
connections to deteriorate—and, as a result, reduces our ability to react to
our surroundings. This is why it’s so important to give your brain a workout.
Curiosity is injects positivity whereas stress has adverse effects.
Intense stress is accused of
killing longevity; Low level of stress is beneficial
Many people seem older than they are. Research into the causes of
premature aging has shown that stress has a lot to do with it, because the body
wears down much faster during periods of crisis. The American Institute of
Stress investigated this degenerative process and concluded that most health
problems are caused by stress. Stress promotes cellular aging by weakening cell
structures known as telomeres, which affect cellular regeneration and how our
cells age. As the study revealed, the greater the stress, the greater the
degenerative effect on cells.
While sustained, intense stress is a known enemy of longevity and both
mental and physical health, low levels of stress have been shown to be
beneficial. Those who live with low levels of stress tend to develop healthier
habits, smoke less, and drink less alcohol. Sleep brings the stress levels down
and along with it gifts us with many more benefits.
Sleep improves skin texture: Science has shown that sleep is a key
antiaging tool, because when we sleep we generate melatonin, a hormone that
occurs naturally in our bodies. The pineal gland produces it from the
neurotransmitter serotonin according to our diurnal and nocturnal rhythms, and
it plays a role in our sleep and waking cycles. A good sleep has lot to do with
your mind set and eating habits. How about quantity in diet?
Hara hachi bu : “Fill your belly
to 80 percent”
“Fill your belly to 80 percent. Over eating causes wearing down of body
with long digestive processes that accelerate cellular oxidation.
The way food is served is also important. By presenting their meals on
many small plates, the Japanese tend to eat less. A typical meal in a
restaurant in Japan is served in five plates on a tray, four of them very small
and the main dish slightly bigger.
Finding purpose:
“Why do you not commit suicide?” Usually the patient found good reasons
not to, and was able to carry on. What, then, does logotherapy do?
The answer is pretty clear: It
helps you find reasons to live. Logotherapy pushes patients to consciously
discover their life’s purpose in order to confront their neuroses.
“Marna hi hai, to paida kyo huae? The answer is purpose! Point to be remembered “We don’t create the meaning of our life, as Sartre claimed—we discover it.”
Morita therapy : Logotherapy
and Morita therapy are used to heal the depressed people.
The four phases of Morita therapy Morita’s original treatment, which
lasts fifteen to twenty-one days, consists of the following stages:
1.
Isolation and rest (five to seven days).
2.
Light occupational therapy (five to seven days)
3.
Occupational therapy (five to seven days)
4.
The return to social life and the “real” world
The basic concept in this therapy is
bringing a change by breaking the loop of depression. When one gets back to
social life she/he manages to forget the previous thoughts and finds purpose
through the change.
Naikan meditation:
Morita was a great Zen master of
Naikan introspective meditation. Much of his therapy draws on his knowledge and
mastery of this school, which centers on three questions the individual must
ask him-or herself:
1. What have I received from person X?
2. What have I given to person X?
3. What problems have I caused person X?
Through these reflections, we stop identifying others as the cause of
our problems and deepen our own sense of responsibility. As Morita said, “If
you are angry and want to fight, think about it for three days before coming to
blows. After three days, the intense desire to fight will pass on its own.”
Flow: This is the biggest secret
for happiness.
The Psychology of Optimal Experience, flow is “the state in which
people are so involved in an activity that nothing else seems to matter; the
experience itself is so enjoyable that people will do it even at great cost,
for the sheer sake of doing it.” How?
Strategy 1: Choose a difficult task (but not too difficult!)
Easy - Boredom
Challenging - Flow
Beyond Our Abilities – Anxiety
Strategy 2: Have a clear, concrete objective:
Video games—played in moderation are great ways to achieve flow,
because the objective tends to be very clear: Beat your rival or your own
record while following a set of explicitly defined rules.
What often happens, especially in big companies, is that the executives
get lost in the details of obsessive planning, creating strategies to hide the
fact that they don’t have a clear objective. It’s like heading out to sea with
a map but no destination. It is much more important to have a compass pointing
to a concrete objective than to have a map.
Often we procrastinate. How to improve?
As soon as you take these first small steps, your anxiety will
disappear and you will achieve a pleasant flow in the activity you’re doing.
Strategy 3: Concentrate on a single task :
Our brains can take in millions of bits of information but can only
actually process a few dozen per second. When we say we’re multitasking, what
we’re really doing is switching back and forth between tasks very quickly. Unfortunately,
we’re not computers adept at parallel processing. We end up spending all our
energy alternating between tasks, instead of focusing on doing one of them
well. Concentrating on one thing at a time may be the single most important
factor in achieving flow. If we want to get better at reaching a state of flow,
meditation is an excellent antidote to our smartphones and their notifications
constantly clamoring for our attention. The winner of the 1988 Olympic gold
medal for archery was a seventeen year-old woman from South Korea. When asked
how she prepared, she replied that the most important part of her training was
meditating for two hours each day. Flow is mysterious. It is like a muscle: the
more you train it, the more you will flow, and the closer you will be to your
ikigai
Bad moments spent in repenting
or thinking of past:
Let the thought pass: In fact, one of the things we learn in the
practice of meditation is not to worry about anything that flits across our
mental screen. The idea of killing our boss might flash into our mind, but we
simply label it as a thought and let it pass like a cloud, without judging or
rejecting it. It is only a thought—one of the sixty thousand we have every day,
according to some experts.
Enjoy the state of flow through
Rituals:
Rituals give us clear rules and objectives, which help us enter a state
of flow. When we have only a big goal in front of us, we might feel lost or
overwhelmed by it; rituals help us by giving us the process, the sub steps, on
the path to achieving a goal. When confronted with a big goal, try to break it
down into parts and then attack each part one by one. Focus on enjoying your
daily rituals, using them as tools to enter a state of flow. Don’t worry about
the outcome—it will come naturally. Happiness is in the doing, not in the
result. As a rule of thumb, remind yourself: “Rituals over goals.” The happiest
people are not the ones who achieve the most. They are the ones who spend more
time than others in a state of flow.
Can someone really retire if he
is passionate about what he does?
If you want to stay busy even when there’s no need to work, there has
to be an ikigai on your horizon, a purpose that guides you throughout your life
and pushes you to make things of beauty and utility for the community and
yourself.
Physical Exercise:
“Metabolism slows down 90 percent after 30 minutes of sitting. The
enzymes that move the bad fat from your arteries to your muscles, where it can
get burned off, slow down. And after two hours, good cholesterol drops 20
percent. Just getting up for five minutes is going to get things going again
Buddhism and Stoicism:
Both Stoicism and Buddhism are, at their roots, methods for practicing
wellbeing. According to Stoicism, our pleasures and desires are not the
problem. We can enjoy them as long as they don’t take control of us. The Stoics
viewed those who were able to control their emotions as virtuous.
The Stoics believed that these kinds of desires and ambitions are not
worth pursuing. The objective of the virtuous person is to reach a state of
tranquility (apatheia): the absence of negative feelings such as anxiety, fear,
shame, vanity, and anger, and the presence of positive feelings such as
happiness, love, serenity, and gratitude.
In order to keep their minds virtuous, the Stoics practiced something
like negative visualization: They imagined the worst thing that could happen in
order to be prepared if certain privileges and pleasures were taken from them.
To practice negative visualization, we have to reflect on negative events, but
without worrying about them. Seneca, one of the richest men in ancient Rome,
lived a life of luxury but was, nonetheless, an active Stoic. He recommended
practicing negative visualization every night before falling asleep. In fact,
he not only imagined these negative situations, he actually put them into
practice—for example, by living for a week without servants, or the food and
drink he was used to as a wealthy man. As a result, he was able to answer the
question “What’s the worst thing that could happen?”
In nutshell…..
The ten rules of ikigai
These ten rules are distilled from the wisdom of the long-living
residents of Ogimi in Japan
Those who give up the things they love doing and do well lose their
purpose in life. That’s why it’s so important to keep doing things of value,
making progress, bringing beauty or utility to others, helping out, and shaping
the world around you, even after your “official” professional activity has
ended.
2. Take it slow.
Being in a hurry is inversely proportional to quality of life. As the
old saying goes, “Walk slowly and you’ll go far.” When we leave urgency behind,
life and time take on new meaning.
3. Don’t fill your stomach.
Less is more when it comes to eating for long life, too. According to
the 80 percent rule, in order to stay healthier longer, we should eat a little
less than our hunger demands instead of stuffing ourselves.
4. Surround yourself with good
friends.
Friends are the best medicine, there for confiding worries over a good
chat, sharing stories that brighten your day, getting advice, having fun,
dreaming . . . in other words, living.
5. Get in shape for your next
birthday.
Water moves; it is at its best when it flows fresh and doesn’t
stagnate. The body you move through life in needs a bit of daily maintenance to
keep it running for a long time. Plus, exercise releases hormones that make us
feel happy.
6. Smile.
A cheerful attitude is not only relaxing—it also helps make friends.
It’s good to recognize the things that aren’t so great, but we should never
forget what a privilege it is to be in the here and now in a world so full of
possibilities.
7. Reconnect with nature.
Though most people live in cities these days, human beings are made to
be part of the natural world. We should return to it often to recharge our
batteries.
8. Give thanks.
To your ancestors, to nature, which provides you with the air you
breathe and the food you eat, to your friends and family, to everything that
brightens your days and makes you feel lucky to be alive. Spend a moment every
day giving thanks, and you’ll watch your stockpile of happiness grow.
9. Live in the moment.
Stop regretting the past and fearing the future. Today is all you have.
Make the most of it. Make it worth remembering.
10. Follow your ikigai.
There is a passion inside you, a unique talent that gives meaning to
your days and drives you to share the best of yourself until the very end. If
you don’t know what your ikigai is yet, as Viktor Frankl says, your mission is
to discover it.
Disclaimer.
The summary of this
wonderful book written by Hector Garcia is just an attempt to preserve good
points. In the process I have used my experiences, observations, discretions
and foresights to land on a point.
Vinay Wagh
Bulls Eye.
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