Mahesh's blog
Published on

Ikigai [book summary]

Tagsbooksummarygistikigaijapan

This post is summary and ideas that I found to be useful from this book:

Ikigai : https://www.amazon.in/Ikigai-Héctor-García/dp/178633089X

This book is about the study of lifestyle of people living in Okinawa who lives longer than rest of the world.

Context Okinawa is one of the blue zones in the world. Blue zone is defined as a place where people live a lot longer than average. To get into some numbers, the world's life expectancy is ~74 and Japan's life expectancy is ~85 and Okinawa's life expectancy is higher than Japan's average. There are having more centenarians (100+ years young) in Okinawa than any region in the world. Understanding their lifestyle can throw light to adopt better practices for healthier life.

What does Ikigai means?

Ikigai is doing work or leading lifestyle which hits the sweet spot of passionate, paid enough and useful for self or others.

Summary

Here is the gist of the book which I found to be useful:

Eating

  • Eat 80% up to stomach space.
  • Do intermittent fasting to cleanse the digestive system.
  • Eat diversified diet which includes different vegetables and fruits daily

Lifestyle

  • Daily light exercise
  • Staying busy throughout the day
  • Ties with community or other people
  • Staying positive
  • Stress less
  • Relaxed lifestyle. No hurry.
  • Celebrate regularly
  • Laugh more
  • Enjoy while disconnected with things.
  • Connect with nature regularly
  • Overall, Stay simple in thinking, eating and living