{"id":9434,"date":"2020-01-25T12:43:21","date_gmt":"2020-01-25T12:43:21","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.mindfulsciencecentre.com\/?p=9434"},"modified":"2020-01-25T12:43:21","modified_gmt":"2020-01-25T12:43:21","slug":"how-japanese-concepts-of-ikigai-mindfulness-can-make-our-lives-wholesome-and-rewarding","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/c4efilms.com\/msc\/how-japanese-concepts-of-ikigai-mindfulness-can-make-our-lives-wholesome-and-rewarding\/","title":{"rendered":"IKIGAI, can make our lives wholesome and rewarding"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Japanese Concepts of IKIGAI, MINDFULNESS can make our lives wholesome and rewarding\u00a0<\/span><\/h2>\n

By – Manish Behl, TEDx Speaker, Mindfulness and Emotional Intelligence Coach & Conscious Thinker at Mindfulness India Summit and Mindful Science Centre.<\/span><\/p>\n

A long time ago, I visited a small restaurant near Carrera, a small town in Italy. It was about 12.30 pm in the afternoon, time for lunch, and there wasn\u2019t an empty seat in sight. The place abuzz with people, talking over the animated chatter of the chef, who was about 80 years old and the owner of the restaurant.<\/p>\n

The menu was curated and brought to life by the aging chef, who was rich with age-old recipes and inventions. We ordered pizzas, risotto, and some homemade red wine. The food smelled outstanding. The bread was freshly baked, pizza and risotto were outstanding and till today I still remember that meal as the best Italian food I ever ate.<\/p>\n

After lunch, I met with the chef for a chat and asked him about his time running the restaurant. He spoke about the joy he and his family find in creating one-off recipes and serving their customers. Perhaps that was the very reason for his success and happiness in his personal life. I understood the importance of \u201cpurpose\u201d to be successful, and the vital role it plays in happiness.<\/p>\n

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Ikigai is a Japanese practice of mindfulness.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Ask anyone that can claim they lived a long, healthy, enjoyable life how they did it. There\u2019s a chance you\u2019ll be bombarded with a range of solutions: diet plans, exercise, running marathons, doing yoga, going vegan. Some may work, and many won\u2019t. So how do you live a long and enjoyable life? No one really knows this very well.<\/p>\n

A common notion is that sickness and disease are part of the larger \u201cageing\u201d package, and you can\u2019t opt-out. It\u2019s true that ageing is fundamentally linked to deteriorating health, and longevity, the ability to live a long healthy life isn\u2019t a given. If there\u2019s one thing we have been searching for since time immemorial, it\u2019s the elixir of life: immortality.<\/p>\n

Japan, with one of the largest octogenarian populations of any race, are definitely in the know on this secret. In a small island town south of Japan, called Okinawa, which also goes by \u201cthe land of immortals\u201d, the average life span is 90 years and 66 percent of residents live till they\u2019re 100. What\u2019s fascinating is that even the oldest Okinawans are healthy, with the necessary physical, cognitive and emotional fitness to live and function independently. In what can only be described as a luxury these days, they also have a negligible incidence of some of today\u2019s biggest medical killers like diabetes, cancer and heart ailments.<\/p>\n

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“Asato ma sad-gamaya; tamaso ma jyotir-gamaya; mrtyor-ma amrutam gamaya”<\/em><\/strong><\/span><\/h4>\n

Lead me from unreal to real; lead me from darkness to light; lead me from death to immortality<\/em><\/span><\/h4>\n
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What\u2019s their secret?<\/strong><\/span><\/h2>\n

In recent years, Japanese have received a lot of attention from researchers for healthier and longer lifespans, joyful spirit and social bonding. H\u00e9ctor Garc\u00eda, author of the internationally-acclaimed book ‘Ikigai\u00a0\u2013 The Japanese Secret to a Long and Happy Life’<\/em>\u00a0explains some of these aspects in his book.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a natural thing\u2014they have a strong sense of purpose. Dedication and perseverance is everywhere in Japan,\u201d Hector Garcia explains of his 15 years of learning Japanese culture and concepts. A former software engineer, he has done extensive research on concept of Ikigai and shared his insights with me.<\/p>\n

Ikigai<\/em>\u00a0is a Japanese word that describes the many pleasures and meanings of life. A combination of two words, \u2018Iki<\/em>\u2019 meaning\u00a0“to live” and \u2018gai<\/em>\u2019 meaning\u00a0“reason or purpose”, collectively mean \u201cPurpose or Reason for life\u201d. If we go a little deeper, we can\u00a0interpret this as “making life worth living” \u2013 a raison d’etre. Ikigai\u00a0means one\u2019s reason to get up in the morning and the reason to enjoy one\u2019s life and possibly this hypothesis of\u00a0Ikigai is greatly evident among the residents of Okinawa.<\/p>\n

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\"Ikigai<\/p>\n

Ikigai in a Venn diagram, the meeting of many powerful motivators in the middle. Image courtesy:\u00a0Toronto Star<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

In today\u2019s times, our lives are controlled by the pervasiveness of money, our enjoyment, and happiness measured through\u00a0the barometer of money, sense of security through big bank balances, happy life through lavish comfortable life for which we have to win large goals in our life. Our value as an individual and our own feelings of self-worth and self-respect is evaluated by our achievements.<\/p>\n

On the other hand, Ikigai is about living with purpose and not money, happiness and not materialism, community and not individualism for a healthy and successful life. It can safely be said that\u00a0Ikigai can lead to success, and one can achieve\u00a0Ikigai without being professionally successful.<\/p>\n

\u201cScientific studies suggest that only about 25 percent of how long we live is dictated by genes… The other 75 percent is determined by our lifestyles and the everyday choices we make. It follows that if we optimize our lifestyles, we can maximize our life expectancies within our biological limits,\u201d Dan Buettner, an American researcher and author of the book \u201cThe Blue Zones<\/em>\u201d about Ikigai, says.<\/p>\n