The southern Japanese island of Okinawa is known as the place which has the highest concentration of centenarians (people who live over 100 years) in the world.
Many studies have been done on the longevity of people in Okinawa. The Spanish author and scientist Hector Garcia, who has researched this has written a popular book called “Ikigai”. He describes the lifestyle and provides lots of insights about the people in Okinawa. Especially their food habits, they eat a variety of foods but they eat very little, and they always keep themselves on the move all the time. He also observed that they had very low levels of mental stress. He states that all these things help them to live longer compared to people living in other parts of the world. But beyond all these things he identified a magical thing called “Ikigai ” as the pillar of their longevity.
Ikigai is “the great purpose” which drives the people every day, the ultimate purpose which makes them get out of their beds every morning, and extend their life beyond 100 years.
When Garcia defragmented Ikigai he found that our Ikigai, our purpose, must intersect with 4 fundamental characteristics: it must make us happy, we should find a sense of ease in it, we should be appreciated for it (maybe with remuneration or in some other way ), and it must be of use to the world. When these 4 fragments are united in our personal interests, that is our “Ikigai” which motivates us to live every day, and brings a certain degree of excitement to live long.
It’s an incredible idea and it may be something that we have not yet discovered in ourselves, if not, then we should try finding it… Ikigai can drive us and can help us focus our energy in one direction and extend our years on earth.
Today I am grateful for the idea of Ikigai.
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