Ikigai - Héctor García (Highlight: 88; Note: 1)

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◆ PROLOGUE: Ikigai: A mysterious word

▪ logotherapy, which helps people find their purpose in life.

▪ Okinawa, where there are 24.55 people over the age of 100 for every 100,000 inhabitants—far more than the global average.

▪ healthful diet, a simple life in the outdoors, green tea, and the subtropical climate

▪ Nurturing friendships, eating light, getting enough rest, and doing regular, moderate exercise

◆ I: IKIGAI

▪ The art of staying young while growing old

◆ What is your reason for being?

▪ What is your reason for being?

◆ Whatever you do, don’t retire!

▪ Whatever you do, don’t retire!

◆ The island of (almost) eternal youth

▪ Blue Zones—the geographic regions where people live longest

▪ drinking tea and eating until their stomachs are only 80 percent full.

◆ The five Blue Zones

▪ The five Blue Zones

▪ Okinawa, Japan

▪ eat a diet rich in vegetables and tofu typically served on small plates

▪ moai, or close-knit group of friends

▪ Sardinia, Italy

▪ plenty of vegetables and one or two glasses of wine per day.

▪ cohesive nature of this community

▪ Loma Linda, California

▪ The Nicoya Peninsula, Costa Rica.

▪ active after ninety; many of the region’s older residents have no problem getting up at five thirty in the morning to work

▪ Ikaria, Greece

▪ Island of Long Life

▪ out that three of these regions are islands, where resources can be scarce and communities have to help one another

▪ the keys to longevity are diet, exercise, finding a purpose in life (an ikigai), and forming strong social ties

◆ The 80 percent secret

▪ he 80 percent secret

▪ Okinawans consume a daily average of 1,800 to 1,900 calories

◆ Moai: Connected for life

▪ Moai: Connected for life

◆ II: ANTIAGING SECRETS

▪ ANTIAGING SECRETS

▪ Little things that add up to a long and happy life

◆ Aging’s escape velocity

▪ ging’s escape velocity

◆ Active mind, youthful body

▪ Active mind, youthful body

▪ 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

◆ Stress: Accused of killing longevity

▪ Stress: Accused of killing longevity

▪ stress promotes cellular aging by weakening cell structures known as telomeres, which affect cellular regeneration and how our cells age (5am club also mentions about telomeres)

◆ How does stress work?

▪ The alarm that goes off in our head makes our neurons activate the pituitary gland, which produces hormones that release corticotropin, which in turn circulates through the body via the sympathetic nervous system. The adrenal gland is then triggered to release adrenaline and cortisol. Adrenaline raises our respiratory rate and pulse and prepares our muscles for action, getting the body ready to react to perceived danger, while cortisol increases the release of dopamine and blood glucose, which is what gets us “charged up” and allows us to face challenges.

◆ A little stress is good for you

▪ A little stress is good for you

◆ A lot of sitting will age you

▪ A lot of sitting will age you

▪ Walk to work, or just go on a walk for at least twenty minutes each day. Use your feet instead of an elevator or escalator. This is good for your posture, your muscles, and your respiratory system, among other things. Participate in social or leisure activities so that you don’t spend too much time in front of the television. Replace your junk food with fruit and you’ll have less of an urge to snack, and more nutrients in your system.

▪ Get the right amount of sleep.

▪ Play with children or pets, or join a sports team.

◆ A model’s best-kept secret

▪ A model’s best-kept secret

◆ Antiaging attitudes

▪ Antiaging attitudes

▪ positive attitude

▪ emotional awareness

▪ stoic attitude—serenity in the face of a setback—can also help keep you young, as it lowers anxiet

◆ III: FROM LOGOTHERAPY TO IKIGAI

▪ FROM LOGOTHERAPY TO IKIGAI How to live longer and better by finding your purpose

◆ What is logotherapy?

▪ What is logotherapy?

▪ It helps you find reasons to live.

◆ The search for meaning

▪ The process of logotherapy can be summarized in these five steps: A person feels empty, frustrated, or anxious. The therapist shows him that what he is feeling is the desire to have a meaningful life. The patient discovers his life’s purpose (at that particular point in time). Of his own free will, the patient decides to accept or reject that destiny. This newfound passion for life helps him overcome obstacles and sorrows.

◆ Fight for yourself

▪ Fight for yourself

▪ Man’s Search for Meaning, Frankl cites one of Nietzsche’s famous aphorisms

▪ He who has a why to live for can bear with almost any how

▪ Existential crisis, on the other hand, is typical of modern societies in which people do what they are told to do, or what others do, rather than what they want to do.

▪ Sunday neurosis, for example, is what happens when, without the obligations and commitments of the workweek, the individual realizes how empty he is inside.

◆ Better living through logotherapy: A few key ideas

▪ Better living through logotherapy: A few key ideas

▪ We don’t create the meaning of our life,

▪ we discover it.

▪ unique reason for being, which can be adjusted or transformed many times over the years.

▪ excessive attention to a desire (or “hyper-intention”) can keep that desire from being fulfilled.

▪ Humor can help break negative cycles and reduce anxiety

◆ Morita therapy

▪ Morita therapy

▪ Morita therapy focuses on teaching patients to accept their emotions without trying to control them, since their feelings will change as a

▪ result of their actions

▪ The basic principles of Morita therapy

▪ Accept your feelings

▪ Discover your life’s purpose.

▪ The four phases of Morita therapy

▪ Isolation and rest (five to seven days).

▪ Light occupational therapy (five to seven days).

▪ Occupational therapy (five to seven days).

▪ The return to social life and the “real” world.

◆ Naikan meditation

▪ Naikan meditation

▪ What have I received from person X? What have I given to person X? What problems have I caused person X?

◆ IV: FIND FLOW IN EVERYTHING YOU DO

▪ FIND FLOW IN EVERYTHING YOU DO How to turn work and free time into spaces for growth

◆ Going with the flow

▪ We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act but a habit. —Aristotle

▪ We’ve all felt our sense of time vanish when we lose ourselves in an activity we enjoy.

▪ When we have to complete a task we don’t want to do, every minute feels like a lifetime

▪ Einstein goes, “Put your hand on a hot stove for a minute and it seems like an hour. Sit with a pretty girl for an hour, and it seems like a minute. That is relativity.”

◆ The power of flow

▪ The power of flow

▪ state “flow,” and described it as the pleasure, delight, creativity, and process when we are completely immersed in life.

▪ The Seven Conditions for Achieving Flow

▪ Knowing what to do Knowing how to do it Knowing how well you are doing Knowing where to go (where navigation is involved) Perceiving significant challenges Perceiving significant skills Being free from distractions1

◆ Strategy 1: Choose a difficult task (but not too difficult!)

▪ Strategy 1: Choose a difficult task (but not too difficult!)

◆ Strategy 2: Have a clear, concrete objective

▪ Strategy 2: Have a clear, concrete objective

▪ Having a clear objective is important in achieving flow

▪ but we also have to know how to leave it behind when we get down to business.

▪ Albert Einstein, “a happy man is too satisfied with the present to dwell on the future.”4

◆ Strategy 3: Concentrate on a single task

▪ Strategy 3: Concentrate on a single task

▪ The Pomodoro Technique recommends 25 minutes of work and 5 minutes of rest for each cycle, but you can also do 50 minutes of work and 10 minutes of rest.

◆ Sophisticated simplicity

▪ What do Japanese artisans, engineers, Zen philosophy, and cuisine have in common? Simplicity and attention to detail. It is not a lazy simplicity but a sophisticated one that searches out new frontiers, always taking the object, the body and mind, or the cuisine to the next level, according to one’s ikigai