Reading notes : Ikigai - The Japanese Secret to a Long and Happy Life

It was an easy, 1 day read. I felt that there are a lot of quotes and research-based findings and some of them are from the research conducted by the authors but most of them are quoted from others. 

One thing though, my eagerness and a long time wish to visit Japan has now grown multi-fold and apart from Tokyo and Osaka, I now want to visit the province of Okinawa, where for every 100,000 people, about twenty-five of them live over the age of 100. Also, I want to visit the town of Ogimi, which is nicknamed as the "Town of longevity". I also wanted to visit Mr. Jiro’s sushi bar at the Ginza subway station, which is a Michelin 3-star sushi place with no branches elsewhere. When I read about the essence of Ikigai, which is "the happiness of always being in a flow, being busy", I related this to father-in-law, who is 77 years old widower, who insists on living by himself and is always in a quest to do some gardening, construction project or other. He has no serious health ailment even at this age. 

Great to learn about the Shikuwasa fruit, which has forty times more antioxidants(nobiletin) than an orange and I instantly related it to our நார்த்தங்காய். According to me, this is the most delicious fruit in the world :). Then I thought, whether it is close to Rangpur Lime, neither is true. I would really want to taste it. 

When I read about the Okinawan principle of "ichariba chode", meaning "treat everyone like a brother, even if you've never met them before" reminded me of "யாதும் ஊரே யாவரும் கேளிர்". It is evident that most place in the world where people have extraordinary longevity rates consume little meat or processed food. Japanese repeat this phase before and after eating "Hara hachi bu" which means "fill your belly to 80 percent"

I learned about Dr. Shlomo Breznitz an expert in Cognitive Psychology and his point about why one should make brain think about new stuff to keep it active. Also, its good to learn about Logotherapy and Morita therapy. I liked this comparison that the authors used to distinguish between “flow” and other states of mind.

Easy	Boredom	When I do mundane stuff at work
Challenging	Flow	When I take up transformational initiatives and deliver them as a managed service
Beyond our abilities	Anxiety	When I was asked to implement a half-baked, barely working AI product offering to an enterprise client without any dedicated resource support. I was asked to project manage this when I had several other core responsibilities.

I also notice that a key element to drive flow is a clearly defined objective and a documented process to achieve it. Isn’t this the “why?” [i.e., Start with Why by Simon Sinek]. I really enjoyed and related to the flow inducing habitual tips provided by the authors esp. multi-tasking is not the best approach to deliver the work of highest quality.

Another aspect that interested me was the Microflow for mundane tasks. I want to develop a microflow for cleaning toilets. Yes, I mean it. 😊Another thought-provoking stuff is “Happiness is in the doing, not in the result” and the encouragement to focus on the “Rituals over goals” – I take it that if you focus on Rituals with a flow or microflow’s, the goals will be accomplished naturally. Supercentenarians are ones who live past 110 years, it was interesting to read the interviews of some of them and their tips for great life.

The concept of “Mabui” really excited me. Looks Japanese also have “பேய் விரட்டும் சடங்கு”. 

Another important aspect that is common across people who live a happy life longer is the social nature and their practice of living socially. I recalled the Roseto effect (Roseto effect) from Malcom Gladwell’s Outliers. I am deeply concerned that our social circle has really narrowed and it’s not actually due to the pandemic but mostly due to my inability to tolerate the social circle that I have access to which is filled with people who never respect others time, parsimonious to the core, and won’t hesitate to sleep away the whole day after a night of gluttony, piggishness and gossip mongering. I unintentionally cultivated these expectations on my wife also and she has too limited social interactions these days. Is it fair to expect a set of friends to be like you, or is it my ability to find like-minded friends? What is that I am lacking or doing wrong?

 Coming to diet, another noted recommendation is to go for less than 10 grams of salt per day. Grains seem to the foundation of Okinawan diet, especially white rice 😊Japanese lifestyle does not suggest strength training or hard hitting the gyms but to keep moving and not to stay stagnant. I assumed, when you are active and working in the farm or garden, its strength training indirectly. The authors talk about Yoga especially Surya Namaskar, I felt that they should have included the instructions especially on Yoga – Surya Namaskar – as a novice student of Iyengar Yoga I know that these instructions barely do justice to the elaborate detail which these poses have to be practised.