Ikigai - Hector Garcia
How I discovered it
Coincidences. It was just a normal day at the office and one of my coleagues was reading Ikigai. He knew that I enjoy to read too and strongly recommended the book. Time passed and I didn’t purchased the book but had it in my mind. When I went back home it turned out that mom bought me this book without me even asking for it.
Who should read it ?
Living a long life is the goal which many of us share. But how many of us actually think about the quality of life too? Well if you have ever wondered why the quality matters and why some live long than others this books bring your answer.
Summary and impact on me
This book talks about secrets for a longer and better life. It is inspired by the philosophy of Ikigai and centenarians around the world. Around the world there are places where the life expentacy is much higher than the rest of the population. And even if these places are miles away apart, speak different languages and have different cultures they share the same secrets.
Here are some of them.
Keep your body and mind always active. Outside of the comfort zone is uncomfortable, it benefits us to evolve.
Learn how to manage stress by making time for relaxation. For some of us might be a hot bath, or a mountain hyke, gardening or reading it is important to always allocate time towards these activities.
Always move your body. As we age our skeleton muscles become stiff. It is important to always move and mentain flexibility.
Have a growth midset attitude. Always focus on being a better version of ourselves.
Eat balanced. Focus on nutritive eating habits.
Never stop socialising and helping. Take care of your family and friends and continue to help the community without any expectations.
All these secrets are stories wich centenaires around the world had in common.
Eat and sleep and you will live many years - Misao Okawa (117)
The only thing which I did was to not eat meat all my life - Maria Capovilla (116)
If you maintain your mind and body always busy you will be around for long enough - Walter Dreuning (114)
But what about Ikigai? In simple words Ikigai our purpose, the reason for which we wake up in the morning. It is our life’s mission to equally create and discover our misson. We all have a different one which makes all of us uniques.
The book also talks about the flow which is the moment when you are 100% involved and focused on one activity. I a world where multi tasking is a necessary skil for any job role, we lose our sense of the time and and abillity to focus on one thing at the time. Making us missing from the essence of living. The flow is what we should pay more attention of and look to improve. The flow can be achieved by establishing clear goals, creating a balanced challenge and a pleasant environment.
Overall the book talks in detail about small improvements that we can make to our life in order to achieve fulfillenss. It has plenty of inspirational stories from elders from all around the world and exercices to follow.
How the book changed me
The secrets of life are certainly simpler than what we immagine and they hide in our daily habbits. We overthink and rush and forget to think about the basiscs of living a joyful live. Balance, consistency, discipline and lifestyle. I certainly think more about the my daily habbits and how these will help me in the future or not. I am more conscious about my nutrition, physiscal movement and achieving my flow.
Conclusion
Ikigai is an easy read with the purpose of awakening our consciouness the way we live and where we want to go. A grrat read!
