How to live 100+ years! – Ikigai book summary

Want to live a long and healthy life?

Who doesn’t?

One of the two basic instincts of humans is Survival other being reproduction. We human wants to survive as long as we can. But what is the secret behind living a long and healthy life?

Ikigai explores this question and tries to answer it. The author interviewed people living in Okinawa which has the highest life expectancy in the world. Now let us see what are some of the secrets to living a long and healthy life:

• Find your Ikigai – In simple words, Ikigai means having a purpose worth living. When we know the purpose of living, we tend to be happier and that’s what matters in life. Isn’t finding the purpose of living the hardest part? Yes, it is. Through logotherapy by Victor Frankl and Morita Therapy by Dr Shoma Morita author tries to give some ways for finding our purpose.

• Finding your state of flow – There are some specific activities in life during which hours might feel like minutes. The time doing those activities is known as being in the state of flow. Thus, for living a longer life we must find that state of flow, some of the strategies for the same are:
  • Find the middle path – If something is too difficult then you will lose the will to do it and if something is easy you will get bored of doing it. So, it is important to find the middle ground for finding the flow. For example, while reading a book you know the whole content you will get bored easily and if you do not know anything about the content of the book then the chances are you will stop reading the book after a few pages. But if you understand the topic and the content of the book builds up on that then you can find the state of flow.
  • Have a clear, concrete objective – By explaining the concept of “compass over the map” the author explains that it is more important to have a compass pointing to a concrete objective than to have a map.
  • Concentrate on a single task – “Our brain can take in millions of bits of information but can only process a few dozen per second”. So, we might think we can multitask easily as you are taking all that information, but you don’t realize only a fraction of it is being processed by our mind. Thus, to achieve flow start concentrating on a single task. 

In the words of the author – “The happiest people are not the ones who achieve the most. They are the ones who spend more time than others in a state of flow.”

• Have a good social life – Humans are social animals. It is important to have a healthy social group. Find people who have the same interest and try to spend some time with them regularly.
• The way of eating for a long and healthy life:
  • Follow the Hara Hachi bu rule i.e., while eating always try to fill only 80% of your stomach
  • Eat different variety of food 
  • Have a portion of vegetables and fruits in your every meal
  • Avoid or minimize sugar
  • Eat more antioxidant-rich foods
  • Drink more Jasmine or Green Tea
• Exercising – Movement of the body is more important than intense exercise. Try to have some moment every half or one hour. Exercises explained in the book are:
  • Radio Taiso
  • Yoga including Sun Salutation
  • Tai chi – Chen, Yang, Wu, Hao
  • Qi gong – Fire, water, earth, metal, wood
  • Shiatsu
• Live a stress-free life by building resilience: Resilience I the ability to deal with setbacks. Ways to build resilience:
  • Try negative visualization – imagine the worst thing that could happen, in order to be prepared if certain privileges and pleasures were taken from you.
  • Meditate for controlling your emotions
  • Practice Wabi-Sahi which is: “Instead of searching for beauty in perfection, we should look for it in things that are flawed, incomplete.”
  • Practice Icho-go Ichi-e: “Live in the moment”. Anything which is or was is only in this moment. 

So, to conclude:

“We are not we repeatedly do, Excellence, then, is not an act but a habit” – —Aristotle

Thus, if you follow all the above things then you can live a healthy and long life.

The Greedy Monk

If you want to read the book:

Other Book Recommendations:

Awaken the Giant Within

The Power of Habit

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