Why Should You Read 'Ikigai'?

My summer vacation began a few weeks ago and I remember how the first few days were - I was bored and sluggish, sitting on the couch the entire day. I could not tolerate more than four days of this unorganized lifestyle, so I resumed my studies on the fifth day of my summer holidays.

Ikigai is 'the happiness of always being busy' or 'the reason to get out of bed every morning' or in simpler terms, a purpose in life.

Many of us must have felt lost because of the lack of a clearly defined purpose. Sometimes when a long holiday follows a hectic workweek suffocated with appointments and obligations and commitments, chances are, you feel bored because during the workweek, there was the thought of finally having that rewarding free-time awaiting you or the thought of achieving some goal by the end of the week, that kept you going. 

After all the hustle and bustle encountered during a typical workweek, you now suffer from something just as annoying as having too much stress - absolutely no stress. Some of us may easily be able to relate to that feeling of emptiness - almost like your mind suddenly transformed into a silent, lone desert, only levels of sand stretching far away.

Just to be clear, it is not wrong to feel that, as according to this book, it is only the drive that pushes you to find what makes you happy, not a mental illness like everybody makes it seem.

Ikigai: The Japanese Secret to a Long and Happy Life by Hector Garcia and Albert Liebermann (Francesc Miralles) is an international bestselling book that dives deep into the Japanese concept of ikigai - the secret to longevity and happiness of many super-centenarians, people who live for 110 years or more. The book has been translated to 58 languages and also has the strange honor of being the most translated book ever originally written in Spanish.

The authors were welcomed to Okinawa in Japan, where the inhabitants live for longer than in any other place in the world. There they had the chance to interview more than a hundred villagers about their philosophy.

The book discusses anti-aging, the development of beneficial habits and ridding harmful ones. These construct the basic characteristics of a healthy and contented person. This first part of the book was really the essence or the 'sap', as I like to call it.

There are different methods and therapies well-explored in the book, to finding one's purpose in life, namely logotherapy, Morito therapy and psychoanalysis.

To support these statements, a flood of concrete examples accompany them- many case studies of artists, engineers, Japanese takumis or skilled artisans, etc., observing how they start 'flowing' or indulging in their work such that they forget time and their surroundings. When we 'flow', we completely immerse ourselves in our work and ignore distractions. Passage of time is not felt at all. Usually such activities are our undiscovered ikigai.

The book also covers the simplistic lifestyle of the long-living and happy people in Ogimi, called the Village of Longevity, including their healthy and nutritive diet, different foods that have anti-oxidating and anti-aging effects and their low-intensive yet effective exercises. This was another practical part in this book - small tweaks to our lifestyle that could easily be put into practice. Even if you already have found your purpose, reading Ikigai may still assist you to improve the quality of your everyday lifestyle. Be sure to have a notebook w

Several beliefs in the East teach us how to build emotional resilience to face difficult times and to overcome them almost effortlessly. After all, mental well-being is just as important as physical well-being. Everybody will face adversities, but it is up to us to react to them with a positive outlook. Regardless of how trying the situation is, our stoic and calm response to it matters the most. 

The last thing I would like to point out is slightly critical. A few concepts in the book seem to be quite obvious and something that you could learn about from the Internet nowadays or easily thought-out-able with common sense (you know what I mean). But sometimes the books or resources that we value so much are those that are able to bring those obvious things right in front of our mental screen, where our common sense tends to fail occasionally.

Make sure to have some paper and a pen around because this book cannot be simply read-through. I made the mistake of skimming through the book, so I had to read it again so that I could jot down the important points.

Genre: Self-help book

Price: ₹ 407.40 

Amazon Kindle Price: ₹ 178.60 

E-book and Audiobook available 

For the e-book, visit Buy Ikigai E-book at Amazon

For the audiobook, visit Buy Ikigai Audible Audiobook

About the Authors

Image credit: https://www.amazon.com/H%25C3%25A9ctor-Garc%25C3%25ADa/e/B004MLJYZK%3Fref=dbs_a_mng_rwt_scns_share

Héctor García is a citizen of Japan, where he has lived for over a decade, and of Spain, where he was born. He is the author of several books about Japanese culture, including two worldwide bestsellers, A Geek in Japan and Ikigai. A former software engineer, he worked at CERN in Switzerland before moving to Japan. To this day he has published seven books, the latest one is The Book of Ichigo Ichie.

Image credit: https://catalunyaplural.cat/es/francesc-miralles-la-soledad-es-casi-una-premisa-para-hacer-una-novela/

Francesc Miralles is an award-winning and internationally bestselling author of books about how to live well, together with the novels Wabi-Sabi, a story about the beauty of imperfection and the ephemeral, appearing this coming spring; it is the long-awaited sequel to Amor en minúscula (Love in Small Letters), which has already been translated into twenty languages. Since 2012, he has been working on the novel La luz de Alejandría (The Light of Alexandria), which he is writing together with Álex Rovira.

Learn more about Francesc Miralles at Francesc Miralles Wikipedia

Help others by putting your reviews about the book below in the comments!

Want to find your own Ikigai?

I watched this rather adorable video by Mossery to whom I owe gratitude for helping me find my ikigai.

Ask yourself four questions:

• What do you love?
• What are you good at?
• What can you be paid for?
• What does the world need?

Simply, the common factor in the answers to all the four questions is your ikigai. 

As you have seen in the video, finding your ikigai is not easy nor quick, so do not worry if you did not find yours in the first attempt because it is a slow process. It may be difficult and time-consuming to narrow down your interests; perhaps finding your ikigai itself is an ikigai on its own. 

The most important takeaway from this book for me was to never retire -  to keep doing what you love and never stop doing it no matter what. It is common for us to retire after a particular age, complaining about our weak bodies and minds, but that should not stop us from doing it as a hobby or an interest. Don't forget to just let some fun interrupt out fast-paced, hurried lives. Never sit idle and make your life so full that it should overflow and drip over its limits, such that you shouldn't have any regrets when it is time to go.