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Ancient wisdom advises against eating until we are full. This is why Okinawans stop eating when they feel their stomachs reach 80 percent of
their capacity, rather than overeating and wearing down their bodies with long digestive processes that accelerate cellular oxidation.
Presented with new information, the brain creates new connections and is revitalized. This is why it is so important to expose yourself to change, even if stepping outside your comfort zone means feeling a bit of anxiety.
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. Furthermore,
“Everything can be taken from a man but one thing: the last of the human freedoms—to choose one’s attitude in any given set of circumstances, to choose one’s own way.”
“He who has a why to live for can bear with almost any how.”
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.
“a happy man is too satisfied with the present to dwell on the future.”
Concentrating on one thing at a time may be the single most important factor in achieving flow.
in order to focus on a task we need: To be in a distraction-free environment To have control over what we are doing at every moment
Other studies indicate that working on several things at once lowers our productivity by at least 60 percent and our IQ by more than ten points.
Here are a few ideas for creating a space and time free of distractions, to increase our chances of reaching a state of flow and
thereby getting in touch with our ikigai: Don’t look at any kind of screen for the first hour you’re awake and the last hour before you go to sleep. Turn off your phone before you achieve flow. There is nothing more important than the task you have chosen to do during this time. If this seems too extreme, enable the “do not disturb” function so only the people closest to you can contact you in case of emergency. Designate one day of the week, perhaps a Saturday or Sunday, a day of technological “fasting,” making exceptions only for e-readers (without Wi-Fi) or MP3 players. Go to a café that
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Bundle routine tasks—such as sending out invoices, making phone calls, and so on—and do them all at once.
“The grand essentials to happiness in this life are something to do, something to love, and something to hope for.”
When you notice you’re almost full but could have a little more . . . just stop eating! One easy way to start applying the concept of hara hachi bu is to skip dessert. Or to reduce portion size. The idea is to still be a little bit hungry when you finish.
Hara hachi bu is an ancient practice. The twelfth-century book on Zen Buddhism Zazen Youjinki recommends eating two-thirds as much as you might want to. Eating less than one might want is common among all Buddhist temples in the East. Perhaps Buddhism recognized the benefits of limiting caloric intake more than nine centuries ago.
If the body regularly consumes enough, or too many, calories, it gets lethargic and starts to wear down, expending significant energy on digestion alone.
Another benefit of calorie restriction is that it reduces levels of IGF-1 (insulin-like growth factor 1) in the body. IGF-1 is a protein that plays a significant role in the aging process; it seems that one of the reasons humans and animals age is an excess of this protein in their blood.
