Ikigai: The Japanese Secret to a Long and Happy Life

by Héctor García

Okinawa is where most of Japan’s shikuwasa—a limelike fruit that packs an extraordinary antioxidant punch—comes from. Could that be Ogimi’s secret to long life? Or is it the purity of the water used to brew its Moringa tea?

ichariba chode,

“treat everyone like a brother, even if you’ve never met them before.”

In Japanese, ikigai is written as 生き甲斐, combining 生き, which means “life,” with 甲斐, which means “to be worthwhile.”

甲斐 can be broken down into the characters 甲, which means “armor,” “number one,” and “to be the first” (to head into battle, taking initiative as a leader), and 斐, which means “beautiful” or “elegant.”

According to scientists who have studied the five Blue Zones, the keys to longevity are diet, exercise, finding a purpose in life

(an ikigai), and forming strong social ties—that is, having a broad circle of friends and good family relations.

For more than a century, we’ve managed to add an average of 0.3 years to our life expectancy every year.

“mens sana in corpore sano” (“a sound mind in a sound body”):

The American Institute of Stress investigated this degenerative process and concluded that most health problems are caused by stress. Researchers at the Heidelberg University Hospital conducted a study in which they subjected a young doctor to a job interview, which they made even more stressful by forcing him to solve complex math problems for thirty minutes. Afterward, they took a blood sample. What they discovered was that his antibodies had reacted to stress the same way they react to pathogens, activating the proteins that trigger an immune response. The problem is that this response not only neutralizes harmful agents, it also damages healthy cells, leading them to age prematurely.

Whether or not the threats we perceive are real, stress is an easily identifiable condition that not only causes anxiety but is also highly psychosomatic, affecting everything from our digestive system to our skin.

The central premise of this stress-reduction method is focusing on the self: noticing our responses, even if they are conditioned by habit, in order to be fully conscious of them. In this way, we connect with the here and now and limit thoughts that tend to spiral out of control. “We

Spending too much time seated at work or at home not only reduces muscular and respiratory fitness but also increases appetite and curbs the desire to participate in activities. Being sedentary can lead to hypertension, imbalanced eating, cardiovascular disease, osteoporosis, and even certain kinds of cancer.

We can access a more active lifestyle that makes us feel better inside and out—we just have to add a few ingredients to our everyday habits: Walk to work, or just go on a walk for at least twenty minutes each day. Use your feet instead of an elevator or escalator. This is good for your posture, your muscles, and your respiratory

system, among other things. Participate in social or leisure activities so that you don’t spend too much time in front of the television. Replace your junk food with fruit and you’ll have less of an urge to snack, and more nutrients in your system. Get the right amount of sleep. Seven to nine hours is good, but any more than that makes us lethargic. Play with children or pets, or join a sports team. This not only strengthens the body but also stimulates the mind and

boosts self-esteem. Be conscious of your daily routine in order to detect harmful habits and replace ...

Science has shown that sleep is a key antiaging tool, because when we sleep we generate melatonin, a hormone that occurs naturally in our bodies.

The pineal gland produces it from the neurotransmitter serotonin according to our diurnal and nocturnal rhythms, and it plays a role in our sleep and waking cycles.

A powerful antioxidant, melatonin helps us live longer, and also offers the following benefits: It strengthens the immune system. It contains an element that protects against cancer. It promotes the natural production of insulin. It slows the onset of Alzhei...

Eating a balanced diet and getting more calcium. Soaking up a moderate amount of sun each day. Getting enough sleep. Avoiding stress, alcohol, tobacco, and caffeine, all of which make it harder to get a good night’s rest, depriving us of the melatonin we need.

“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.” Based

Sunday neurosis

“Hello, solitude. How are you today? Come, sit with me, and I will care for you.”

We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act but a habit. —Aristotle

There is no future, no past.

There is only the present.

“Be water, my friend.”

“Put your hand on a hot stove for a minute and it seems like an hour. Sit with a pretty girl for an hour, and it seems like a minute. That is relativity.”

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 doesn’t have Wi-Fi. Read and respond to e-mail only once or twice per day. Define those times clearly and stick to them.

Try the Pomodoro Technique: Get yourself a kitchen timer (some are made to look like a pomodoro, or tomato) and commit to working on a single task as long as it’s running. The Pomodoro Technique recommends 25 minutes of work and 5 minutes of rest for each cycle, but you can also do 50 minutes of work and 10 minutes of rest. Find the pace that’s best for you; the most important thing is to be disciplined in completing each cycle. Start your work session with a ritual you enjoy and end it with a reward. Train your mind to return to the present when you find yourself getting distracted. Practice mindfulness or...

do this at home, go to a library, a café, or, if your task involves playing the saxophone, a music studio. If you find that your surroundings continue to distract you, keep looking until you find the right place. Divide each activity into groups of related tasks, and assign each group its own place and time. For example, if you’re writing a magazine article, you could do research and take notes at home in the morning, write in the library in the afternoon, and edit on th...

Our ability to turn routine tasks into moments of microflow, into something we enjoy, is key to our being happy, since we all have to do such tasks.

Moderate drinkers outlive nondrinkers. The trick is to drink 1–2 glasses per day (preferably Sardinian Cannonau wine), with friends and/or with food. And no, you can’t save up all week and have 14 drinks on Saturday.