Ikigai: The Japanese secret to a long and happy life

by Héctor García

Is ikigai the reason there are more centenarians in Okinawa than anywhere else?

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.

“Fill your belly to 80 percent.”

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.

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.

“He who has a why to live for can bear with almost any

“Hello, solitude. How are you today? Come, sit with me, and I will care for you.”6

Our brains can take in millions of bits of information but can only actually process a few dozen per second. When we say we’re multitasking, what we’re really doing is switching back and forth between tasks very quickly.

In Miyazaki’s films, forests have personalities, trees have feelings, and robots befriend birds. Considered a national treasure by the Japanese government, Miyazaki is an artist capable of becoming completely absorbed in his art. He uses a cell phone from the late 1990s, and he makes his entire team draw by hand. He “directs” his films by rendering on paper even the tiniest detail, achieving flow by drawing, not by using a computer. Thanks to this obsession on the director’s part, Studio Ghibli is one of the only studios in the world where almost the entire production process is carried out using traditional techniques.

In summary: Drinking green or white tea every day can help us reduce the free radicals in our bodies, keeping us young longer.

“Metabolism slows down 90 percent after 30 minutes of sitting. The enzymes that move the bad fat from your arteries to your muscles, where it can get burned off, slow down. And after two hours, good cholesterol drops 20 percent. Just getting up for five minutes is going to get things going again.

Jnana yoga: the yoga of wisdom; the search for discipline and mental growth ▪ Karma yoga: focuses on action, on tasks and duties that benefit oneself and one’s community ▪ Bhakti yoga: the yoga of devotion and surrender to the divine ▪ Mantra yoga: focuses on the recitation of mantras to reach a state of relaxation ▪ Kundalini yoga: combines diverse steps to reach the desired mental state ▪ Raja yoga: also known as the royal path; encompasses a range of steps geared toward achieving communion with oneself and others

Tyau Shenn: (regulating the body) by adopting the correct posture—it is important to be firmly rooted to the ground 2. Tyau Shyi: (regulating the breath) until it is calm, steady, and peaceful 3. Tyau Hsin: (regulating the mind); the most complicated part, as it implies emptying the mind of thoughts 4. Tyau Chi: (regulating the life force) through the regulation of the three prior elements, so that it flows naturally 5. Tyau Shen: (regulating the spirit); the spirit is both strength and root in battle, as Yang Jwing-Ming explains in The Essence of Taiji Qigong.4

school of Stoicism, which centers on the idea that there is nothing wrong with enjoying life’s pleasures as long as they do not take control of your life as you enjoy them.

Life is not a problem to be solved. Just remember to have something that keeps you busy doing what you love while being surrounded by the people who love you.