Ikigai and Resilience
Concept of Ikigai
While still on crutches and had plenty of time, I bought a few books to read, one of them was Ikigai: The Japanese Secret to a Long and Happy Life. This book was on my reading list for a long time and I’m happy I had the time to read it, those weeks are perfect for me to stay on the couch with a hot drink and a good book.
In this book Ikigai is presented as the key to a long and happy life in Japanese culture. It describes the things that make your life worthwhile, the things that give you a deep sense of purpose, satisfaction and joy. Ikigai is made up of two Japanese words, iki , which means life, and kai, meaning effect, result, value, or worth. Iki and kai come together to give us ikigai: a reason for living. Ikigai in the context of work represents the intersection between :
Resilience
One of the characteristics of everyone who has a well-defined ikigai is continuous persistence in their passion. When they have difficulties in life, when they run into obstacles, they never give up. It’s about resilience, a fairly new concept for me. Resilience is not only the ability to persevere and fight unceasingly, but it is an attitude that can be cultivated to stay focused on what is most important in life, and not on what is urgent, driven by negative emotions. Training our mind, body and emotional state in the sense of resilience is essential to face the obstacles in life. In the book it was mentioned a Japanese proverb that easily depicts the concept of resilience: When you fall 7 times, get up 8 times. (“Nanakorobi Yaoki”).
This book is about building a lifestyle based on a well-founded reason to live, to enjoy being alive. The idea is similar to the book “Man’s Search for Meaning” by Viktor Frankl, which says that when a person has a meaning in life, he can become happy. The inner freedom that cannot be taken away from any person gives meaning and purpose to life.
The concept of Ikigai comes from the island of Okinawa, the place with the highest rate of centenarians in the world. The people on the island are guided by these 10 rules:
- Stay active, don’t retire
- Take it slow
- Don’t fill your stomach
- Surround yourself with good friends
- Get in shape for your next birthday
- Smile
- Reconnect with nature
- Give thanks
- Live in the moment
- Follow your Ikigai
I recommend reading this book because it offers ways to have a beautiful and peaceful life, you can learn new ideas that aim to improve the quality of your life. I have always been fascinated by Japanese culture and I hope to visit Japan at some point to see the beautiful temples, shrines, and zen gardens. I want to end this post with a quote of Viktor Frankl: “Man is capable of changing the world for the better if possible, and of changing himself for the better if necessary.”