Ikigai – the japanese philosophy
Most of us hope for a long and healthy life. We aspire to wealth and security, along with a satisfying job and happy home life.
And when we retire, what then? How many people hang up their work keys with a feeling of emptiness and a sense of being placed on a dusty shelf? It’s also a stage in our lives when we self-analyse. We may have been successful, but have we been fulfilled?
Have you found your Ikigai?
On a small Japanese island in the azure waters of the Pacific Ocean, Ikigai features strong. It’s no coincidence that Okinawa is known as a blue zone with more centenarians that anywhere else on the planet. In fact, in Japan generally, the average lifespan is around 90 for women and 84 for men.
Not only do the Okinawans have great vitality and live to a ripe old age, they also have fewer chronic diseases and low rates of dementia. Women navigate the menopause easily, and both men and women have high levels of sexual hormones continuing late in their lives.
The secret? Combining a healthy lifestyle with a life’s purpose, or raison d’être, and a sense of community. But it goes deeper than that, so let’s look at the principles to see what we can learn.
CONNECTION
Okinawans have a strong sense of community. They even form groups known as Moai, which loosely translates as ‘meeting for a common purpose’. Each group is run slightly differently, but they give strong social, emotional and even financial support to those in the unit. Often the members will pay into a fund for the common good of the group, which they can use if any member is going through financial difficulties.
The Okinawans practice teamwork from an early age and are open-hearted to strangers. They even have an expression: ichariba chode which means ‘treat everyone like a brother, even if you’ve never met them before.’ The world would be a happier and more connected place if we all held that philosophy.
Keep Active
Movement helps keep the body healthy. You don’t need to do huge workouts, but just gentle regular activity. Gardening is good as it involves low-intensity movement and again, it also gives purpose, a fundamental element of Ikigai.
But it’s not just the body that needs to keep active. So does the mind. If we just keep doing the same old, same old, our minds will trundle along in automatic, and we’ll make no progress. But if we keep learning new things, playing games, and attempting new tasks, our minds will keep as flexible as our bodies.
Don’t Worry
It’s official — stress is bad for our health. It ages us and our bodies react to stressful situations in the same way they react to pathogens, activating proteins that trigger an immune response. We can’t get rid of stress completely, and it’s a bit Goldilocks — too little can have a negative effect on our mood and general verve for life and too much can wear us down.
Don’t Fill Your Stomach
The health of our bodies and minds is intrinsically linked — not only with what we eat, but how much. The ancient belief is that we should not eat until we’re full, as it puts too much stress on the body. There’s a Japanese saying — Hara hachi bu — which means ‘fill your stomach to 80%’. There must be some truth in this, judging by the age of the nation.
Never Retire
Because the Japanese always want a purpose in life, they keep working until old age. In fact, they don’t even have a word for retirement — it’s not in their orbit. The Germans invented the concept of ‘retirement’ in 1889. Otto von Bismarck, Chancellor of the German Empire, created it to help disabled workers after the age of 70. The scheme hardly ever had to pay out as the average lifespan was only 45 at that time. Rather different now.
So, always keep active with some purpose. It may be a different pursuit to your main career and it may change as your life progresses. But if you can find your mission, you will have achieved one part of the search for Ikigai.
How Can You Find Your ikigai?
The perfect recipe for finding your Ikigai is a mix of the following:
Passion: What do you love?
What do you really enjoy doing, regardless of financial reward? It doesn’t have to be your job, but it helps to work at something that brings you income as well as joy.
Vocation: What are you good at?
We’re all good at doing something, even if it’s only baking cakes, mending bicycles or helping our neighbours. Chances are we enjoy what we’re good at.
Profession: What can you be paid for?
The perfect mix is to work at something that brings us joy and gives something to the world (see below). If this isn’t possible at the moment, perhaps in the future, rather than retire, you could start doing what you really enjoy that could also bring in an income.
Mission: What does the world need?
This doesn’t need to be on the grand scale of building a suspension bridge. The world needs love and kindness most of all, and if you can bring that, then you’re halfway there. Anything more is a bonus.
The Perfect Blend for Ikigai
We’ve all heard tales of the actor who went against his parents’ wishes and ditched college to take up his vocation. Or the lawyer who hated dealing with sleaze and retrained as a paediatrician. It can work out well, or it could bring regrets, but not trying would be the worst thing of all. We all need to search.
Your Ikigai may be constantly shifting as you move through the different phases of life, but one of the beautiful elements of getting old is that maybe, hopefully, we will eventually find it.
