Francesc Miralles

Hector Garcia

"If hygge is the art of doing nothing, ikigai is the art of doing something--and doing it with supreme focus and joy." --New York Post Bring meaning and joy to all your days with this internationally bestselling guide to the Japanese concept of ikigai (pronounced ee-key-guy)--the happiness of always being busy--as revealed by the daily habits of the world's longest-living people. "Only staying active will make you want to live a hundred years." --Japanese proverb According to the Japanese, everyone has an ikigai--a reason for living. And according to the residents of the Japanese village with the world's longest-living people, finding it is the key to a happier and longer life. Having a strong sense of ikigai--the place where passion, mission, vocation, and profession intersect--means that each day is infused with meaning. It's the reason we get up in the morning. It's also the reason many Japanese never really retire (in fact there's no word in Japanese that means retire in the sense it does in English): They remain active and work at what they enjoy, because they've found a real purpose in life--the happiness of always being busy. In researching this book, the authors interviewed the residents of the Japanese village with the highest percentage of 100-year-olds--one of the world's Blue Zones. Ikigai reveals the secrets to their longevity and happiness: how they eat, how they move, how they work, how they foster collaboration and community, and--their best-kept secret--how they find the ikigai that brings satisfaction to their lives. And it provides practical tools to help you discover your own ikigai. Because who doesn't want to find happiness in every day?

The Japanese Secret to a Long and Happy Life

Ikigai

Héctor García

THE INTERNATIONAL BESTSELLER We all have an ikigai. It's the Japanese word for 'a reason to live' or 'a reason to jump out of bed in the morning'. It's the place where your needs, desires, ambitions, and satisfaction meet. A place of balance. Small wonder that finding your ikigai is closely linked to living longer. Finding your ikigai is easier than you might think. This book will help you work out what your own ikigai really is, and equip you to change your life. You have a purpose in this world: your skills, your interests, your desires and your history have made you the perfect candidate for something. All you have to do is find it. Do that, and you can make every single day of your life joyful and meaningful. ______________________________ 'I read it and it's bewitched me ever since. I'm spellbound.' Chris Evans 'Ikigai gently unlocks simple secrets we can all use to live long, meaningful, happy lives. Science-based studies weave beautifully into honest, straight-talking conversation you won't be able to put down. Warm, patient, and kind, this book pulls you gently along your own journey rather than pushing you from behind.' Neil Pasricha, bestselling author of The Happiness Equation

The Japanese secret to a long and happy life

Patrick Ludewig

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.

Getting out of the chair for 5 minutes helps a lot. 

“Metabolism slows down 90 percent after 30 minutes of sitting. The enzymes that move the bad fat from your ar- teries 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. These things are so simple they're almost stupid,” says Gavin Bradley in a 2015 interview with Brigid Schulte for the Washington Post.

Through these reflections, we stop identifying others as the cause of our problems and deepen our own sense of responsibility.

A donkey that is tied to a post by a rope will keep walking around the post in an attempt to free itself, only to become more immobilized and attached to the post.

The same thing applies to people with obsessive thinking who become more trapped in their own suffering when they try to escape from their fears and discomfort.

Sunday neurosis, for example, is what happens when, without the obligations and commitments of the workweek, the individual realizes how empty he is inside. He has to find a solution. Above all, he has to find his purpose, his reason for getting out of bed—his ikigai.

Habits overdone leads to a brain who runs on autopilot and don’t need to think anymore. Interesting connection? since i was always wondering why it is bad, that grandparents live their lives that way, because they have very strict routines. 

There is a tension between what is good for someone and what they want to do. This is because people, especially older people, like to do things as they've always done them. The problem is that when the brain develops ingrained habits, it doesn't need to think anymore. Things get done quickly and efficiently on automatic pilot, often in a very advantageous way. This creates a tendency to stick to routines, and the only way of breaking these is to confront the brain with new information.

tuna

Never be afraid to die. Because you’re born to die.

The happiest people are not the ones who achieve the most. They are the ones who spend more time than others in a state of flow.

Happiness is in the doing, not in the result.

Focus on enjoying your daily rituals, using them as tools to enter a state of flow. Don’t worry about the outcome—it will come naturally.

What do we need to be doing right now? What action should we be taking?”

Gabriel Yawe

What is the meaning of my life? Is the point just to live longer, or should I seek a higher purpose?

Geet Pithadia

This was an above average read maybe because I went in with a lot of hype. The book is at its best when it talks about the meaning of Ikigai, the lifestyle in village Okinawa and the difference between resilience and antifragility. At the same time I found the book to be a bit uninteresting when it step-by-step explains different exercises from East and the interviews of the people who have lived a long life.

Adwait Kulkarni

Short read that centres around the Japanese culture. Personally, there’s nothing new for me in this book, hence the rating. I also wished that the authors could have provided a section on how to implement the concepts mentioned in the book. The whole chapter on breathing / taichi was just.. weird? 

Aurelia Pinker

Interviews with the residents of a Japanese village that has the world's highest percentage of centenarians reveals the secrets to happiness and longevity through "ikigai," the intersection of passion, purpose, and mission.

For me personally, this book didn’t have all too much to do with ikigai. Just “The Japanese Secret to a Long and Happy Life” would’ve been much more fitting in my opinion. 

I truly believe that a lot of research and tons and tons of work went into this piece, but at times it seems a bit… pretentious. Overcomplicated. It contains a lot of quotes from other authors, historical figures and so on that at some point start to bore you a little bit. They go into detail on a lot of things which personally, I don’t think they really matter. 

Overall though, I enjoyed the calming effect this book had on me as I read it. It genuinely did inspire me to try and improve my daily life a little bit, even if that only includes implementing little things such as stretching or eating more fruits into my routine. It also motivated me to go out and work on my garden again. 

I’d recommend this book to people who are genuinely interested in subjects such as longevity, health and self care with a very factual and well researched background.

Easy and fast paced book, nice little stories and hints how to see life

Caroline

Ikigai is my very first self help book that I ever decided to read. Had come across an article published in a daily newspaper regarding this book and how a person should know one's ikigai, which inspired me to go ahead and read something out of my comfort zone. So I can say reading this book become my Ikigai Hahahaha. 

Now comes the question as to did I really like this book & am I still as inspired as i was when I had read that article? The brutal answer is a BIG NO.

According to me the book speaks very very little about Ikigai. The author of the book only quotes and unquotes extract and references from other books, finding and researches. The author focuses more on Viktor Frankl's logotherapy and other such therapies. In my view the author has done very less research of his own while pening this book. As the name of the book (Ikigai: the secret to a long and happy life) suggest I failed to find the secret to a long and happy life with this book. 

The authors failed to provide a proper insight into what exactly Ikigai is and how one can attain it. I quite doubt that the authors himself has found his own Ikigai. 

Apart from the interviews and certain other practices which the people of Okinawa follow like: to eat only 80% till you are full, to eat small portions rather than larger ones, to engage oneself more in community activities, etc was of use to me. Beside this Ikigai was nowhere to be found.

This book will be last on my recommendation list.

John Manoogian III

Goodreads users who wrote one-star reviews for this cute little impulse-buy bestseller book seem like grumpsters. It’s a sweet little summary of concepts, inspirations, and motivations, cross-threaded with history & poetry of Japan, meditation, impermanence, stoicism, Tai chi, nutrition, and more. Kind of an awesome gift for mom — yours or someone else’s. Four stars, just for the haters! ✌🏼

Deepika Ramesh

How do I understand how I stumbled upon three books on discovering life’s meaning when I am between jobs?

I read Viktor E. Frank’s Man’s Search for Meaning and Matt Haig’s Reasons To Stay Alive a couple of months ago, and I finished Héctor García and Francesc Miralles’ Ikigai this evening. They all are unlike many inspirational speakers, who hire ghost writers, and whose books fill our heads with insecurity and inadequacy. The authors of all the three books take me on a road that is free of traffic and pollution. The road is bordered by enormous trees and when I walk slowly with the authors, I can hear the birds’s songs. They chirp, “Discover your life’s meaning in your own time. It’s okay. There is no hurry.”

Ikigai is my reason for being. What do I want to do with this wild, wild thing called life? Mary Oliver asked that question, didn’t she? But Ikigai is not about the question that recruiters pose — Where do you see yourself in the next five years?

Oh! How I wish I could make them understand the beauty and agony of impermanence, how I wish I could laugh at the naivety of that question, how I wish I could tell them that I see myself loving my family more, reading more books, making more Zen-doodles, writing more, lifting more weights, bicycling more, discovering more hobbies, helping more animals, meditating more, relating more stories, eating well, sleeping for 7.5 hours, drinking three litres of water a day, eating more fruits, watching stars and sunsets, meeting more strangers, listening more to friends, smiling more, hugging more, moving more, collecting more feathers, observing more synchronicities, writing letters, being more vulnerable, being more antifragile, boarding more planes and buses and trains, taking more deep breaths…

Oh! How I wish this list could never end!

How I wish I could tell them that that is my Ikigai!

The book Ikigai asks me to take life one day at a time and to invest time and love in what illuminates my soul. There are urgent things like money and financial security; the urgent things will be heard if the important things are addressed. It might sound like a reductionist’s idea, it might sound absurd to take one step at a time, but time is relative, isn’t it?

Life will slow down and reach me like waves, one after the other, when I slow down, when I pause, when I listen. That is my Ikigai. That is enough.

The review is also published in my blog: https://newfracturedlight.wordpress.c...

Dhara Trivedi

This is a well researched book but it wasn't for me. I would have liked it more if there was more focus on ikigai itself and ways that we can discover our ikigai. But as that was just a small part of the book, and a part that imo wasn't as flushed out as it could have been, I didn't enjoy this book all that much. 

Also, even though it is a well researched book, the way the information was conveyed was just not it. Definitely had the potential to be a decent book, but it fell short. 

nuha ✨️

This is a well researched book but it wasn't for me. I would have liked it more if there was more focus on ikigai itself and ways that we can discover our ikigai. But as that was just a small part of the book, and a part that imo wasn't as flushed out as it could have been, I didn't enjoy this book all that much. 

Also, even though it is a well researched book, the way the information was conveyed was just not it. Definitely had the potential to be a decent book, but it fell short. 

Cool message. Not my favorite writing style in the world.

Jacob Medure

Anushree Taparia

Anthony

The book fuelled my desire to go to Japan, so that's something.

There were a lot of cool little things I enjoyed about the book. The nods to Stoicism, wabi-sabi, etc. However, the book seemed to be about more than just ikigai. It was enjoyable and quick so it might spark some deeper interest in you to explore.

Will this book help you find your ikigai? Not likely.

gracia 

Good for people that are already retired. Doesn't explore fulfillment as I expected.

Diogo Nunes

Nitin Ranjan

This could have well been a newspaper article, or even a blogpost. While you can learn a few insights here & there, it's not really a book; it's more like a compilation of a series of articles on the Japanese way of living.

My favourite lines from this book:
"If you want to stay busy even when there’s no need to work, there has to be an ikigai on your horizon, a purpose that guides you throughout your life and pushes you to make things of beauty and utility for the community and yourself."

a really easy and quick read, something simple to help reshape your view of the world and ideas towards a healthy lifestyle!

Maryn Vela

Safiya Ibraheem 

Informative and enjoyable to read, a useful book you can go back to to make changes or additions to your lifestyle when needed. 

Manohar

Raquel

Un libro que se lee rapido, ademas de que la forma en que esta escrito hace que sea facil de leer y entretenido. Muy recomendable, ahora espero ser capaz de encontrar mi Ikigai y vivir mucho tiempo!!

Fracesc Miralles

Discover the Japanese secret to a long and happy life with the internationally bestselling guide to ikigai. The people of Japan believe that everyone has an ikigai - a reason to jump out of bed each morning. And according to the residents of the Japanese island of Okinawa - the world's longest-living people - finding it is the key to a longer and more fulfilled life. Inspiring and comforting, this book will give you the life-changing tools to uncover your personal ikigai. It will show you how to leave urgency behind, find your purpose, nurture friendships and throw yourself into your passions. Bring meaning and joy to your every day with ikigai. 'Ikigai gently unlocks simple secrets we can all use to live long, meaningful, happy lives. Science-based studies weave beautifully into honest, straight-talking conversation you won't be able to put down. Warm, patient, and kind, this book pulls you gently along your own journey rather than pushing you from behind.' Neil Pasricha, bestselling author of The Happiness Equation

Judy Hudgins

The Japanese have some of the best words to describe things and Ikigai is one of them. Really interesting read since I would like to live happily to be over 100.

Lance Willett

While not the best overview of the concept of ikigai, the book still triggered important insights for me. One example is the field of "logotherapy", living a life of purpose — via the work of Viktor Frankl (look for his book, Man's Search for Meaning).

Here are the 10 rules of ikigai, according to the authors:

1. Stay active.
2. Take it slow.
3. Don't fill you stomach.
4. Surround yourself with good friends.
5. Get in shape for your next birthday.
6. Smile.
7. Reconnect with nature.
8. Give thanks.
9. Live in the moment.
10. Follow your ikigai (purpose, passion, meaning).

Deep Dave

Must read! to live with simplicity, stress-free and longevity...

Cristina

"If you don't know what your ikigai is yet, as Viktor Frankl says, your mission is to discover ir" (Kindle pos 1777). Well, definitly this book wouldn't be much of help to find it.

I feel a bit disappointed. I decided to read it looking for some inspiration and, while I've found that the way in which is written is "relaxing" (at least the English translation) I've ended up quite confused. It has some interesting data about how people live in the Blue Zones, which for me was new, but that's all.

Ikigai The Japanese Secret to a Long and Happy Life

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