The Japanese secret to a meaningful & long life: IKIGAI

In this video, I discuss the Japanese concept of "ikigai," which is a way to find your passion in life and never retire from it. The book Ikigai that inspired this video also discusses tips for living a long and healthy life from the supercentenarians on Okinawa Island.

Intro music: Church of 8 Wheels by Otis McDonald

Time Stamps:
0:00 Intro to book
1:02 Find your ikigai
3:48 The Okinawa diet
6:27 Move your body every day
7:19 The Okinawa attitude on life
9:20 Commune with friends every day

[aakashailajan]

I love how much importance they give to moving your body. Honestly I’ve noticed a huge difference between the days when I take some time out to take a walk, or do yoga or meditation vs when I don’t. It makes my brain more active, I feel fresh and more energetic.

[GabeDoesNotTalk]

Coming from a Spanish background food has always been heavily tied w/ community and family. I've always found it a great way to connect with others.

[tayo_]

From my perspective, crying on TV after a tragedy is not fragile; I interpreted your example of Romanians crying on TV (08:43) as equating their behvaiour to fragile. I don't think being highly emotional expressive is fragile. I think fragility means either becoming easily distressed or having disproportionate repsonses to emotionally charged situations.

[TheSpoegefugl]

I know/knew a guy from Okinawa.
A lot of this describes his overall attitude and approach to things.
Lovely guy too!
Might check out the book.
Awesome video

[ac]

As a person, who study Japanese and want to go back to this country I especially appreciate this episode.
There are many bad things about Japanese culture, but still there is plenty we can learn from it.

[TylorBlock]

I love Ikigai. I read about it in 2018 and it was so eye opening.

[Liesl_Cigarboxguitar]

I stick to the 80 % rule. I bought Japanese plates and they are smaller than the typical ones we have in the west. I'm in the UK. The book looks interesting, thanks 😊. One positive saying from my culture. ." Keep Calm and Carry on" 😂❤

[laurau-w]

Our physiology professor in med school specializing in exercise physiology told us that cardio exercise and intense heavy-lifting are not healthy at all and we should walk for 30 minutes at least 3 times a week instead. Big muscles and quick body transformations aren't really good for us. Consistency is the key and to achieve that, we should aim to create realistic exercise schedules with realistic intensities.

[myselfasevan]

Wow, this was a great video. It make me realize how much I love creating content and how it’s Ikigai for me

[aishaadam]

I love you Ana ❤thanks for the videos of inspiration

[PragmaticEmpath]

That Christopher Mcandless quote stuck with me too, thank you for sharing it at the end. ❤

[WhiskersTC]

I wish the United States as a whole would take some lessons from other countries, this being a great example, and incorporate them into society more. I feel like maybe we're more inclined to stick to what we know and being very nationalistic when there are so many wonderful ideologies that we could adopt.

[lamtheandy]

Omg I've actually been so curious about this concept so glad you made a video about this.

[oliverrojas]

See value in not overeating, and staying active at levels below a heart's peak performance. The relevance of living within a community, for instance a state sponsored senior living home, contributed to a distant aunt living to her early nineties or longer.

[ramooyeido]

Beauty of the face and brain and heart and attitude and reactions and smile and love and the nearness to God.

[vimarioly]

Love your videos Ana they are very interesting. Months ago I watched "checklist for indecisive people" it was one of my favorites. Will you be able to upload it again?

[DMviewerguy]

I finished watching through the entire video now and think it is fair to say I essentially adapted all of these as my own primary values unaware of this philosophy. It's great to hear about since there is undoubtedly so much wisdom of exactly that to still extract from. I face what I think is probably the greatest challenge for most people here which is finding a way to fill all that purpose and dream into your day to day/job, to even pursue something that hits on all sides like that. At the very least I try to have a positive mind about it and not be so critical, which coincidentally seems to fall in tandem with those other ikigai life attitude values.

[Artandnatureloveeee]

I struggle with the connecting to friends everyday. I also moved and I work a job so im so exhausted when I come home. Do you guys have any advice?

[noemymarques]

We would love a review on Season 4 of Love is Blind!

[froobly]

It's important to take lifespan statistics with a grain of salt, particularly when dealing with outliers like "supercentenarians." Often the places that report the longest lifespans are the ones that have the least reliable record-keeping. If you think of what Okinawa was like 90 or 100 years ago, you don't imagine a strong bureaucratic apparatus reliably taking down people's birth dates, and maintaining record-keeping continuity over generations. If you also think about the attitudes towards the Japanese occupying force, you can also imagine people wouldn't feel particularly motivated to be diligent in their reporting.

Of course all the things you talked about are good advice, but they're not going to create a race of superhumans.