Why the people of Japan lives long healthy & happy life more than 100 years ~ The IKIGAI Technique

                          THE IKIGAI 

THE SECRET BEHIND THE HAPPY HEALTHY LONGEST LIFE OF THE PEOPLE OF JAPAN

        By finding your Ikegai and working on it, you can achieve an irreplaceable comfort and contented life; even technology will not be able to replace you. There is an island in Japan called Okinawa where people live more than a hundred years, even people with the age of 80 to 90 years wake up happily with a healthy body and mood and do not take the name of retirement till their last day on earth that means the longest, gratifying and felicitous life live by the people of Okinawa.

 The people of Okinawa use a method called Ikigai to live such a life. Ikigai means "the reason for living". It simply means that you come to this world because of a certain reason or aim and that aim is your Ikegai. There is a story behind the origin of Ikegai and how people started to believe in it.

On the Okinawa island of Japan, there was a woman who was in a state of coma, she was about to die, she had a dream that she is dead and reached heaven where she heard the voice of her ancestors. Her ancestors asked her, who are you? 

She replied 'I am the wife of Mayor'. She again heard a voice, ' it has not been asked, whom wife are you?'

We asked you who are you?

She replied 'I am the mother of four children'. She again heard a voice,' it has not been asked, whom the mother is you?' We asked you who are you? The lady replied, 'I am a teacher'. She again heard a voice,' we are not asking your profession', we are asking you, who are you? The lady replied so many answers, she told them her name, her religion, she told them so many things but she was unable to answer the question that who is she? Finally, she replied, I am that who wake up every day to take care of my family, I am that who used to teach children to make them virtuous people.

 This answer to her was accepted by them. She woke up from the coma and in a few days, she was all fine. That incident taught her the purpose of her life, after that she started to take more care of her family and started teaching more children for their better future. That lady understood her Ikigai, she found her Ikigai, after then every person in Japan believes that finding their Ikigai is the most important thing.

This whole incident started from the Okinawa island of Japan, today also, everyone there starts their life by finding their Ikigai and that is the reason why the people of Japan live a more propitious and healthy life than any other part of the world. The people of Okinawa not fallen sick easily, they live a much more long life than any other part of the world.

According to the scientist and experts, the reason for the people to live such a contented and healthy life is, the people there live their life according to their Ikigai, and they spend their lives according to their Ikigai.

Ikigai is a Japanese word meaning, ' the reason for living, the reason for coming to this world'. According to the Experts, Everyone in this world has at least one Ikigai and they get their Ikigai only after understand themselves. It is not easy to find their Ikigai; sometimes people spend their whole life to find their Ikigai. Like everyone else, you also have your Ikigai.

If you do any other job rather than your Ikigai, you will never be satisfied in doing that, you mostly feel stressed and depressed and your mind constantly involve in finding out your Ikegai but it is rectitude that by using this Japanese method anyone can easily find their Ikigai. Once you finish college, the biggest question in front of you is 'now what to do'? In which profession we move? This is the most important decision of your life because most of the time of your life is being spent on the work you do.

Some people will suggest you do the work which you love, some people suggest you do the work in which you have the interest or some people suggest you do the work which gives you maximum money and some people say to do the work which this world need... The problem is everyone says that 'choose at least one out of these' but it is completely wrong advice. Ikigai is actually a combination of all these four things.

Let's understand this with the help of a diagram...The first circle depicts what you love to do, the second circle depicts what you are good at, the third circle depicts what you can be paid for, and the fourth circle depicts what the world needs. The combination of the first two circles identified your Passion, it means the work which you love to do and you are also good at doing it for example you love doing programming and you are also good at it.

The combination of the second and third circle identified your Profession, it means the work in which you are good at and it also paid you for your work for instance after learning Programming you made an application which you sell and get money. The combination of the third and fourth circle identified your vocation for instance you made an application which provides benefit to this world. Finally, the combination of the fourth and first circle provides you your Mission. It means the work which you love to do and it benefits the world also. For example, you love making applications that the world also needs.

Most people say follow your passion and do that job but in reality, passion is just only one of the components of Ikegai. You should choose work which satisfies all the parts of Ikegai. Your mission is to find the work which satisfies all the four parts like Passion, Profession, Vocation, and ultimately Mission. In the middle of all this, you will get your Ikigai, and then only you will live a long and happy life. For example, J.K.Rowling (the author of the series Harry Potter) loves to write, she is also good at writing, and she gets a huge amount of money from the publishers for her books and finally, people around the world love to read her books. It means her Ikigai is writing, she enjoys writing, she earns from it also. By following your Ikigai, you will achieve a "flow state". 

Flow state means a state in which you feel completely involved in your works, no other thing matters to you and this flow state is the power of the experts and genius people. By finding their Ikigai and work on it the founder of Apple Steve Jobs liked Japanese artists and engineers. In the 1980s when Steve Jobs visited a Japanese company, he learned so many new things from them and implemented them in his company. After finding your Ikegai you will reach an irreplaceable level even technology will not replace you.

You cannot find your Ikegai instantly, your intuition and curiosity will help you to find your Ikegai. For this, you have to try different things and ask yourself. You will automatically get to know when you find your Ikegai.