… A summary by Vinay Wagh
Give new information to Brain. That’s brain exercise!
Repetition brings expertise! That’s the best way to improve!
We do the physical exercise consistently. How about the mental exercise?
Along with repetition needs to do some new activities in a day that improves the mental health says Hector. Say, running the last 200m backwards in the daily jogging exercise surprises your brain, puts efforts on it and the mental exercise gets done. Once this becomes routine make a small change again.
For brain, the newer the fuel, the more efficiently it runs.
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.
Our neurons start to age while we are still in our twenties. This process is slowed, however, by intellectual activity, curiosity, and a desire to learn. Dealing with new situations, learning something new every day, playing games, and interacting with other people seem to be essential antiaging strategies for the mind. Furthermore, a more positive outlook in this regard will yield greater mental benefits.
Mental exercise
Lack of physical exercise has negative effects on our bodies and mood, a lack of mental exercise is also bad for us because it causes our neurons and neural connections to deteriorate—and, as a result, reduces our ability to react to our surroundings. This is why it’s so important to give your brain a workout. Curiosity is injects positivity whereas stress has adverse effects.
Intense stress is accused of killing longevity; Low level of stress is beneficial
Many people seem older than they are. Research into the causes of premature aging has shown that stress has a lot to do with it, because the body wears down much faster during periods of crisis. The American Institute of Stress investigated this degenerative process and concluded that most health problems are caused by stress. Stress promotes cellular aging by weakening cell structures known as telomeres, which affect cellular regeneration and how our cells age. As the study revealed, the greater the stress, the greater the degenerative effect on cells.
While sustained, intense stress is a known enemy of longevity and both mental and physical health, low levels of stress have been shown to be beneficial. Those who live with low levels of stress tend to develop healthier habits, smoke less, and drink less alcohol. Sleep brings the stress levels down and along with it gifts us with many more benefits.
Sleep improves skin texture: Science has shown that sleep is a key antiaging tool, because when we sleep we generate melatonin, a hormone that occurs naturally in our bodies. The pineal gland produces it from the neurotransmitter serotonin according to our diurnal and nocturnal rhythms, and it plays a role in our sleep and waking cycles. A good sleep has lot to do with your mind set and eating habits. How about quantity in diet?
Hara hachi bu : “Fill your belly to 80 percent”
One easy way to start applying the concept of hara hachi bu is to skip dessert. Or to reduce portion size.
“Fill your belly to 80 percent. Over eating causes wearing down of body with long digestive processes that accelerate cellular oxidation.
The way food is served is also important. By presenting their meals on many small plates, the Japanese tend to eat less. A typical meal in a restaurant in Japan is served in five plates on a tray, four of them very small and the main dish slightly bigger.
Generating habit of doing new things for the mental exercise, avoiding intense stress and generating good eating habits need great motivation. Where does it come from? The answer is by finding the purpose
Finding purpose:
“Why do you not commit suicide?” Usually the patient found good reasons not to, and was able to carry on. What, then, does logotherapy do?
The answer is pretty clear: It helps you find reasons to live. Logotherapy pushes patients to consciously discover their life’s purpose in order to confront their neuroses.
One of Nietzsche’s famous aphorisms: “He who has a why to live for, can bear with almost any how.” Above all, he has to find his purpose, his reason for getting out of bed—his ikigai.
“Marna hi hai, to paida kyo huae? The answer is purpose!
Point to be remembered “We don’t create the meaning of our life, as Sartre claimed—we discover it.”
Morita therapy : Logotherapy and Morita therapy are used to heal the depressed people.
The four phases of Morita therapy Morita’s original treatment, which lasts fifteen to twenty-one days, consists of the following stages:
- Isolation and rest (five to seven days).
- Light occupational therapy (five to seven days)
- Occupational therapy (five to seven days)
- The return to social life and the “real” world
Thebasic concept in this therapy is bringing a change by breaking the loop of depression. When one gets back to social life she/he manages to forget the previous thoughts and finds purpose through the change.
Naikan meditation:
Morita was a great Zen master of Naikan introspective meditation. Much of his therapy draws on his knowledge and mastery of this school, which centers on three questions the individual must ask him-or herself:
1. What have I received from person X?
2. What have I given to person X?
3. What problems have I caused person X?
Through these reflections, we stop identifying others as the cause of our problems and deepen our own sense of responsibility. As Morita said, “If you are angry and want to fight, think about it for three days before coming to blows. After three days, the intense desire to fight will pass on its own.”
Flow: This is the biggest secret for happiness.
The Psychology of Optimal Experience, flow is “the state in which people are so involved in an activity that nothing else seems to matter; the experience itself is so enjoyable that people will do it even at great cost, for the sheer sake of doing it.” How?
Strategy 1: Choose a difficult task (but not too difficult!)
Easy – Boredom
Challenging – Flow
Beyond Our Abilities – Anxiety
Strategy 2: Have a clear, concrete objective:
Video games—played in moderation are great ways to achieve flow, because the objective tends to be very clear: Beat your rival or your own record while following a set of explicitly defined rules.
What often happens, especially in big companies, is that the executives get lost in the details of obsessive planning, creating strategies to hide the fact that they don’t have a clear objective. It’s like heading out to sea with a map but no destination. It is much more important to have a compass pointing to a concrete objective than to have a map.
Often we procrastinate. How to improve?
As soon as you take these first small steps, your anxiety will disappear and you will achieve a pleasant flow in the activity you’re doing.
Strategy 3: Concentrate on a single task :
Our brains can take in millions of bits of information but can only actually process a few dozen per second. When we say we’re multitasking, what we’re really doing is switching back and forth between tasks very quickly. Unfortunately, we’re not computers adept at parallel processing. We end up spending all our energy alternating between tasks, instead of focusing on doing one of them well. Concentrating on one thing at a time may be the single most important factor in achieving flow. If we want to get better at reaching a state of flow, meditation is an excellent antidote to our smartphones and their notifications constantly clamoring for our attention. The winner of the 1988 Olympic gold medal for archery was a seventeen year-old woman from South Korea. When asked how she prepared, she replied that the most important part of her training was meditating for two hours each day. Flow is mysterious. It is like a muscle: the more you train it, the more you will flow, and the closer you will be to your ikigai
Bad moments spent in repenting or thinking of past:
Let the thought pass: In fact, one of the things we learn in the practice of meditation is not to worry about anything that flits across our mental screen. The idea of killing our boss might flash into our mind, but we simply label it as a thought and let it pass like a cloud, without judging or rejecting it. It is only a thought—one of the sixty thousand we have every day, according to some experts.
Meditation generates alpha and theta brain waves. For those experienced in meditation, these waves appear right away, while it might take a half hour for a beginner to experience them. These relaxing brain waves are the ones that are activated right before we fall asleep, as we lie in the sun, or right after taking a hot bath.
Enjoy the state of flow through Rituals:
Rituals give us clear rules and objectives, which help us enter a state of flow. When we have only a big goal in front of us, we might feel lost or overwhelmed by it; rituals help us by giving us the process, the sub steps, on the path to achieving a goal. When confronted with a big goal, try to break it down into parts and then attack each part one by one. 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. Happiness is in the doing, not in the result. As a rule of thumb, remind yourself: “Rituals over goals.” 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.
Can someone really retire if he is passionate about what he does?
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.
We’ve all been bored in a class or at a conference and started doodling to keep ourselves entertained. Or whistled while painting a wall. If we’re not truly being challenged, we get bored and add a layer of complexity to amuse ourselves. Our ability to turn routine tasks into moments of microflow, into something we enjoy, is key to our being happy, since we all have to do such tasks.
Physical Exercise:
“Metabolism slows down 90 percent after 30 minutes of sitting. The enzymes that move the bad fat from your arteries 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
Buddhism and Stoicism:
Both Stoicism and Buddhism are, at their roots, methods for practicing wellbeing. According to Stoicism, our pleasures and desires are not the problem. We can enjoy them as long as they don’t take control of us. The Stoics viewed those who were able to control their emotions as virtuous.
The Stoics believed that these kinds of desires and ambitions are not worth pursuing. The objective of the virtuous person is to reach a state of tranquility (apatheia): the absence of negative feelings such as anxiety, fear, shame, vanity, and anger, and the presence of positive feelings such as happiness, love, serenity, and gratitude.
In order to keep their minds virtuous, the Stoics practiced something like negative visualization: They imagined the worst thing that could happen in order to be prepared if certain privileges and pleasures were taken from them. To practice negative visualization, we have to reflect on negative events, but without worrying about them. Seneca, one of the richest men in ancient Rome, lived a life of luxury but was, nonetheless, an active Stoic. He recommended practicing negative visualization every night before falling asleep. In fact, he not only imagined these negative situations, he actually put them into practice—for example, by living for a week without servants, or the food and drink he was used to as a wealthy man. As a result, he was able to answer the question “What’s the worst thing that could happen?”
In nutshell…..
The ten rules of ikigai
These ten rules are distilled from the wisdom of the long-living residents of Ogimi in Japan
1. Stay active; don’t retire.
Those who give up the things they love doing and do well lose their purpose in life. That’s why it’s so important to keep doing things of value, making progress, bringing beauty or utility to others, helping out, and shaping the world around you, even after your “official” professional activity has ended.
2. Take it slow.
Being in a hurry is inversely proportional to quality of life. As the old saying goes, “Walk slowly and you’ll go far.” When we leave urgency behind, life and time take on new meaning.
3. Don’t fill your stomach.
Less is more when it comes to eating for long life, too. According to the 80 percent rule, in order to stay healthier longer, we should eat a little less than our hunger demands instead of stuffing ourselves.
4. Surround yourself with good friends.
Friends are the best medicine, there for confiding worries over a good chat, sharing stories that brighten your day, getting advice, having fun, dreaming . . . in other words, living.
5. Get in shape for your next birthday.
Water moves; it is at its best when it flows fresh and doesn’t stagnate. The body you move through life in needs a bit of daily maintenance to keep it running for a long time. Plus, exercise releases hormones that make us feel happy.
6. Smile.
A cheerful attitude is not only relaxing—it also helps make friends. It’s good to recognize the things that aren’t so great, but we should never forget what a privilege it is to be in the here and now in a world so full of possibilities.
7. Reconnect with nature.
Though most people live in cities these days, human beings are made to be part of the natural world. We should return to it often to recharge our batteries.
8. Give thanks.
To your ancestors, to nature, which provides you with the air you breathe and the food you eat, to your friends and family, to everything that brightens your days and makes you feel lucky to be alive. Spend a moment every day giving thanks, and you’ll watch your stockpile of happiness grow.
9. Live in the moment.
Stop regretting the past and fearing the future. Today is all you have. Make the most of it. Make it worth remembering.
10. Follow your ikigai.
There is a passion inside you, a unique talent that gives meaning to your days and drives you to share the best of yourself until the very end. If you don’t know what your ikigai is yet, as Viktor Frankl says, your mission is to discover it.
Disclaimer:
The summary of this wonderful book written by Hector Garcia is just an attempt to preserve good points. In the process I have used my experiences, observations, discretions and foresights to land on a point.
Vinay Wagh
Bulls Eye.