Ikigai

5 supercentenarians across the world were interviewed by the authors of the book “Ikigai“. Here’s what they had to say.

1. “Eat and sleep, and you’ll live a long time. You have to learn to relax.”

~ Misao Okawa (117 years of age)

2. “I have never eaten meat in my life.”

~Maria Capobilla (116 years of age)

3. “Everything is fine.”

~Jeanne Calment (122 years of age)

4. “If you keep your mind and body busy, you’ll be around a long time.”

~ Walter Breuning (114 years of age)

5. “I just haven’t died yet.”

~Alexander Imich (111 years of age)

The people above said a lot more than just the one line summary I provided but it’s beyond the scope of this post to go into the details of all of them. You’ll have to read the book for that.

One of the short blurbs though that stuck with me from the book says:

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.

Ikigai