BOOK NOTES: IKIGAI by Hector Garcia and Francesc Miralles

 

What is the secret to a long and happy life?

• Logotherapy: Helps people find their purpose in life. It pushes patients to consciously discover their life's purpose in order to confront their neuroses. Their quest to fulfill their destiny then motivates them to press forward.
• The search for purpose became a personal, driving force that allows Frankl to achieve his goals. The process of logotherapy can be summarized in these five steps:
• A person feels empty, frustrated, or anxious. The therapist shows him that what he is feeling is the desire to have a meaningful life. The patient discovers his life's purpose (at that particular point in time). Of his own free will, the patient decides to accept or reject that destiny. This newfound passion for life helps him overcome obstacles and sorrows. 
• Logotherapy does not see this frustration as mental illness, the way other forms of therapy do, but rather as spiritual anguish, a natural and beneficial phenomenon that drives those who suffer from it to seek a cure, whether on their own or with the help of others, and in so doing to find greater satisfaction in life. It helps them change their own destiny. 
• "He who has a why to live for can bear with almost any how."
• This is psychoanalysis - "His American psychoanalyst, whom he'd been seeing for years, insisted he make pace with his father so that his government and his job, both representations of the paternal figure, would seem less disagreeable.  
• Ikigai: "The happiness of always being busy." Like logotherapy, but goes a step beyond. 
• healthful diet, simple life in the outdoors, green tea, and the subtropical climate.
• The 5 Blue Zones
• Diet, Exercise, Finding a Purpose in Life (ikigai), and forming social ties (broad circle of friends and good family relations)
• Hara hachi bu - This is the 80 percent rule in Japan. Fill your stomach 80%. Okinawans stop eating when they feel their stomachs reach 80 percent of their capacity, rather than overeating and wearing down their bodies with long digestive processes that accelerate cellular oxidation. 
• "Presented with new information, the brain creates new connections and is revitalazed. This is why it is so important to expose yourself to change, even if stepping outside your comfort zone means feeling a bit of anxiety."
• "Scientists found that stress promotes cellular aging by weakening cell structures known as telomeres, which affect cellular regeneration and how our cells age."
• The alarm that goes off in our head makes our neurons activate the pituitary gland, which produces hormones that release corticotropin, which in turn circulates through the body via the sympathetic nervous system. The adrenal gland is then triggered to release adrenaline and cortisol.  Adrenaline raises our respiratory rate and pulse and prepares our muscles for action, getting the body ready to react to perceived danger, while cortisol increases the release of dopamine and blood glucose, which is what gets us "charged up" and allows us to face challenges. 
• A stoic attitude serenity in the face of a setback - can also help keep you young, as it lowers anxiety and stress levels and stabilized behaviour. This can be seen in the greater life expectancies of certain cultures with unhurried, deliberate lifestyles. 
• "Anything can be taken from a man but one thing: the last of the human freedoms - to choose one's attitude in any given set of circumstances, to choose one's own way". 
• Morita Therapy
• Morita Therapy focuses on teaching patients to accept their emotions without trying to control them, since their feelings will change as a result of their actions. 
• Morita Therapy is not meant to eliminate symptoms; instead it teaches us to accept our desires, anxieties, fears, and worries, and let them go. As Morita writes in his book Morita Therapy and the True Nature of Anxiety-Based Disorders, "In feelings, it is best to be wealthy and generous." Morita explains the idea of letting go of negative feelings with the following fable: 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. 
• Zen master would say, "If we try to gt rid of one wave with another, we end up with an infinite sea."
• The 4 Phases of Morita Therapy
• The four phases of Morita therapy last 15-21 days.
• 1.) Isolation and rest (five to seven days). During the first week of treatment, the patient rests in a room without any external stimuli. No television, books, family, friends, or speaking. All the patient has is his thoughts. He lies down for most of the day and is visited regularly by the therapist, who tries to avoid interacting with him as much as possible. The therapist simply advises the patient to continue observing the rise and fall of his emotions as he lies there. When the patient gets bored and wants to start doing things again, he is ready to move on to the next stage of therapy. 
• 2.) Light occupational therapy (five to seven days). In this stage, the patient performs repetitive tasks in silence. On of these is keeping a diary about his thoughts and feelings. The patient goes outside after a week of being shut in, takes walks in nature, and does breathing exercises. He also starts doing simple activities, such as gardening, drawing, or painting. During this stage, the patient is still not allowed to talk to anyone, except the therapist. 
• 3.) Occupational Therapy (five to seven days). In this stage, the patient performs tasks that require physical movement. Dr. Morita liked to take his patients to the mountains to chop wood. In addition to physical tasks, the patient is also immersed in other activities, such as writing, painting, or making ceramics. The patient can speak with others at this stage, but only about the tasks at hand.
• 4.) The return to social life and the "real world". The patient leaves the hospital and is reintroduced to social life, but maintains the practices of meditation and occupational therapy developed during treatment. The idea is to reenter society as a new person, with a sense of purpose, and without being controlled by social or emotional pressures.