Ikigai
| https://youtu.be/LOZA9svn8Kk |
Hi, this is Bill Chan again with The 5 Elements of a Fulfilling Life at 5Element5.com, and I'm also a health coach.
Today I want to talk to you about a Japanese term called ikigai.
Ikigai stands for life's values; Ikigai is a guiding value, and the way they determined this is in Japan, they sent a whole bunch of scientists to study in Kayo.
This town has the most centenarians in Japan, people that live to be over 100 years old, and the scientists follow them for six days trying to figure out the secrets of longevity.
What makes these people live longer than everyone else? They found that all the centenarians have something they're passionately doing daily.
They found that one lady loves to make Japanese masks, and she does that day in and day out every day.
Another gentleman who fishes every day goes out fishing every single day.
Another gentleman loves painting, so he does beautiful images every night.
So the whole concept is you must have a passion in life, love what you're doing, and continually repeat doing those things you enjoy doing. This aligns with positive psychology's whole concept of working from your strengths.
Now if you need to know your strengths, there is an excellent assessment called ViA character strength assessment, and you can google it.
This is from Dr. Martin Silliman and Chris Peterson from the University of Pennsylvania; the idea is you go through that assessment and find out your top five strengths; for me, love learning is my top priority.
You find out yours; everyone is different, so once you find out what you love doing and where your strength lies, you try to strengthen those strengths.
Okay! You try to work on those strengths and to be the best of the best at what you do; scientists found that when you work on your muscles, you are generally happiest, and it's easy for you to flow into a state of FLOW, the zone.
When you're in that zone, you're more productive, performing better than any time else, and more efficient.
So try to get into the zone as much as possible; you feel fulfilled and alive when possible.
Many studies on this found that people who love what they do and do what they value get sick less often.
They have better immune systems, so if you can do that, you will live a more fulfilling life and live longer and healthier than most people around you.
So really work on your strength and be the best that you can be. Thank you.