DNA Of PurposeHector Garcia: Ikigai - The Japanese Secret to a Long and Happy Life
Hello and welcome to today’s episode of Decoding Purpose.
In 2016, a book by the name of Ikigai hit the shelves of bookstores worldwide. Ikigai was a book like no other, a deep exploration of an ancient Japanese concept around our purpose for being, or a reason to jump out of bed every morning. And according to the residents of the Japanese island of Okinawa - the world's longest-living people - finding it is the key to a longer and more fulfilled life.
Today's guest is author Hector Garcia and I was so honoured to be interviewing not only an internationally acclaimed author but a truly humble and heartfelt human being so willing to share his insights into purpose. Hector was born in Spain but a resident of Japan since 2004, has written several books about Japanese culture, but with over a million copies sold worldwide so far, his reflection on Ikigai has certainly captured the hearts and minds of the world.
Ikigai is an international best seller and has been translated into 26 languages. It seems that in today's fast paced world with an abundance of choices, distractions and our attention being pulled in every direction….true peace is found in the pursuit for what's held deeply inside our being. Our Ikigai and our reason for being.
He joins us on the podcast today all the way from Tokyo to talk all things Ikigai, how do we discover it, what has he learnt by observing others connection with the concept of Ikigai, and what can we do to protect our Ikigai when we discover it.
In today's conversation we discussed:
- Why the pursuit and discovery of our Ikigai is at the heart of human joy.
- We look at why the pursuit for meaning enables us to live longer from the people of Okinawa - a part of Japan inhabited by the oldest living people in the world.
- We decode the Japanese characters that make up the Ikigai.
- We unpack the western models for understanding purpose such as Viktors Frankl's Logotherapy, in addition to taking a deep dive into Morita therapy and the art of radical emotional acceptance in finding meaning.
- We dive into the art of flow in tuning into our Ikigai in addition to exploring concepts that guide our Ikigai such as sophisticated simplicity, meditation, mindfulness, nutrition and exercises that support our ability to live with purpose.
- We also look at how we can create space everyday to protect our Ikigai ensuring that we always protect the time we have for what provides us both happiness and joy.
By nature, Hector is a creator, a dreamer, a learner and talented writer, and we had a lot to cover in today’s conversation of Decoding Purpose. Welcome to this episode of the podcast.
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
