Ikigai: The Japanese Secret to a Long and Happy Life

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Alongside Hector Garcia, he was welcomed to Okinawa in Japan, where the inhabitants live for longer than in any other place in the world. This leads to them eating 1/3 as much sugar as the rest of Japan, half as much salt, and fewer calories but calories of higher nutritional value (bearing in mind that Japan itself already has the highest life expectancy in the world). It was incredibly fascinating to read not only the information but also direct paragraphs written by some of the world longest living people. Discover the Japanese secret to a long and happy life with this internationally bestselling guide to ikigai. If you want to be nannied into being told to sleep better, eat better (somehow to objectively figure out how to fill only 80% of your stomach, never mind what you eat), don't take stress and somehow find your purpose in life (all in the span of 15 minutes of reading), go for it.

This delightfully illustrated book gives you the lowdown on this transformative approach to life and examines how the lagom ethos has helped boost Sweden to the No.For fans of Japanese culture like I am, this is a true treat, as it mixes that with a neat account of self-development. The lessons of how to not worry in situations, how to take each task at a time and do it your own pace carefully enjoying it, how to be resilient, how to be antifragile. It's not a guide og help to living in the modern world and was more "move to a cabin in the woods with friends" approach.

It surfs above some areas and goes into so much detail in others, that it hurts the flow of the reading.The one thing that struck me positively about the book (and hence the two stars, instead of one) was the pace of it - of lack thereof. It gets a bit technical at times, with all the referencing and counter referencing articles and theories related to the subject, but if you do manage to trudge along (like I did) you will be able to glean some of the gems along the way, and come to think of it, like me, you may want to go for a second reading just to highlight some portions that are worth emulating.