The word “retire” is foreign to the Okinawan vocabulary.
Instead, the residents of this Japanese community hold their Ikigai- reason for getting up each morning - sacred. Whether its growing food or taking care of their children, this notion of a purposeful life seamlessly energizes their often centenarian lives.
Ikigai is one of the many common lifestyle factors identified by National Geographic writer and researcher Dan Buettner, in Blue Zones: areas of the world where folks reach the age of 100 at rates 10 times greater than in the U.S. while living healthier lives, with a fraction of the rates of heart disease and cancer.
Central to his work is the Danish Twin Studies finding that less than 25% of human longevity is dictated by our genes. At a TEDxTC talk, he advocates four simple longevity principles based on his travels to Blue Zones around the world:
1. Move naturally
2. Eat wisely
3. Right outlook
4. Connect/Right tribe
INSPIRED LIFE STRATEGY!
In 2010, experiment with your Ikigai – write out a personal mission statement.
Why DO you get up each morning?
Remember, the premise of this question is not so much about the next big idea that will change the world (although it could be), but more about the everyday activities that bring you closer to the peace & joy that comes with being fully present.
2009 has been the year for compassion to share some airtime, thanks to a world in turmoil.
Confronted with economic and social challenges that took us by surprise, we turned organically to introspection and the search for answers in our own brand of spirituality. Lo and behold, no matter what religious or non-religious ideology we subscribed to, compassion reared its beautiful head.
The Buddha went so far as to say that the mind’s natural state is compassionate. A theory that has recently been confirmed by several psychologists and evolutionary scientists: our bodies and brains are wired to be good.
Studies have shown that compassionate people have stronger immune systems, higher energy levels and live longer, happier lives.
Despite the trance of “survival of the fittest” in our collective memory, it was Darwin himself among others who wrote extensively about the presence of compassion in primates, and how it contributed towards the survival of their communities and tribes.
If this is true i.e. if we are indeed wired to be good, then why is the world in the state that it is? And why are some of us able to show more compassion than others?
The answer is simply this: we are all born with the seeds of compassion, but it is up to us to nurture and cultivate that seed throughout our lives.
If we don’t, it is easy to succumb to societal conditioning and the notion of “separation”, “competition” and what the Buddhists consider the “delusion of isolation”. Caught up in this quicksand, the spark of compassion is quickly put out by the immediate pain & suffering we may be going through.
And yet, it is this very personal pain that can be a catalyst to help remind us of our interconnectedness.
Pain is a universal human condition, and when we recognize that in those we consider “other” or “separate” from ourselves, there is room for compassion to grow. By helping relieve another’s pain, we are in fact, helping ourselves, since we are all so intricately interdependent.
Author Robert Wright speaks about the evolution of compassion, non-zero sum dynamics and why it may save the world:
2. Perform random acts of kindness towards strangers, with no expectation of recognition or reward.
3. Meditate on compassion. A quick primer on the Tibetan Buddhist Tonglen practice:
In a quiet, relaxed posture, bring to mind whatever is causing the biggest pain or suffering in your life (a health condition, a relationship, a circumstance etc.). Feel and acknowledge the presence of that pain.
Now bring to mind all the other people in the world who might be experiencing a similar situation and pain.
Take a deep breath, and INHALE all that suffering – yours, and that of others.
Hold that suffering in your heart. No matter how overwhelming it might feel, remember that you have the courage and strength to hold it tenderly, and respond to it compassionately, since you are tapping into the collective awareness and heart.
Now offer that suffering a loving acceptance, and gently EXHALE compassion – sending it to yourself and everyone else in your predicament.
At their annual “We Day” event attended by thousands of student leaders across the country and celebrities alike, Canadian brothers Craig and Marc Kielburger like to rouse a popular refrain: “We are the generation we’vebeen waiting for!”
Not an empty cry that one.
As founders of Free The Children, they have managed to turn a six member teamof 12 year olds outraged by child labor back in 1995 into the “Me to We Generation” – the world’s largest network of children helping children through education. Five hundred schools in 45 countries and counting, the organization continues its mission of empowering young minds to look beyond themselves and make a change.
Marc and Craig were years ahead of their time of a trend spotted in Feb 2009 by Trendwatching the global purveyors of cutting edge business savvy.
This is how they described it:
“Generation G: Captures the growing importance of “generosity” as a leading societal and business mindset. As consumers are disgusted with greed and its current dire consequences for the economy – and while that same upheaval has them longing more than ever for institutions that care – the need for more generosity beautifully coincides with the ongoing (and pre-recession) emergence of an online-fueled culture of individuals who share, give, engage, create and collaborate in large numbers.
In fact, for many, sharing a passion and receiving recognition have replaced “taking” as the new status symbol. Businesses should follow this societal/behavioral shift, however much it may oppose their decades-old devotion to my, myself and I.”
What I love most is that this trend is not the privy of Gen X or Gen Y alone. It cuts across all age and marketing barriers.
Of course, there is nothing new about the concept of giving. Millions of inspired changemakers past and present have tapped into the Buddhist trancendent law or Paramita of Generosity.
The laws describe six universal aspects of our basic human nature – the other five include Discipline, Patience, Exertion, Meditation and Wisdom- that create wellbeing. As the Kielburgers discovered: “Me to We began simply. Two brothers, one basic idea: helping others makes you happy. Better yet, it also changes the world”.
MAKE AN INSPIRED CHANGE!
Its a given that you’re generous. Now what? Here’s a cool spin for you to experiment with (courtesy of the Buddha).
Push the boundaries of your threshold for giving. For instance, most of us believe that we can only give once we have enough – food, money, time or love. Not true.
Stretch the G muscle this week by reframing every circumstance as an opportunity to give. Even when you feel like you have nothing to give or not enough, challenge yourself. Dig deep. You’ll find something, guaranteed.
And then, take it to the limit by doing it from a sense of genuine caring rather than duty or ethics.
Phew! Its okay to groan a bit. Its a fun workout (and a great example of the Exertion paramita).
Some ideas for gifts that keep giving:
Lend a few or more dollars to microfinance an entrepreneur in a developing country at KIVA. Your return on investment includes at least one person making it across the poverty line.
A friend’s birthday coming up? Parent’s anniversary? Looking for a Wedding Registry? Ditch the electronic gadget/china/whatever and make a donation in their name at Changing The Present where your celebration connects you with your extended family of six billion.
Volunteer an hour at your favorite cause this week
At your next conversation, give of yourself completely i.e. listen with all your attention
Come up with your own cool giving idea and tell everyone you know
What is interesting: the million different connotations of the word the question brings up. We each have our own definition and interpretation of what happiness means. Which is probably why no matter how much research goes into it, or how many books are written, we will continue to search for this elusive & precarious state of being.
Whether you’re close to or far away from your ideal, teacher Thich Nhat Hanh offers Buddhist practice as a clever way to enjoy life a.k.a. one way to realise happiness.
But before we discuss that, lets get a bit of clarity around the definition itself.
The lowest common denominator – the most immediate, visible, and certainly most advertised kind of happiness. Associated with a surge in good feeling endorphins in your brain and brought on by everything from food, exercise, laughter to yachts, diamonds and a winning lottery ticket.
2. Satisfaction
The result of a task well done; bringing your skills to a challenge and nailing it – whether that’s writing a blog post, preparing a delicious meal or navigating a rocket into space.
3. Meaning
When Mahatma Gandhi was asked by a reporter what message he would like to give the people, he simply replied “My life is my message”. Meaning comes from the message your life is relaying. In other words, what is your vision or mission for being and is it showing up in your daily activities?
4. Contentment
This is where it gets tricky for most of us. Pleasure, Satisfaction and Meaning are the end result of something external to us – a thing, person, outcome. They stem from a degree of control, big or small, on our outer circumstances. Contentment on the other hand is a choice – a choice to be happy first, then go out and do whatever it is we want to.
Often we confuse “feeling bad” or “sad” or “angry” or whatever negative emotion we might be experiencing as a prerequisite to taking action or being productive. If we’re content all the time, after all, won’t we turn into slackers? Far from it. As Michael says: “Whatever you can do with unhappiness, you can do easier and better with happiness”.High five to that!
Coming back to Thich Nhat Hanh’s comment on Buddhist practice, all Bodhisattvas recognize that we can only live our life, not control it. To help us on our journey, we can ride the highway of the six Paramitas (transcendent laws or actions).
Again, rather than clouding the meaning of these words with conditioned responses, the practice is to approach them as our basic capabilities, our true nature, and strengthen them via daily use:
When you trust your own happiness, you can allow the entire scope of experience to touch your heart. This is the mark of the spiritual warrior.
She can hold sweetness, sorrow, rage, and delight equally and fully. She can watch as emotions rise and fall, notice how she reaches out to some and recoils from others, and know that somehow she’ll find a way to make whatever she experiences a part of the path.Whether her world is friendly or inhospitable, smooth or rocky, she can abide in it wholeheartedly.
A joyful mind is as infinite as the sky and, like the sky, can contain sunshine and storms, snowflakes and hail. Conditions are continously shifting, but the sky is always the sky. It never gives up. From within it, the great sun rises in the east, the moon meets the tide, and the circle is always complete.
INSPIRED LIFE STRATEGY!
Quick: Are you happy? :)
This time, score yourself on the four faces of happiness outlined above.
Pick one that you scored lowest on and make it the focus of your coming week. e.g. if you’ve been feeling lost/aimless, put your thoughts down on paper and come up with the message or mission that you would love your life to represent. Then take one action step that is aligned with that mission.
That’s right. It’s nothing but a mundane, run-of-the-mill widget manufactured wholesale by the endless synaptic activity of the neurons in your brain. *yawn*
Ah. I can hear you bristle with argument. Isn’t the human brain one of the most ingenious, incredible biological marvels? Thought is produced by 100 billion nerve cells in a complex circuit that even the most advanced computer networks can’t hold a candle to. Surely that deserves some respect?
I couldn’t agree more. But if that is true, dear changemaker, why do you spend most of your waking hours at thought sites of historical interest digging up ancient stories or mired in the imagined ruins of the future?
The Buddha spent his life investigating the nature of mind and thought. Central to his teachings is the reminder to never accept a theory on face value, but to try it on for size in our own lives.
Take a cue from the Buddha. Hang up your archaeological hat. Become a scientist instead. Your mind is an amazing laboratory where you can turn thought artifacts from relics to objects of art. Here’s how.
Or did you flunk out of life even before you got out of bed?
And what grade did you dole out to the people in your life – at work, at home, on the street?
Einstein famously said that it was nonsense to found a theory on observable facts alone, since in reality the very opposite happens: “It is theory which decides what we can observe.”
I’m crazy about the idea of compassion. Completely nuts.
However, prior to my love affair with it, I was just plain confused.
You see, I equated compassion with the warm fuzzy feeling in my body when I heard Mother Teresa-que stories of selfless action . Or the heartwrenching sensation in my chest as I watched innocent children turn into statistics of another senseless war.
My condolences to the inventor of SMART goals. You know the one who recommended we rally around projects that are Specific, Measurable, Agreed upon, Realistic and Time based?
REALISTIC!!????
I can hear all you inspired changemakers shudder in unison.
If human beings only set sight on what they thought was achievable, we’d probably still be huddled around each other (cause even the concept of a fire would have been unrealistic) in a dark cave somewhere, trying to agree upon the words of kumbaya.
Have you ever consoled somebody with “don’t worry, everything will be alright” or “things will workout – don’t give up hope” and felt a sense of utter emptiness in your words, no matter how well intentioned they were? That you were trying to impose a fabricated, highy improbable fairy tale that nobody – not least the person in pain - was buying into?
We’ve all been there. Even looking back on our dark nights of the soul – was it really hope that kept us alive?
Stressing and fussing over making lemonades is SO 20th century!
As 21st century inspired changemakers, we let go of the delusion of control, relax and practice Radical Acceptance. A completely unabashed, unapologetic (read: free of fear and guilt) surrendering to the present moment. Just as it is. Right here, right now, warts and all.
Though this concept of letting go is one of the staples in ancient eastern traditions such as Vedanta or Buddhism, it’s often misinterpreted as either despondancy, despair, apathy, fatalism, inaction or some combination of these attributes. In fact, surrender is anything but!
Its a fun workout (and a great example of the Exertion paramita).