Book Review: Ikigai: The Japanese Secret to a Long and Happy Life by Francesc Miralles and Hector Garcia

I’ve read a few self-help books the past few months and very few have resonated with me. To be honest, I waited the last minute to read this book just because I’ve been seeing this everywhere on my social media feeds. I thought this was just another over hyped self-help book. I was wrong. The moment I started reading this, I couldn’t put it down.

One of the things I noticed from this book is that, it doesn’t push you to live as hard and doesn’t push you to find your purpose. Do you get what I mean? There are some books that kinda gives you that subtle pressure or even that toxic positivity vibe. Ikigai doesn’t have that at all. In fact, I love that it reminds you to just enjoy life, be curious and just keep doing what you do. You don’t have to have the kind of purpose that should change the world. You’re not obligated to, so you don’t have to beat yourself up. At the end of the day, all you need is something that you genuinely enjoy and something that really makes you happy.

Moreover, the authors really went out of their way to actually interview centenarians. Individuals over the age of one hundred, all sharing their very own secret to a happy life. The most common ones are, eat well, exercise and be with good people.

Ikigai is a great book that tackles not only the spiritual approach to our existence, but also the physical and external process / forces that is necessary to live a happy life. I just love the honesty in this book and how they tackled every mental and physical aspect that we are currently facing. It’s very realistic and they even shared statistics and studies about how our bodies react on certain situations and how to overcome them.

A very simple and straightforward self-help book that should be read by everyone. I enjoyed every bit of it that I almost highlighted the whole book!