Happy Monday!
It was a pretty quiet week last week. Outside of watching stocks and crypto continue to divebomb, I published the first set of book notes on my website - Storyworthy by Matthew Dicks. Pretty excited to keep that going moving forward. If you have any recommendations for non-fiction books, please send them my way!
Hope you enjoy this weekâs newsletter.
At the northern end of Okinawa Island in Japan, there is a small town called Ogimi. Itâs a rural town, more akin to a village, with a population of about 3,000. The amazing thing about Ogimi is that its people boast the highest life expectancy in the world, which has earned it the nickname The Village of Longevity.
A small stone marker in the village (roughly translated) reads:
âAt 80, you are merely a youth. At 90, if your ancestors invite you into heaven, ask them to wait until you are 100âthen, you might consider it.â
The latest count shows that fifteen of Ogimiâs 3,000 villagers are centenarians (over the age of 100) and 171 are in their 90s. Medical studies of the eldest in Ogimi, Okinawa, and other Blue Zones â geographic regions with the highest life expectancy â show some incredible stats:
Itâs pretty wild how Ogimi, a village on Okinawa where something like two hundred thousand innocent lives were lost at the end of World War II, has become the pinnacle of human longevity.
Ask around the island and youâll find that one of the major reasons the people of Ogimi live so happily for so long is a Japanese concept called ikigai, translating (again, roughly) to âthe happiness of always being busyâ. What this really means is having a reason â a purpose â to live.
According to the Japanese, everyone has an ikigai. Some people have already found it, while others are still looking. Either way, they carry it within. This concept of ikigai persists long past the traditional age of retirement. In fact, many Japanese never really retire. They keep doing the things they love for as long as their health allows.
Scientists have studied the people of Ogimi and the other Blue Zones tirelessly in hopes of discovering the secrets to longevity. Theyâve learned that ikigai, though a major player, is just one of the four keys to longevity. The other three shouldnât surprise you.
Their methods of living to be 100+ arenât complex. They eat mostly whole foods and a high amount of vegetables. One of the most common sayings in Japan is âHara haci bu,â which means âfill your belly to 80 percent.â Itâs spoken before or after eating much like the French say âBon appetiteâ or us Americans, âphew, Iâm stuffedâ. Unlike us, the people of Ogimi stop eating when they feel their stomachs are at 80 percent capacity, which cuts down on taxing digestive processes and cellular oxidation.
They rarely lift weights. They donât sit for long periods of time. Most of their activity comes naturally from walking, working, and playing games.
Almost all of the work that they do is communal and helps the greater village out in some way. If one of their fellow villagers is struggling financially, they help out. Everyone does their part and they donât harbor animosity towards each other or outsiders. They live by the Okinawan principle of ichariba chode, an expression that means âtreat everyone like a brother, even if youâve never met them before.â
If you thought you were going to read this email and discover that the secret to living a long, healthy life was taking a magic pill or hard committing to a lifelong Jenny Craig diet, Iâm sorry for disappointing you.
We often make things way more complex than they need to be when in reality, theyâre quite simple.
Have a great week.
Best,
Jason