The Essence of Ikigai: A Deep Dive with Sachiaki Takamiya

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What is Mago Wa Yasashii?

Mago wa yasashii is an expression in Japanese that translates to “your grandchildren are kind.” Moreover, it is a Japanese mnemonic device to distinguish what food groups are healthy and what they can use in daily cooking, with each syllable representing a food group. Unfortunately, this concept is unrecognized in other countries. Sachiaki introduces this concept to the Western audience. 

A buzzword among health conscious people

Nick: It's this phrase, mago wa yasashii. So what does that mean?

Sachiaki: Mago wa yasashii is a Japanese word and simply means "your grandchildren are kind." Mago means grandchildren and yasashii means kind, and mago wa yasashii means your grandchildren are kind.

Nick: I understand, but this is actually a Japanese mnemonic device that helps people remember what food groups are healthy and what they can use in daily cooking. And each syllable of mago wa yasashii represents a food group. 

Sachiaki: Well, yeah, mago wa yasahii is a very popular concept in Japan now. It's not a very old concept. It's quite kind of relatively new in the last 20 years or so. It's almost like a kind of a new buzzword among the health conscious people in Japan.

Almost every healthy eating seminar you attend, mago wa yasashii is mentioned. It's a very popular concept among health conscious people.

But mago wa yasashii itself is not so common among the general public, it is more a popular concept among the health conscious. It's probably not known at all in other countries.

Nick: No, I wouldn't think so. So hopefully, you and I will be the first to spread it to a Western audience.

How is Goma Used in Cooking?

Go stands for Goma (sesame seeds); it represents any kind of seeds or nuts: pumpkin seeds, sunflower seeds, and so forth. Sachiaki shares that in Japan, they use it as a seasoning: they ground the seeds and sprinkle them on foods like salad or steamed vegetables.

Incorporating sesame seeds into your meal

Nick: All right, moving on to the second syllable of mago, so go, what does go represent or mean in Japanese?

Sachiaki: Go is goma, which means sesame seeds. So go represents any kind of seeds and nuts. So sesame seeds, pumpkin seeds, sunflower seeds, almond nut, peanut, cashew nuts, all kinds of nuts -- nuts and seeds.

Nick: And how is goma used in cooking?

Sachiaki: Goma is usually grounded and we kind of sprinkle sesame seeds on salad or vinegared vegetables or steamed vegetables and so on. So we usually use sesame seeds as -- you use them to make sort of flavor.

Nick: Okay, so it's a seasoning.

Sachiaki: Seasoning. Yeah, as a seasoning.

Nick: Yeah, I know goma is becoming popular and there's actually goma or black sesame ice cream.

Sachiaki: Oh, yeah, there are black sesame ice creams in Australia.

Nick: I think in most Western countries now, if you go to a Japanese restaurant, they'll have for example matcha ice cream or black sesame goma ice cream.

Sachiaki: Oh, yeah, I imagine about matcha ice cream but I didn't know about kurogoma ice cream.

Nick: Yeah. Okay, kurogoma, yeah, black. So kuro is black.

Diversifying Nutrient Sources

Ya stands for yasai (vegetable). Sachiaki shares that Japanese people prefer to include as many vegetables as they can in their meals because each vegetable contains different types of nutrients; having various types of vegetables can provide enough nutrients to keep the balance in people’s bodies. 

Importance of vegetables in every meal

Nick: But moving on to vegetables, so the ya in yasashii represents vegetables?

Sachiaki: Yeah. So ya is yasai which means vegetables. Any kind of vegetables are part of ya.

Nick: And Japan has a range of unique vegetables such as daikon, goya, few ones that people might not know of is renkon and gobo. 

So Japan does have this unique range of vegetables, but Japanese also know the importance of eating a diverse range of vegetables.

Sachiaki: Yeah. So when we say vegetables, we have root vegetables, leafy vegetables, green vegetables, or yellow vegetables, but it's good to include as many different kinds of vegetables as you can. 

Because each vegetable contain different types of nutrients. So even though for example, you know, broccoli is considered to be a superfood, so some people want to eat broccoli a lot.

But if you're eating only broccoli, it gives you only certain type of nutrient. But if you include other vegetables, then they provide you different sort of nutrients.

Even though there are some vegetables which are not considered to be a superfood, they might contain some nutrients, which are lacking in other vegetables. So just having like a various type of vegetable will provide enough nutrients in your body to keep the balance.

Nick: Okay, so you're sort of diversifying your nutrient sources in a sense. And you have mentioned that Japanese basically eat, I guess, Japanese who eat well eat vegetables with every meal. 

And I remember you told me the shock you experienced when you either went to America or the UK and you had basically a meat heavy breakfast.

Sachiaki: Yeah, that was actually in Australia. I had breakfast with sausages and eggs without any vegetables. And I was very surprised because usually in Japan, we have vegetables for breakfast, too.

Eating Fish as a Whole

Sachiaki explains that sa represents Sakana (fish); Japanese people have a lot of fish in their washoku diet (traditional Japanese diet) since fish has always been available in their land. Some fishes are important because they provide certain nutrients which can be difficult to obtain from plant-based foods. However, he shares that it is not recommended to have a daily consumption of fish – occasional intake is enough.

Including fish into your diet

Sachiaki: Some people may not think fish is good for you, especially if you are you know, vegetarians or vegans. In Japan, we have a lot of fish in our washoku diet.

Partly because Japan is a small island surrounded by the ocean -- the fish has always been available in our land. So it became very common. In ikigai diet, although we do recommend fish, not so much compared to other mago wa yasashii.

Fish is maybe, you know, eating occasionally is okay but not something you want to eat every day. But I do still think some fishes are quite important because they provide certain nutrients which are difficult to get from plant based food.

For example, you know, omega three fatty acid called EPA or DHA. Those are abundant in fish like sardines or mackerels, and they are difficult to obtain from plant based source.

So I think provided that you find a wild fish maybe occasionally, it is okay to have those types of fish.

Nick: And you recommend eating whole fish over, for example, fillets of fish or I guess in the case of sushi sliced fish, so you recommend eating small whole fish, don't you?

Sachiaki: Yes, I do. This is something maybe we are going to talk about sometime in the next few episodes. But there is a concept called Ichibutsu Zentai Shoku in Japan, which means eating whole foods.

And in the case of fish, it is better to eat fish as a whole than eating a part of fish. So that means eating small fish instead of big fish. When we eat tuna, we don't eat the whole tuna, we just cut the tuna and eat only a part of it.

But if we eat sardines, on the other hand, we eat the whole fish. So it is considered better to eat small fish than eating a part of a big fish.

A General Guide to Healthy Eating

For Sachiaki, people should incorporate mago wa yasashii in their meals as much as possible. It may not be possible to include everything in one meal, but at least covering the idea of mago wa yasashii weekly will do. The goal is to have a balanced diet and not limit their meals to only one type of food.

Following the mago wa yasashii diet

Nick: So are there any rules about this mnemonic device? This idea of mago wa yasashii? For example, is it encouraged for people to try and eat all of these types of foods every day? Or is it just a general guide?

Sachiaki: Well, a general guide. It's better to include them every day as much as you can -- as many mago wa yasashii as you can in each meal. But it is often impossible to include everything in one meal.

Therefore, if you can cover within a day, if you have three meals a day, maybe if we can cover mago wa yasashii within those three meals, that's good. But if you cannot then you can think of weekly.

So try to cover as many mago wa yasashii as you can in all meals you have each week. The idea is to have a balanced diet. So not eating only one type of food but try to diversify your eating and try to include I vegetables.

Definitely you want to eat vegetables every day and possibly in every meal. And for beans to if you want to get your protein from plant-based and beans are essential. So you want to have beans in almost every meal.

But for potato, mago wa yasashii doesn't include grains, but you can also have grains too. So potatoes and grains are interchangeable. I mean for some meals, you can have potatoes as your staple; other meals you can have grains as your staple, too.

But I would say, try to cover as many mago wa yasashii as you can within a day except fish and try to cover as many mago wa yasashii as you can within a week. So I suppose you can have fish maybe once a week.

So if you think of weekly menu, you want to include fish somewhere.

Nick: I think it's a really good open, simplistic guide for people. So we're not recommending just one type of bean or one type of mushroom or one type of potato or one type of fish -- people do have choices. 

And it would be very easy to cook some of these ingredients. I know it from myself when I make miso soup, I usually put in shitake mushrooms or poured in sweet potato, I might put in pumpkin, add a bit of wakame, maybe I cube a little bit of soy.

So it's possible to make something quite easy like what you taught me, a rustic miso soups, where I'll make a big bowl of it, and I'll put in quite a few ingredients. And I'm getting all the benefits of these different food groups of mago wa yasashii.

Obviously, there's no mention of meat or processed foods or no dairy. So it really is a general guide for healthy eating. And it's something that vegetarians or even vegans can appreciate. 

The Key to Fulfilling Your Life’s Purpose

How do you plan to utilize your life? It is not uncommon for people to only discover their life purpose in their later years, as was the case with Sachiaki. At the age of 60, he feels as though he has just begun, having already published two books and with many more goals to achieve. In order to continue his work, it is essential for him to maintain a healthy lifestyle.

Living longer to fulfill your life's mission

Nick: Your previous book, The Ikigai Diet, was more focused on eating for longevity, and ikigai and well-being. And now your most recent book, Ikigai Bio-Hacking, focuses on obviously bio-hacking to live longer and optimally.

And at the start of the book, you ask two important questions to the reader: ‘Why do you want to live long?’ and ‘What is the purpose of extending your lifespan?’ So I'd like to ask these questions of you, Sachiaki.

So you are 60. You look much younger, and I'm sure you feel much younger. So why do you want to live longer? And what is the purpose for you extending your lifespan?

Sachiaki: Well, first of all, I am not interested in extending my lifespan. I'm happy with the present lifespan we have as a humanity, which is somewhere between 100 and 120. So the longest person who has lived before was 121, I think a French woman. And now, I think, is a Brazilian man or someone who's reached 121 or something.

So we know that humans are capable of living up to 120, around that sort of age. I'm happy to stay within this kind of a natural capacity we have. But I want to stay healthy, I want to stay sick-free and be active to be able to continue doing what I am doing now at the age of 100 and 110, and so on.

I am not interested in extending my lifespan to 150 or 200 years old, or so much. Because the purpose of staying sick-free until 120 is that I want to complete my mission in life. I kind of started late, I've been a sort of a student for a long time in my life. And in a way, I mean, not a literal sense of a student, but I have not accomplished what I wanted to do in the last 60 years.

I think some people are lucky enough to be established early on. So they maybe fulfilled their mission by the time they are 40, or 50, and so on. But in my case, my life is kind of starting now. You know, having those two books out. So I'm sure, in the future, in the next few years, I'll be speaking worldwide, maybe giving talks, or writing more books.

And maybe I can spread the Ikigai Diet and Ikigai Bio-Hacking. So this contribution can begin now. So having extra 60 years is very helpful for me. That's the main purpose, and I want to stay sick-free and stay energetic to be able to continue my work.

And why 120? Well, maybe 100 is enough for me, too. If I can live another 40 years, that's fine with me. But just because we're capable of living up to 120, like why not? It’s just like something I want to challenge.

Nick: All these resonates with me. Like you, I feel my life has only just begun in some ways. I think the work I do now is my personal mission. And I really only started a few years ago, so life started at 50, for me.

So I understand that perspective. To have this personal mission that's intrinsically motivating and meaningful, and something you'd happily do for another 20, 30, 40 years, I can relate to.

Exploring the Three Health Categories Relevant to Bio-hacking

Sachiaki outlines three health categories he associates with Ikigai bio-hacking, which differentiate it from traditional biohacking.

Bio-hacking and the three types of health

Nick: So going deeper. In your book, you touch on three types of health that you relate to bio-hacking. So what are they?

Sachiaki: So these are personal health, planetary health, and spiritual health. One difference between ikigai bio-hacking and regular bio-hacking is that we kind of include the spiritual aspect of our life.

So when you start thinking about spiritual aspect, the death is not the end of everything. Depending on your belief, you might believe in reincarnation, or you might have a Christian belief of going to heaven after dying, and so on.

But whatever the belief you have, if you believe in some form of life after death, and then your focus is not only just extending your lifespan and trying to live as long as you can. And your focus is not only the physical body, but the spiritual side as well.

So from that point of view, maybe you don't have to live to 150 because you have a next life to transform into. But while you are alive on this earth, you want to kind of accomplish your life mission, therefore the quality of life is more important than the length of life.

But then if we think about personal physical health and spiritual health, maybe we are doing slightly different things. Like for example, we talk about fasting or diet or exercises, and so on. But things can be slightly different if you're aiming for spiritual health as well, and the planetary health.

Because if the planet is in a healthy state, there is no point of doing all those things to extend your, to improve your health condition, because you cannot survive without the earth. So for me, personal health and planetary health should be tackled together, they're kind of the same thing.

And then again, if you're thinking about the planetary health, the type of activity you do changes a little. There are many activities which can benefit just for your physical health, but may not be good for planetary health. But there are activity, which can help both the planetary health and the personal physical health.

Nick: I really liked this approach, and it kind of highlight, it's not a self-centric or selfish way of thinking about your own life that you're including this spiritual aspect. And even if you're not religious, you just don't know, you don't know what happens after death.

And I guess from living in Japan, and observing how Japanese handle the death of relatives and their cultural practices, Japanese seem to accept death and don't seem to perhaps fear it. Whereas in the West, we have this probably mentality of, ‘I don't want to die. And I want to get everything done before I die.’

And we have this different perspective. And then this idea of planetary health, I think it's really important, and we obviously can relate that to our connection with nature and how we treat nature, and look for sustainable ways that you discuss, for exercise, diet, and lifestyle.

Autophagy and its significance

Sachiaki highlights the significance of autophagy and its role in maintaining cellular health.

Autophagy is vital for longevity

Nick: You write that intermittent fasting is one of the most effective ways to activate autophagy, which is considered to stop or slow down the aging process. So What is autophagy? And why is it important?

Sachiaki: So autophagy is kind of a function, a cellular function to regenerate or repair itself. Autophagy means self-eating. It basically eat the kind of decayed cell to renew. We all have this function when we're young, but once we get old, this function deteriorates.

And then we need to constantly activate this function to sustain this mechanism. And this was actually… The autophagy was not discovered. But the function of the autophagy was made famous by a Japanese scholar, called Yoshinori Ohsumi, who won the Nobel Prize in 2016 in the field of physiology and medicine, and then it became very famous worldwide.

And it is one of the key words in the field of longevity — health and longevity, autophagy. Once you can activate autophagy, you can slow down aging a lot. That's what it is said.

Nick: So it almost sounds like this process of recycling damaged cells or optimizing damaged cells so they can be used to help other cells grow or activate. Yeah, that's interesting. And I'm not surprised a Japanese researcher discovered that. Japanese do love to research.

Understanding the Hare and Ke Intermittent Fasting

Sachiaki adheres to an intermittent fasting approach named Hare and Ke, which merges two Japanese concepts: Hare, signifying festivals or festivities, and Ke, referring to a modest way of living. He provides an insightful explanation of how to integrate this fasting method into our everyday routines.

Autophagy and mTOR activating periods

Nick: So this is a really positive approach. And would you like to also touch on the benefits of this type of fasting, where you're eating, a way of fasting five days a week, but you're also allowing yourself to eat a little bit more and maybe drink two days a week?

Sachiaki: So I already mentioned about autophagy, the cellular recycling function, it is very critical. But we also have something called mTOR, which is the opposite of autophagy. mTOR is kind of responsible for growth.

So not everybody should activate autophagy. For example, children needs to activate mTOR, children or any people who are growing. That includes some young people, young athlete, who need the kind of a growing power, then they need to activate mTOR, too.

And usually, for all the people, like people who are over 50, they need to start thinking about longevity, and autophagy helps tremendously for our longevity. Therefore, a lot of people who are over 50 need to activate autophagy a lot, but not constantly.

So there are some periods when autophagy needs to be activated. But there are some periods when the mTOR needs to be activated, too. The balance is important. And then the person called James Clement, the author of the book called The Switch, he talks about this kind of cycling of autophagy activating period and mTOR activating period.

And he says about 66% of the time, should be autophagy activating period, and 34% is mTOR activating period. And then there is another person called Dr. Mindy Pelz, who has a YouTube channel specialized on fasting.

She gives tons of videos on intermittent fasting, and she says 80% should be on autophagy and 20% should be on mTOR. And then if you practice Hare and Ke intermittent fasting, the ratio is about 71%, autophagy, and 29% mTOR.

So during the week, the Ke period is the autophagy activating period. But Hare period, the weekend, is mTOR activating period. Therefore, we have three meals. Plus, we include animal-based foods, which has higher protein, which gives us a higher protein intake, which can activate mTOR more.

Which Foods Can Activate Autophagy

Sachiaki explains how autophagy can be activated not only through intermittent fasting or exercise, but also by incorporating specific foods into our diet. He provides several examples of these autophagy-activating foods and their benefits.

Prolong your autophagy activating period

Nick: On that theme of healthy foods, you've identified some autophagy activating foods you recommend consuming and you wrote about this in your book. So would you like to offer some examples and the benefits of eating them?

Sachiaki: So usually autophagy is activated by intermittent fasting or exercises, or deliberate heat exposure, or cold exposure. But there are some foods which can activate autophagy, too, which are foods like coffee, green tea, natto, miso, broccoli, olive oil, ginger, and there are quite a few of them.

And then among those, I think coffee and green tea are the most critical because you can consume them during your fasting window. So when you practice intermittent fasting, the only beverages you can drink are non-caloric beverages. So water, or black coffee, or green tea, without putting any sugar or milk or anything.

So when you intake coffee or green tea during your fast, then that can kind of prolong your autophagy activating period. But other foods, basically, you're eating. So when you eat, you break your fast. So it probably doesn't have a strong effect as coffee or green tea.

But still, the other foods are good, and they have other nutritional benefits as well. I mean, all those foods, such as natto, miso, broccoli, ginger, have so many other health benefits. So they are good to eat anyway.

Nick: So I'm a big fan of miso, I generally drink that every day. And I kind of follow your rustic miso approach, and have a lot of vegetables in my soup.

So I was putting lentils and sweet potato and broccoli and cauliflower in my soup last night, which wouldn't be a typical miso soup, would it? So you can play around with your foods and make them get really interesting and tasty.

Engaging in Yoshuku and Ima Iwai

Sachiaki discusses two practices that center around recognizing the blessings we have received, known as 'ima iwai,' and the future goals we aspire to achieve, referred to as 'yoshuku.’

Celebrating your outcomes

Nick: Related to this are two expressions I learned in your book, which is Yoshuku and Ima Iwai. So what do these expressions mean, and how are they helpful?

Sachiaki: Right, yeah. So first of all, with Shinon Kansha, because you pay attention to the bright side of your life. So not everybody have bright experiences happening. I mean, some people have a kind of negative experiences too.

But we always have something positive, even though general life is not so happy. Because I have never seen anyone who has kind of a negative kind of situation in all aspects of their life. I mean, maybe for some aspects of their life, they're not very happy, but they do have some other aspects that they're quite comfortable.

And on the other hand, I've never met a person who is absolutely happy in all areas, like someone who is very, maybe financially successful, may have a problem with their relationships, or may have a problem with their health or something.

So we are kind of a mixture of negative and positive experiences. So instead of paying attention to the negative side, we pay attention to the bright side, then that can make our daily thoughts happier, which affects our health.

Because often, the gut and brain are connected. Often, it's considered that the gut and brain are connected. So how we think can influence our physical condition. So think positive, then you can become healthier.

That's the basic idea of practising Shinon Kansha meditation. For yoshuku, yoshuku is the Japanese version of a law of manifestation or law of attraction. Have you come across this concept called the law of attraction?

Nick: Yeah, I think it was quite a thing a few years ago, maybe more than 10, 15 years ago with the book, The Secret.

Sachiaki: The Secret, yeah. So the law of attraction is, if you think positive about your future and visualise your outcome, then you can attract that reality in your life. That's the basic idea. So they do a lot of visualisation practise to manifest what you want in your life.

Yoshuku is, instead of just visualising, you celebrate it. You celebrate your future success. So as if you have already achieved your outcome, and you celebrate it, and that will kind of materialise that reality.

So for example, Masayoshi Son, who is the CEO of SoftBank, he and his team, usually practise yoshuku. So when they launch a new project or new product, the team get together, and they just have a party, thinking in like two years time they have sold their product. Their product is like a best seller, and they're having this party like, ‘Oh, great. Our product is so successful!’

And then they're kind of shaking hands and drinking beer. And that is yoshuku. And other example is we have Hanami, a cherry blossom viewing event. That is to celebrate the harvest in autumn. So we do Hanami in the spring, but we are imagining the autumn harvest, the rice harvest, because cherry blossom reminds us of rice harvest.

The blossom is kind of a symbol of harvest. So by watching the cherry blossom, we celebrate the autumn harvest. So celebrating our success in advance is what yoshuku is all about.

Nick: That's quite an interesting practise. I think it's taking the law of attraction or that visualisation one step further, where you sort of physically celebrated.

Sachiaki: Right, yeah. So it's not only visual, but your whole body is involved in the process.

Nick: That's pretty radical, actually.

Sachiaki: Ima Iwai is something I created based on yoshuku. So this time, instead of celebrating your future outcome, you just celebrate your present outcome — present happiness or present success. So it is just like shinon kansha in that sense.

So you appreciate something positive happening in your life right now. And this time, not just simply appreciating but celebrating it. So you maybe have a party or you have a drink, to think about all the positive things happening in your life, and then just enjoy the moment.

So by making it a kind of ritual, it becomes more powerful than just thinking about it.

Nick: You've coined this expression, ima iwai, yes?

Sachiaki: Yes, I did.

Nick: So Japanese don't say this, but I do like this.

Zange: Realeasing The Ego

Sachiaki introduces the concept of Zange, which involves letting go of the ego, and emphasizes the significance of reflecting on our negative actions and thoughts, as well as taking responsibility for them.

Reflecting on your negative thoughts and actions

Nick: Let's go a bit deeper and take things to a new level with another word I learned from your book, Zange. So what's zange?

Sachiaki: So zange simply means apologizing or repenting. You basically apologize about your negative actions or negative thoughts, and so on. So this is a practice done among shugendo practitioners. I think we did talk about shugendo in the last episode, right? This kind of spiritual practice in the mountains.

There are many practices that shugendo practitioners do, but Zange is considered to be the most important one. Yamabushi is the shugendo practitioner. So when yamabushi join the shugendo, they have to pass a test. And then first thing they have to do is Zange.

Because if you have an ego, then you cannot really do many other spiritual practices. So they need to release your ego to join the shugendo practice. By repenting, then you can release your ego.

Nick: This reminds me of Naikan, which I think most of my audience would be familiar with. This method of self-reflection. And it has this three question structure. I guess you can do two ways. There's intense Naikan where you go to a Naikan center and have a practitioner.

And you basically spend most of your time in silence reflecting on these three questions, and then offer answers to someone who's guiding you. But you can do it also like a journaling exercise. What have I received from others? What have I given? And then interestingly, this, what troubles or difficulties have I caused others?

And that's very typical, I think of Japanese culture to understand, ‘Yeah, I may have caused trouble, I probably inconvenienced someone.’ Where in the West, we often are quite defensive and say like ‘Me? I haven't caused anyone trouble.’

Sachiaki: I know of Naikan. But I have never done it before. So I didn't know about it in detail. So yeah, they have those three questions. That's interesting.

Hara Hachi Bun Me: Eating Until You’re 80% Full

In Japan, the term "hara hachi bun me" is used to describe eating until you're 80% full. Sachiaki suggests that this principle can extend beyond food and be applied to various aspects of our lives. Rather than striving for perfection, it is beneficial to allow room for flexibility.

Creating room for relaxation

Sachiaki: First of all, about the perfection thing. So I talked about hara hachi bun me, which basically means eating up to 80% full. So when you become 80% full, you stop eating. It's more for dietary kind of guideline. But this can apply to other field as well.

We don't need to seek the optimal result like to reach 100%. But if you're 80% good, then it should be good. Then that gives you a mental space to play around a little bit. But if you're only trying to make everything perfect, that itself becomes stressful, or you become kind of tense.

But having this 20% space gives you a relaxation, and you can go with the flow. Because for people who are trying to be perfect, you usually have everything planned, you do everything according to your plan. So that means you have no space to be flexible to change your plan.

I mean, sometimes doing things according to plan is important, too. But we also need to do things with the flow as well. Because whatever happens in your life can be at the vantage to push you move to certain directions.

So for example, let's say that you have a plan to exercise, you go to the gym, and then your friend suddenly shows up. You usually say, ‘Oh, sorry, I can't see you now because I need to go to the gym. This is my schedule now.’ But you never know what this friend can bring.

Maybe by talking to him can give you some new insight, which will help your bio-hacking practice. Or maybe he will take you to a place where you meet another person who can help you with your career or something. So life is full of surprises. So we don't want to miss the spontaneity of our life.

Nick: Yeah, I agree totally. Routine is very helpful and structure is great. But yeah, I agree, having some flexibility to these often serendipitous opportunities or connecting with others, it's not a negative thing to break your routine to do something else every once in a while.

And I've kind of have this idea that sometimes I think that I really should give up drinking. But if I did that, it probably will be a healthy thing, but then it might mean, when I go out with friends, I don't drink, and I definitely want to drink.

And then that just might impact that the flow of the evening, you know, ‘Why are you not drinking, Nick.?’ So I think a bit of flexibility helps. And yeah, perfectionism doesn't really exist anyway. So we can let go, and as you mentioned, it can get quite stressful when you're so fixated on doing things in a certain way.

Looking After the Planetary Well-Being

Sachikai states that everything done in ikigai bio-hacking contribute positively to the environment. Opting for organic foods is an example of this, simultaneously fostering personal well-being and supporting planetary health.

Choosing eco-friendly options

Nick: You write that ikigai bio-hacking is linked to planetary well-being. So what do you mean by that?

Sachiaki: One thing we touched on the last episode, everything we do is natural. That's why we call it Shizenha bio-hacking, the naturalist bio-hacking. So we try to do things outdoor, we try to do some stretching type of exercises or oriental exercises, and so on.

But also, we do things which is environmentally friendly. For example, when we eat food, we try to choose organic food or local food. Because organic food is good for our health and it's also good for the environment.

Because sometimes researchers kind of disagree on the health benefits of organic food. Whether organic food is actually more beneficial than non-organic food, some scientists kind of argue. But for me, regardless of the result, even though organic food isn't healthier than regular food, still, it is better for the environment.

Therefore, it's worth consuming organic food for that purpose, too. So everything done in the ikigai-biohacking is good for the environment. We try to find way that helps both our personal health and planetary health.

Think about supplement. I mean, I’m not against supplement. Supplement can be beneficial sometimes, and there are people who need supplement to cover their nutritional deficiencies. But that should be our last resort.

First, we can maybe look for some other natural means, because we can get enough nutrition from food. And also, sustainability of supplement is not really clear. Because you probably find the ingredient from a far place, is not a local ingredient.

And also it's kind of manufactured. So to make supplement, they’re may be using a big scale monoculture farming method. But it is important to promote polyculture farming, where you kind of grow many different plants in the same land and in small-scale farming, too.

Taru wo Shiru: Know that You Have Enough

Sachiaki introduces Taru wo Shiru, a Japanese practice that emphasizes living within one's means. He explains how finding satisfaction in your personal progress and dedicating time to foster the growth of others is crucial.

Finding contentment in your personal growth

Nick: You touched on hara hachi bun me, this idea of eating 80% full, and that's become quite popular, this expression, ‘eat until you're 80% full.’ But you mentioned another expression, Taru wo Shiru. So what's Taru wo Shiru?

Sachiaki: Taru wo Shiru means satisfied with your own lot. So once you are comfortable with your growth, don't seek further growth. So in a way, it’s kind of similar, once you reach 80%, and you kind of stop there. You don't need to reach 100%.

But in today's world, many people try to grow and grow and grow. They think growth is always important. Once you reach to one level, then you need to grow further. But for me, once you're comfortable, then maybe you move to the next phase of helping others to grow or working on your other areas of life.

So just limit the growth and then be satisfied with your own lot is Taru wo Shiru. And in fact, if everybody practice Taru wo Shiru, then the world will become more sustainable. Because we can sustain the wealth or comfortable level for each individual. But we cannot sustain the planet if a few people want to gain so much wealth, that's impossible.

For the full podcast conversation, go to: What Ikigai Means To The Japanese With Sachiaki Takamiya