Have you ever questioned whether you are leading a special and fulfilling life? Well, for every person, the definition of quality and productive time is deferred as long as they are enjoying their time. There is no perfect way of living to begin with, but you can always try to improve yourself, and this concept is called Kaizen. We will talk about it in more detail later in this blog. We all want to live an ideal life, and for that to happen, we must strengthen our basics of living life, which will include a healthy lifestyle routine, for example, finding your Ikigai, following a healthy diet for the well-being of both physical and mental health, and constantly improving our skills to become the best version of ourselves.

Before we begin with our topic, I would like to tell you all about my own experience and definition of life.

The very first step you can take towards happiness and positivity is just living by living. I mean feeling that you are alive; feeling the air on your face; feeling the warmth of the sunlight; listening to your heartbeat and noticing how you are alive in this world where many couldn’t even make it to the first step of living; being kind to the other species around you. Instead of chasing materialistic pleasure, why not chase the inner peace in your life? Instead of chasing inner peace, after all, that’s what living in peace means. This universe does not reward us, maybe by our definition of a reward, but it’s really just alignment. If you are doing your best to be more positive, loving, and kind, you will start to see similar outcomes appear in your life. Just don’t hold any expectation in any condition on how the universe should bring love and positivity to you. It may not come from the people or places you’d expect; just work on your own energy, and the rest will fall into place.

IKIGAI

Ikigai is a mysterious word originated in Japan that means reason and purpose for living a life in a way that leads to staying young while growing old. It talks about various aspects like how to live longer and better by finding your purpose and turning your free time into space for growth, and how to face challenges without letting stress and worry age you. This specific concept is called Wabi-Sabi, which means the beauty of the fleeting, changeable , and imperfect nature of the world around us. Instead of searching for beauty in perfection, we should look for it in things that are flawed and incomplete. And for the longevity of life, we should follow, or at least try to follow, a healthy diet, which is our next topic.

HEALTHY DIET

"Eating the rainbow” A table featuring red peppers, carrots, spinach, cauliflower, and eggplant, for example, offers great colour and variety. Vegetables, potatoes, legumes, and soy products such as tofu are great sources of protein for vegans. Considering the diversity of the world, diets should be well balanced, and here are some of the essential foods rich in vitamins, minerals, carbohydrates, protein, and healthy fats.

1. VEGETABLES AND FRUITS Green leafy vegetables are high in dietary fibre and rich in folate, ascorbic acid, vitamin K, magnesium (Mg), and potassium (K). Since they are rich in fibre, they are a good source for people on their weight-loss journey. Fruits are a good source of essential vitamins and minerals, and they are high in fibre. Some of the fruits are good antioxidants, like strawberries. Fruits have also been proven to be good for the prevention of heart-related diseases.

2. WHOLE GRAINS If you are looking to control your cholesterol levels, weight, and blood pressure, then adding whole grains to your meal is a must. It also helps lower the risk of diabetes, heart disease, and other conditions. Some good examples of whole grains are barley, millet, rice, oatmeal, and popcorn, which are rich in vitamin A, iron, magnesium, and selenium.

3. LEAN MEAT Adding lean meat to your diet can bring many positive sides to your body, as it reduces the risk of heart disease and is rich in iodine, iron, zinc, vitamins, especially B12, and essential fatty acids. Some good examples of lean meat are eggs (in some cases, egg white to reduce cholesterol), lean chicken breast, tuna fish, and shrimp.

PHYSICAL EXERCISES

Moving your body, exercising daily, and increasing your heartbeat is very essential for our body. Not only does it help in improving the blood circulation in our body, but it also helps in increasing our stamina, flexibility, and agility. An active body leads to an active mind, which increases focus time. Studies have shown that metabolism slows down 90% after 30 minutes of sitting. The enzymes that move the bad fat from your arteries to your muscles, where it can get burned off, slow down. Following are how you can stay in shape and active.

1. Strength training: going to the gym and performing strength exercises is indeed one of the best ways to stay in shape. Here are some tips for strength training.

• Doing the maximum number of sets is not everything; you will have to keep in mind that doing the exercise with correct posture and technique with muscle-mind connection in a total of 6 sets will give you the result in comparison to doing 8–10 sets of exercise per body muscle.
• One of the highly affected splits for exercise is push, pull, and leg because you will be able to train each body muscle twice a week.
• Keep in mind that for strength training, exercise is not everything; 40% of exercise and 60% of diet you will have to follow, which is a protein-rich diet by balancing other essential diet elements and drinking at least 3–4 litres of water to keep yourself hydrated, backed by a good amount of sleep (around 7-8 hours of sleep) because that’s the time when your body recovers.

MENTAL EXERCISES

Our mind needs exercise as much as our body. By strengthening our minds, we can defy the odds, make ourselves more productive, and have a better grasp on our emotions. We will talk about various mental aspects and emotions later in a separate blog dedicated to mental health. Let's talk about the types of mental exercises you can perform to keep your mind healthy.

1. Breathing exercise: By performing a breathing exercise, you will be able to focus more on the present, that is, by focusing on your breath. and it will help you to calm your mind from the constant rush of thoughts.

2. Yoga: Yoga units the body and mind together and is formed by the three pillars of yoga: movement, breathing, and meditation. Yoga has many physical and mental benefits, including better posture, flexibility, strength, balance, and body awareness.

3. Meditation: Meditation is a technique that helps improve attention, emotional awareness, kindness, compassion, sympathetic joy, and mental calmness even in difficult situations. Some people have noticed that by performing meditation, they have innovated the different aspects of thinking things through in a tough situation more positively.

SOCIALISING

Let's not forget about living your life with the people you love, grinding and making progress towards your goal is important, and so is taking care and greeting the people you love, It is important to learn to work alone so is working with your best friend and siblings, taking out some time off from the busy day for our loved ones is important for growth as a person in a whole, spending time with your loved ones will help you to reduce stress and enlighten your mood and sometimes motivates you to do your best and it can only lead you to learn new habits and skills from other people that’s why socialising is important for the growth of an individual and it makes us help in understanding the human emotions and many more aspect of our life.

KAIZEN

"He who has a why to live can bear with almost any how." Kaizen is a Japanese term that means continuous improvement, which simply means an individual must keep improving regardless of the situation and overcome any obstacle that appears along the way. Adding new skills once in a while and honing them is one of the best things you can do in your life. Exploring new skills not only helps you to find your ikigai but also will be able to create the mentality of constant improvement. As human beings, we always must fulfil and complete the task that has been vested in us.

CONCLUSION

You will have to do it properly every day, taking care of yourself, greeting others, and making sure that you are following the healthy habits and lifestyle described in the above blog. Because it's about consistency, you can't achieve anything by just knowing things; you will have to apply the knowledge and be disciplined about it.



I will see you all in the next blog with more interesting topics to cover. This is my first time posting a blog, but I am sure the content will get better day by day.