It was Dr. Hirai’s session day yesterday. He is an acupuncturist I introduced in Chapter 14 Ikigai Exercises in my book. He comes to our house once every two months to give treatments to the people in our town.
He is stretching my arm and turning it round to loosen the tension.
As I stated in Bodyweight Training and Stretching, in Chapter 14, we have a different perspective on being fit in Japanese natural health. Being fit means having flexible muscles and joints, not necessarily having big muscles.
Even in this age, I still see some fitness YouTubers showing their well-built muscles like bodybuilders and talking about intermittent fasting and diet. It seems this obsession with the herculean body, back in the 80s and 90s, is still present today. Come on! Even Arnold Schwarzenegger became vegan.
He is giving me eye moxibustion. The board I have my feet against is used to adjust my posture. So is the tieing.
You can use this board while you are sleeping and put a cushion under the back to straighten your posture.
Now that Tokyo Olympic Games are held, which nobody is watching in Japan, it is perfect timing to pay attention to your fitness. Since the Olympics have lost their original intention and have become all commercial, we need to take them back into our own hands. It means to get back to how health was perceived in ancient Greece.
Maybe I’ll be organizing Shizenha Bio-Hacking Olympics in the future.
It won’t be a competition. The participants will be climbing mountains together, doing Takigyo, river swimming, Nordic walking, Satoyama cycling, natural gardening, and Shinrinyoku together to celebrate the health of individuals as well as that of the planet earth. It will be exciting. We’ll be learning together about diets, as well, like learning how to make natto. There will be demonstrations of different healthy recipes from different countries.
Yes, it will be fun.
The Ikigai Diet: The Secret Japanese Diet to Health and Longevity
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