Although diet seems to be the most significant factor to prevent dementia, other factors such as physical exercises, mental exercises, living environment, and social life all contribute to keeping your cognitive function healthy.
Today, let me talk about the gut-brain connection and how positive thinking can serve as part of your mental exercises.
In Ikigai Diet, we regard ikigai to be a little more than the general concept of ikigai. We look at ikigai as your life mission. Something you feel you were born to do. If your career has been a way to fulfill your life mission, it won’t end when you retire. You will continue the work or move to the next stage of fulfilling your mission. Starting a new work or moving up to the new level will require new learning, and it will stimulate your brain.
The fact that many people in Blue Zones work in their garden and many people in Japanese Satoyama, where we find a lot of centenarians, grow rice and vegetables might suggest that they are healthy because they get enough exercises but also they are exposed to plenty of microbiomes in their daily life to create a rich gut microbiota.
Hino Festival held on May 2nd to 3rd in Hino Town, Shiga Prefecture is one of the first traditional Japanese Festivals to be held in Reiwa Era which began on May 1st. There were signs of the new emperor and Reiwa Era everywhere and it was packed by people, making a local festival be like Gion Festival in Kyoto.
