Newsletter
The Ikigai Diet and Ikigai Bio-Hacking
On June 1st, I went to the main shrine in our town because I usually do it on the 1st and the 15th of every month.
I pray at the local shrine, which is in front of my house, every morning after Nordic walking, but on the 1st and 15th, I pray at the main shrine as well. In Shintoism, the 1st and the 15th of the month are regarded as sacred, and we give special offerings to our house shrine, too.
Also, I chant the Heart Sutra every morning.
How come? The Heart Sutra is a Buddhist chant.
Because I am a New Age person-haha. Well, actually it isn’t uncommon to do it even if you are not a New Age practitioner. Most of my neighbors, who are conservative regular country people, do it, too, because they are both Shintonists and Buddhists.
That probably never happens in the West, but in Japan, we believe in many gods, and having two religious practices doesn’t contradict our belief system.
In the last post, I shared with you a video by Thomas DeLauer and talked about the reason many people are quitting intermittent fasting.
Another reason people quit intermittent fasting he gives is that there is pressure to find a diet and stick with it. There are diet communities or tribes and some of them hate each other. Fasting community and non-fasting community don’t get along, for example. So, once you quit fasting you are out of that tribe and you can’t go back kind of mentality.
That’s interesting. I didn’t know there was such a conflict between the fasting community and the non-fasting community. I am familiar with the battle between the vegan community and the Ketogenic community. So, probably there are many other battles going on between different tribes.
That is something I don’t understand. You can have constructive discussions to improve the methods, but you don’t need to fight.
We do have disagreements among different circles in Japan, too but not to this degree. I think it is to do with the mentality of our polytheistic culture.
I talked about this non-confrontational style of communication a lot more in detail in my book Ikigai Bio-Hacking: Bio-Hacking Based on Japanese Natural Health.
In the section, Zen and the Art of Listening and Giving in Chapter 6 Mental Exercises to Bio-Harmonize Yourself.
Also, in the section, Do Away with Competetive Mindset in Chapter 8 How to Bio-Harmonize Gaia, the Mother Earth.
If you want to improve your health, it is important to bio-harmonize yourself with others, your surroundings, and Gaia. We are all co-existing microbes in the mother earth. It is okay if other people practice different methods, there are diverse approaches that suit various individuals. If we all follow the same diet, on the other hand, our microbial community will not thrive. If you understand how the microbiome works, you know that, right?
Anyway, it is Friday today and I am finishing my intermittent fasting for the week. I can have the weekend rest.
Have a nice weekend.
Newsletter
The Ikigai Diet and Ikigai Bio-Hacking