What lifestyle your life is driven by? Hugge, Pono or Ubuntu

9 min readMay 28, 2019

The life we live is created by ourselves. It’s us that make the meaning and flow with. For some people is a basic principle of taking care of each other, to others a set of values to be guided and supported in life. It can be named like “by default” mode.

By that, we have the power to create any life we want anywhere in the world because it’s most of the time is about our perception, attitude, the approach we are driven.

After going through different lifestyles around the world, I found dozens of concepts non-religious based lifestyles. Already books are written on Hygge, Lagom, famous Ikigai that make ring a bell. For example if you have heard about Malala Yousafzai, so she represents a modern day woman of Sisu. If you haven’t heard about Malala or Sisu, it’s even more confusing. But let’s start with happiness.

Most to the lifestyles that you will get introduced share sense of creating, prolonging happiness or a certain quality. And it’s a conscious choice or imprinted from the childhood.

Commonly accepted, that lifestyle is the way the one lives. And everyone personally we have our lifestyle, do we?

But why am I writing about it?

Because I am curious myself and I bet it will benefit you as well. I made an extra mile by coming up with the structure to group the lifestyles worldwide according to their core. The main message, the main benefit comes from the outcome of living the below mention lifestyles.

Harmony — is defined as living in harmony with each other, living together peacefully rather than fighting or arguing.

Nature — is the internal calling to the state to spend more time in nature, open fresh air environment.

Wholeness — the state of forming a complete and harmonious whole; unity.

Modesty — is a state or quality of one’s ability.

The table below represents each quality according to the main core message. Moreover each concept is originated from a specific country. For example, Sisu and Jungaard is a special qualities, describing the attitude in Finland and India.

Every lifestyle is originated from the specific country, and is naturally populated, lived and practised by people. Eventually a part of culture, the concepts started to travel together with people, organizations and corporations widely and globally. Like business management style coming from Japan, introduced in Toyota, as Lean way, found its purpose and was adapted in many organizations.

Therefore lets dive into the lifestyle by simply extracting the essence of it. Let me start with the concept addressing

the Harmony

Hygge — Denmark

The Hygge approach to life is about finding happiness and satisfaction by spending cosy moments, having pleasure with simple things.

Lykke are: togetherness, money, health, freedom, trust & kindness.

La Bella Vita — Italy

Live a good life principles:

1. Appreciate your family.

2. Slow Down and Stop Rushing. appreciate what flows past right now — in this moment.

3. Take a long lunch. They consider lunch as the more important meal of the day.

4. Eat a light dinner. I heard a saying years ago for eating a healthy, Mediterranean style diet: “Eat like a King in the morning, a prince for lunch, and a pauper at dinnertime. Italians have rich, sweet pastries for breakfast (colazione), eat a hearty meal at lunch, and eat lightly for dinner.

5. Buy natural, fresh foods — preferably organic. Support local farmers’ markets.

6. Drink only with meals and friends. Italians will also have a small aperitif before a meal.

7. Embrace people. Italians hug and kiss. Hugging a friend to show how glad you are to see them is a great thing..

8. Love where you live. Be proud if your home. Look to your own community and develop a sense of place and history. Join an historic society or other community group. Promote local history and food.

9. Try growing your own food. It’s very gratifying to prepare food that you’ve grown from seed to plate.

10. Cook more meals from scratch. Start making your own pizza and you might never call for take out again. Try making your own sauce, bread, stews and soups.

11. Consider your bella figura. Italians are very self-aware. They are prideful about their personal appearance and cleanliness. Looking your best gives your psyche a positive boost.

12. Take an evening walk with your family. Each night in every town in Italy, Italians get out after dinner to walk in the piazza or the main viale (boulevard). They call it the passeggiata. It’s a time to relax and digest.

13. Eat meals together. Italians eat meals together. They go home at lunchtime to have a large meal with the family.

14. Learn to live with less. Smaller houses and apartments and smaller cars. That’s what Italians live with. Small fridges let them buy more fresh foods.

Pono — Hawaii

Pono means finding a balance of harmony within yourself by doing the right thing — not just for yourself, but with the environment. It is the aim of the Ho’oponopono practice, which practices reconciliation and forgiveness.

Gemütlichkeit — Germany

Much like hygge, gemütlichkeit aims to raise your levels of happiness by simply enjoying what you have — spending time in a comfortable place with good friends.

Nature

Friluftsliv — Norway

We might not have a single clue on how to pronounce it, but the Norwegian term ‘friluftsliv’ (which translates to ‘free air life’ in English) is all about being one with nature, and how you will feel most at home with yourself by reconnecting with the outdoors. So what would this involve? Simply spending some time out of your busy week taking a walk through a park, visiting a forest or walking along to coast

Shrinrin-yoku — Japan and South Korea

is a term that means “taking in the forest atmosphere” or “forest bathing.”

The idea is simple: if a person simply visits a natural area and walks in a relaxed way there are calming, rejuvenating and restorative benefits to be achieved.

Wholeness

Ikigai — Japan

Originating from Okinawa, the secret to longevity might be Ikigai or finding your purpose in life, “your reason for getting up in the morning”.

Ikigai lifestyle, follow these 10 rules:

· Don’t retire: Do not stop with your purpose and continue challenging yourself

Take it slow: Leave urgency behind

· Don’t fill your stomach: Eating until only 80% full

· Surround yourself with good friends

· Exercise daily and gently

· Smile at people around you

· Reconnect with nature: Spend time outdoor

· Give thanks to what brightened your day

· Live in the moment: Appreciate the “now”

· Follow your Ikigai: Pursue & nurture it

Ubuntu — South Africa

Rough Translation: humanity or “I am because we are”

Ubuntu is the “belief in a universal bond of sharing that connects all humanity”. The concept has its roots in humanist African philosophy. In particular, the South African Zulu culture where the concept of community is the pillar of its society. Without this sense of “togetherness,” there can be no community.

How to incorporate ubuntu into your work life

Business leaders can practice ubuntu by considering the key ingredients of a sports team. The only way a team can win is when strategies are aligned and execution is consistent. Think about synchronized swimming? They all have to be in check in order for the team to win. Ubuntu strives to create interconnectedness among team members in the workplace and overcoming the challenges in communications that might create strife and inefficiency.

Blue Zones a scientifically proven concept

where people live the longest, and are healthiest: Okinawa, Japan; Sardinia, Italy; Nicoya, Costa Rica; Ikaria, Greece, and Loma Linda, California.

1. Move Naturally

The world’s longest-lived people don’t pump iron, run marathons or join gyms. Instead, they live in environments that constantly nudge them into moving without thinking about it. They grow gardens and don’t have mechanical conveniences for house and yard work.

2. Purpose

The Okinawans call it “Ikigai” and the Nicoyans call it “plan de vida;” for both it translates to “why I wake up in the morning.” Knowing your sense of purpose is worth up to seven years of extra life expectancy

3. Down Shift

Even people in the Blue Zones experience stress. Stress leads to chronic inflammation, associated with every major age-related disease. What the world’s longest-lived people have that we don’t are routines to shed that stress. Okinawans take a few moments each day to remember their ancestors, Adventists pray, Ikarians take a nap and Sardinians do happy hour.

4. 80% Rule

“Hara hachi bu” — the Okinawan, 2500-year old Confucian mantra said before meals reminds them to stop eating when their stomachs are 80 percent full. The 20% gap between not being hungry and feeling full could be the difference between losing weight or gaining it. People in the Blue Zones eat their smallest meal in the late afternoon or early evening and then they don’t eat any more the rest of the day.

5. Plant Slant

Beans, including fava, black, soy and lentils, are the cornerstone of most centenarian diets. Meat — mostly pork — is eaten on average only five times per month. Serving sizes are 3–4 oz., about the size of deck or cards.

6. Wine @ 5

People in all Blue Zones (except Adventists) drink alcohol moderately and regularly. Moderate drinkers outlive non-drinkers. The trick is to drink 1–2 glasses per day (preferably Sardinian Cannonau wine), with friends and/or with food. And no, you can’t save up all weekend and have 14 drinks on Saturday.

7. Belong

All but five of the 263 centenarians we interviewed belonged to some faith-based community. Denomination doesn’t seem to matter. Research shows that attending faith-based services four times per month will add 4–14 years of life expectancy.

8. Loved Ones First

Successful centenarians in the Blue Zones put their families first. This means keeping aging parents and grandparents nearby or in the home (It lowers disease and mortality rates of children in the home too.). They commit to a life partner (which can add up to 3 years of life expectancy) and invest in their children with time and love (They’ll be more likely to care for you when the time comes).

9. Right Tribe

The world’s longest lived people chose–or were born into–social circles that supported healthy behaviors, Okinawans created ”moais”–groups of five friends that committed to each other for life. Research from the Framingham Studies shows that smoking, obesity, happiness, and even loneliness are contagious. So the social networks of long-lived people have favourably shaped their health behaviors.

Modesty

Lagoom — Sweden

In moderation. Not too little, not too much, but just the right amount of things. It encourages having a better life balance by not abusing or neglecting important aspects, and by emphasising the collective rather than the individual.

Fika — Sweden

Is about drinking coffee twice a day with your friends or colleagues.

Wabi-Sabi — Japan

Wabi praises the appreciation of “imperfect or irregular beauty” found in unusual places or objects and in overlooked moments. Sabi relates to embracing the “natural passage of time”, be it damaged objects or us getting older.

This concept advocates for living modest, enjoying nature and observing.

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Sisu — Finland

Sisu is all about bravery and resilience — with the mind set being all about determination. For instance, if you have a goal for 2019, a belief in sisu means that no matter what, you will be able to see your objective through, no matter how difficult. Basically if you’re planning on running a marathon this year, this is probably the one for you!

Fore example Malala Yousafzai, a modern day woman of sisu.

Jugaad — India

Jugaad is all about innovation. Rather than shrugging when a situation seems difficult, jugaad is all about ‘hacking’ the situation, using your creativity to find a clever or simple way around your problem.

This is way of finding a low-cost solution to any problem in an intelligent way) is a new way to think constructively and differently about innovation and strategy.

To sum up all the core messages of lifestyles it will look like this: