Yes, a real physical book, preferably. If you can, avoid reading on an electronic device or multitasking while listening to Audible. As much as these forms of reading certainly serve their purpose, there’s a reason reading a physical book can be beneficial in slowing down. You can read about the pros of reading a physical book on Scientific American.
Reading a book encourages us to practice our mental focus – the same focus needed to live intentionally and mindfully. And reading a physical book as opposed to on an electronic device has the added benefit of omitting radio waves and blue light radiation from the equation, which your body will thank you for. Two birds!
Sometimes it’s as simple as saying no to make room for the things that matter. While I’m not suggesting giving up all your undesired responsibilities, it’s important to take a moment before you agree to do something that doesn’t align with what you value. As an example, if you don’t actually enjoy wearing makeup, don’t spend an hour of your day putting makeup on, and taking it off! Say no! Assuming that you live the human average of 78.93 years and you are 30 years old, you just earned yourself an extra 17,859 hours of life. Go crazy.
Slow Living Practice of the Day: Savor Every Moment
I’ve encountered many moments in life where I realized I had done something on auto-pilot, finished a meal hardly tasting any of the food, or forgotten to take in the view and fresh air while taking a walk. I’ve been working on slowing down and being present. Whether we’re enjoying a cup of tea, having a conversation with a friend, or admiring artwork at a museum, we can all gain by developing a deeper appreciation for all the small things in life. Try to move slower and savor every moment. Savor with all your available senses, we are blessed to have them.
Slow Living Practice of the Day: Immerse Yourself in Nature
I came across a beautiful concept while living in Japan called Shinrinyoku which literally translates to “forest bathing”. It really is as simple as it sounds. “Bathing” in the energy of nature brings calm and a quality of awareness that is incomparable to anything else.
Spend some or all of your day out in nature. Spend time in a park, the woods, the ocean, if you can. Take in the experience will all the senses. Being in nature has been proven to boost your immune system and reduce stress. It’s impossible not to slow down when you’re immersed in nature! If you can’t physically be outdoors, open the windows and look out, tend to plants, or meditate while listening to forest or ocean sounds. The point of this is practice is to become in tune with Mother Nature. She knows to be efficient, but also to take her time.
Modern society gives us the impression that faster is always better, and that using technology is the best way to do everything. While I appreciate of this type of advancement and in am awe of what we’ve accomplished as a race, I have also found solace and joy in being in tune with the pace of Mother Earth. Something as simple as hand-grinding your own coffee and taking in the fresh aroma, or feeling and hearing the scratching of pen on paper when writing a handwritten letter, or listening to birds and feeling the breeze on a walk can step us out of our convenience based lives.
The simple act of taking the slower, harder, or longer route can bring our awareness back to the present when much of our lives flit by from one thing to the next. If you’re anything like me, you’ll find it’s much easier to mindlessly scroll on your phones or to binge watch shows than to spend your time being intentionally and with awareness. But how many memorable days do we create in filling our days with those activities? How much more memorable would each day be if we spent more time unplugged, and with the intention of doing something fun, productive, or worthwhile? Aside from work duties for the day turn off all electronics and spend the day unplugged! How did your day go?
Slow Living Practice of the Day: Journal About Your Values
What brought you here? We are drawn to slow living because we acknowledge that our current quality of life could benefit from a change of pace. Beginning a slow living practice starts with clarifying what’s important to you. Journal about your goals and how you imagine your dream life to be. What brings you the greatest joy? What goals do you have, and what fills you with a sense of accomplishment, purpose, and/or happiness? What are your core values? What do you absolutely require to live an intentional and fulfilled life? This is the most important step, since what you’ll discover today will determine how you spend the next 31 days the rest of your life!
When was the last time you took an intentional deep breath? Or slowed down to look at the sky and clouds? Really savored every bite of food you ate? If you’re like me, and just learning to practice slow living, perhaps it’s been a while.
I was raised like many others I’m sure, with family and friends around me who focused intently on the future. What were you going to be when you grow up? What classes and extra curricular activities would you take to get into your preferred college. What will your major be and what will be your career? When you find a career, what will you do to work your way up? At what point in your career, at what dollar amount in the bank account, if and when you find a relationship or start a family, will you be happy? It’s good to look back and consider, what you’re chasing and whether the life you lead allows you to savor life’s precious moments. Are you taking the time?
Slow Living and the Pursuit of Happiness
Happiness. Isn’t it what this whole thing is about anyway? This is the single universal quest in each and every one of us no matter our upbringing or background. After our basic survival needs are met this is what we wish for most, though what this looks like is unique to each and every one of us. To me, happiness is being loved and giving love. It is living doing the things that spark joy, and doing service for others. But for so long, I’ve imagined I won’t be happy until I have the job that impresses my family, the title that impresses my friends, the car that makes me look like I have my life together…and the list goes on.
All that time, spent chasing happiness, when all the happiness we need is here waiting for us to slow down enough to notice it. All the milestones we’ve made, and times we fumbled but rose up stronger and wiser. Kind gestures from family, a lover, or even a stranger? Pats on the back from a colleague after a particularly hard day? Even seemingly menial everyday tasks can be a source of endless happiness if we only take the time to relish each sip of tea, the process of preparing food, a hug from your favorite person. These are the true moments to be grateful for, worth slowing down and appreciating. I’d been holding off of being happy while I chased the accomplishments I thought would bring me the greatest joy. Just rereading this sentence is humorous. Why would we hold off on feeling happiness every day when all we had to do was to slow down and savor each moment in gratitude? Learning how to find happiness in the here and now is the true essence of slow living. What can you change in your life to allow you to savor the moments?
Giving a Moment Worth Savoring to Others
This year has been inexplicably cruel to those that have the least, and less so for a privileged person like me who in some ways benefited from a time to slow down and reflect. The least I can do is to take this time to truly be grateful and to work on myself so that I can be of greater service to others.
Some folks don’t have the privilege to slow down, because they are frontline or essential workers risking their lives everyday, because they are without food to feed their families, money to pay bills, or a home to call their own. Here are some ways we can help others:
Donate money or non-perishable foods to your local food banks.
Donate to local organizations that help the needy where you live.
Reach out to friends and family and see if you can help in any way. Perhaps they just need someone to talk to, someone to watch the kids, or someone to bring them groceries.
Find organizations near you that connect you with elderly folks who need someone to run errands or just need to be checked in on.
Become a crisis counselor through crisistextline.org
Support small local businesses by purchasing their products or services.
Offer help to small businesses that can benefit from your skills or resources. (Help improve SEO for their website, help with delivery, donate PPE or money, etc.)
Reach out to your essential worker family and friends and show your appreciation over the phone, zoom, by email, or greeting card. These people are working tirelessly and risking their lives everyday for the benefit of all of us! Ask them what we can do to make their lives easier.
Even when we don’t have money or time to give, a few words of gratitude or kindness or even smile can go such a long way. Let’s all help in any way we can, big or small. And let’s remember, the best way to help others is to first take care of ourselves. We can be of service to others only when we are sound in mind and health.
A large part of slow living is being intentional about how we spend our time. This requires acknowledging how we’ve planned our days in our personal and work life and making a series of small changes to better align with our priorities. While slowing down sounds easy, making the switch to a slower lifestyle doesn’t happen overnight. To encourage my own journey into a more meaningful life, I put together 31 days of ideas to practice my muscles for slow living. Every day, I will reflect on the previous day’s theme and journal a bit about my experience so I can reflect on my challenges and accomplishments during the month.
I was tempted to put this off and begin on the 1st of the next month, but after some thought why wait? Feel free to click through each day to see the full post. I hope these ideas will help you on your journey to slow living!
Journal about what’s important to you, things and hobbies you love, a favorite pastime, a good book you read, your loved ones, or anything else that resonates with what brings meaning and joy to your life.
A wonderful quote from the film, Fight Club: “The things you own, end up owning you.” Things require space, time, and energy. Be mindful of your belongings.
Whether it’s an over complicated skincare routine (unless this brings you joy, of course) or paper bills that could be made into automatic payments, there’s room to simplify.
For a frame of reference on just how small we are, and also to appreciate nature’s beauty.
The last one was a bonus (because I’m a selenophile, love the night sky, and thought you might too). I hope you enjoyed trying out all (or some) of these ideas. Hope your days are filled with the people and activities that delight you.
Read more about how to start your slow living practice here.
I was in the grocery store the other day when I realized that filling our carts is a great analogy for filling our time with what matters most. There is finite room in our carts and in our lives, and it’s imperative that we fill them with care. It’s easy to get distracted in the aisles, enticed by a display or sale or maybe something that allows us a shortcut even though we know it’s not healthy or sustainable. In this analogy our cart is our time, and our groceries are how we spend our time. When we fill our carts with things we don’t love or need we spend above our budget and leave less to spend on the things we really desire. In the same way, when we busy ourselves with doing tasks, buying things, or spending time catering to people who are not our priority we leave less room for the things that matter. While the things on our ‘shopping list’ may differ greatly, we all deserve a curated life which puts focus on those things that bring us joy and meaning.
Learning to curate your life and live with intention first requires discipline and I’ve certainly had to learn the hard way. Especially recently, with much time left at home for days on end, it’s easy to let hours slip away watching one too many shows or scrolling mindlessly on my phone. My first step was to physically write down what I cared about most. Yes, with a pen and in a journal. I highly recommend it! Although you’re welcome to journal on your phone or computer as well if that’s your style. Being as specific as possible, what is obligatory, necessary, imperative, mandatory, needed in your life? I was surprised at how I had to dig deep to reconnect with who I am and what’s most important in my life.
Our Own Dreams and Desires
We spend time surrounded by our peers, colleagues, family, friends, and amidst TV, books, magazines, social media, and streaming platforms. They expose us to others’ desires and in the midst of our consumption of information throughout our days we may become confused. I have stopped to wonder many things on my journey to live more in line with what matters to me. Do I really want to grow in this career or is that someone else’s dream? Do I really need clothes from this brand or is it because of the relentless advertisements popping up in my feed? Am I doing the things that make me innately happy, or am I buying into what makes my friends happy? Writing my list has clarified where I have overloaded my cart and what to put back on the shelf. Life’s too short for a pantry full of stuff you don’t like.
So let’s stop keeping up with the Jones’ and start making room for what matters most.
“When I run after what I think I want, my days are a furnace of stress and anxiety; if I sit in my own place of patience, what I need flows to me, and without pain. From this I understand that what I want also wants me, is looking for me and attracting me. There is a great secret here for anyone who can grasp it.”
– Rumi
Why Slow Living?
It’s 2021. I remember imagining 2021 would look like The Jetsons. There aren’t spaceships flying around (at least in my neighborhood) but there may as well be. We’re anxious when our packages don’t arrive in a few days. At a restaurant or bar we’re impatient when our food takes longer than expected. The thought of getting caught in traffic gives us a pang of anxiety. We communicate instantaneously with friends across the globe and expect a response right away. I try to look through the eyes of our ancestors who could not communicate by phone or email, who would have to meet their friends in person and consume news and information by reading the paper or going to the library. No texting, googling, snapping, swiping, liking, voting, or regram-ing. Communication, along with many day to day tasks in those days required a type of deliberation we lack. We do more and do it faster, and it makes for busy and sometimes stressful lives. The heart of the planet thumps faster than ever, yet the time in our days remains the same. It’s imperative that we slow down, or we forever hold our peace on our limited minutes on this planet.
Slow Living for a Meaningful Life
In a world where we are constantly tackling our endless to-do lists while being distracted by phone calls, texts, emails, and social media, it’s easy to forget to appreciate the here and now. When everything we do is so convenient and fast, we tend to go into auto-pilot mode making decisions without really thinking. Moving without really being present. Time flies and before we know it, what have we accomplished? What have we checked off our bucket list? Have we made time for the things that truly matter to us? Can we remember what we did last week, last month, last year? Was it meaningful? Slow living is taking time for ourselves and living with intention. It means opting for a simpler route which may require more time and work, but that allows us time to contemplate and unplug. A slow living lifestyle allows us to live meaningfully through making conscious decisions about how we spend our days, what we consume (food, shopping, information) and what types of environments and around what types of people we spend our limited hours of life.
The Slow Movement Toward Well Being
I’ve found myself being heavily attracted to the times of old, a slower paced and simpler life. Activities that require time and concentration, and even perhaps doing things in the old fashioned way instead of using the newest technology. Writing in a notebook rather than typing, reading a physical book rather than on an electronic device, or preparing something from scratch rather than using something store bought. These are just a few instances I’ve been drawn to slow living, and I discovered that I certainly wasn’t the only one! There has been a decades long movement toward slow living and a simple way of life to improve quality of life and general wellbeing. I was surprised to read about the origin of the movement beginning with slow food, and that there is an organization called The World Institute of Slowness. The creation of a counterculture to our crazy busy and fast paced lives must point to the inevitable – the rate at which we are living is not sustainable for our wellbeing nor is it sustainable for our planet. We are inherently built to be human BE-ings, not human DO-ings (as my favorite astrologer and life coach Kelley Rosano says). At least, not all the time.
Start Slow
Learning to slow down doesn’t always come easy, and takes adjusting to but it is so worthwhile for our health in every sense of the word. Stuck on how to begin? These are a few ways I started easing into this more intentional lifestyle.
Wake up a little earlier than you need to, to allow yourself some time to live slow. This time can be spent enjoying some tea, reading a book, journaling, doing some yoga, meditating, or whatever it is that floats your boat and makes you feel good.
Look over your to do list and remove unnecessary tasks. I’m not encouraging you to skip your least favorite chores and errands, but I am encouraging you to pare down the list you have and schedule in some time for you. You can’t take back the minutes in your day that you wished you’d spent on what’s important to you.
If you’re stuck on how to slow down, a simple way is to simply unplug from all electronics for a while. Without the noise and distraction, and by listening to what you crave to do without it, you might just cultivate the mindful attitude you need to contemplate a slow living lifestyle and how this may benefit you.
Figure out what energizes you, and what tires you. Being primarily an introvert, I am energized and inspired by my alone time, but this is unique to each individual. Be aware of the activities, social interactions that bring you joy and uplift you and whenever possible, and if it can’t be avoided find creative ways to find a reprieve. By being conscientious of what serves you, and what does not, we can begin to shift our lives by placing more importance on what we consider our priorities.
Take time for some deep breaths and observation. Especially in situations where we begin to go into auto-pilot mode, try to train yourself to stop, breath and ground yourself. In these moments, you really have the magic of slowing time down!
