In the previous post The Slow Movement – A Culture of Slowing Down Life’s Pace, I briefly introduced a cultural shift happening nowadays around the world toward slowing down our lives in order to live more meaningfully. To live the so called slow life.
Today, let’s take a closer look at how we can apply this philosophy of slow life into our hectic realities.
The Slow Life philosophy
The slow life philosophy can easily be applied in every aspect of human endeavor.
But, I just want to focus first on the most important areas of our everyday life including: slow travel, slow food, slow living, slow money, slow entertainment and slow ageing. In order to give all of you, who are introduced in practicing slow life, a very short introduction.
Slow travel
Take the opportunity when visiting a new place to become a part of the local culture. Connect to this new place. Make friends with local people who live there. Do not force yourself to rush from one tourist attraction to another, but stay in one place for at least a week or two. You can rent a cottage, an apartment or a villa where you can shop for groceries on local markets to cook dishes out of local produce – just as you would cook at home.
Staying put at your destination will help you to experience the place more intensely and to see how people live there every day. Explore the local area thoroughly on foot, jogging or biking. Do not be afraid to talk to people to find out more information about the local attractions from their personal perspectives. Do not just hit the major tourist attractions that can easily be found in a tourist guide.
If you have more free time, try to get involved in a few activities such as learning a local language or taking cooking courses.
Slow food
Preserve cultural cuisine by dining in small restaurants where culinary traditions are celebrated instead of eating out in standardized food chains. Preserve the food plants, herbs and seeds, breed animals and do farming instead of buying every single fruit and vegetable in the supermarket.
Stay away from commercial food production and the fast-food industry. Because these have nothing in common with respecting local cultural identities, the natural resources and the health of individual consumers. Think carefully about your consumption choices to gain pleasures of eating well. If you are interested, you can check ‘What I eat?’ and ‘What I do not eat?’.
If you are a teacher, promote food education and educate young people about the risks of eating too much fast food. If you are a politician, lobby against the excessive use of pesticides.
And every day, do not forget to promote slow food in public.
Slow living
Always look for ways to regain balance. Balance is everything. If you work 12 hours straight for three days, make sure that the next three days you take it easy. Follow me and make living a meaningful life your top priority. Even though it is so hard because of all of those fast things around us – fast food, fast cars, fast chats, fast marriages and divorces, fast holidays once a year – stick to your own principles.
Be there for your family and friends instead of just living a great life on your own with a hefty paycheck. Take time to enjoy the family dinner and the food your spouse cooked by herself. Listen to your body and have a couple of days off at work when your health conditions are getting worse or go to bed earlier instead of watching another stupid action movie.
Reduce stress because the biological costs of rest ignorance can cost you your own life.
Find the purpose of your life and live in the present moment. Become aware of everything – what you eat, how you spend your time, the way you talk to others, etc. So, you can increase the level of mindfulness and greater emotional intelligence, gain life satisfaction and find out who you really are.
Slow money
It is a healthier and more sustainable alternative to profit-only-oriented venture capital for starting up new companies. As an investor, support small entrepreneurs who have great ideas for products that will make other people’s lives better than yesterday. For example, invest in organic food producers.
Check carefully where your money goes and never agree to financially support neither illegal nor immoral businesses.
When you invest, pay attention to how your investment supports local community, town or the geographic area where you live. As an individual, shop locally, sell locally and work locally as much as possible making sure that the money is kept within the local community instead of all profits being transferred to another country.
Slow entertainment
Reading books is not only a pleasure, but also a great way to join the slow movement community. Reading a good book is a forgotten hobby. As fewer and fewer people these days spend time on enjoying valuable literature. Stop watching TV when you have time for leisure.
Spend a few hours quietly sitting on the comfortable sofa indulging yourself in non-fiction or imaginative reality. By reading regularly, you will reduce stress, be more open-minded and creative as well as broaden your perspectives.
A simple book will help you to relax after the whole day at work, so you can escape from problems and change for better the whole perspective on life.
Slow ageing
Getting older is a natural process and none of us will ever be able to stop it. The point is not to stay alive at all cost as long as possible, but to stay healthy as long as possible fully enjoying life.
Refrain from plastic surgeries and Botox injection that are supposedly there to make you look younger. You can try natural ways to have nicer skin, drink a couple of liters of pure water and eat leafy vegetables every day.
Commercially-backed medical anti-aging system runs on human fear of dying offering artificial options in gaining life extension. It is neither good for your health nor completely safe for your body.
Slow ageing is all about making sure that your body is properly taken care of as you grow older. As well as shifting attention into making peace with yourself and doing things for others based on using your life wisdom.
There are also other areas of our lives where the slow movement can easily be applied. Some of them include: slow cinema, slow counseling, slow education, slow fashion, slow gardening, slow goods, slow company, slow media, slow parenting, slow photography, slow science, slow technology, and a few more.
Stay tuned slow life lovers!
