What Is Slow Living, The Benefits And How Do I Practice It?

Have you ever heard someone talking about a slower pace of living, but not really understood what they meant? After all, time goes at the same pace for all of us, so how can you live it slower than other people? Well, you aren’t the only one there. But the slow living trend is spreading, and it’s taking hold because of the way it makes people feel, and how much simpler life seems when you live slowly. Want to know if slow living is right for you, and how to get started? Read on.

What Is Slow Living?

Slow living is the practice of consuming less and taking a slower, more mindful approach to everyday life. This includes everything from being mindful about what and how you eat to planning more time to achieve things and proactively avoiding things that make you rush through them. In a society that has glorified being busy, slow living bucks the trend and focuses on living a calmer, more balanced approach to life. One where you are more intentional with your time, and regain control over it. Put simply, it’s all about taking the phrase ‘I’m just so busy’ and taking it out of your vocabulary altogether. 

Where Did Slow Living Start?

The slow living movement initially started in Italy, with the slow food movement in the 1980s and 90s. The idea behind it was to emphasise traditional food production techniques over the fast-food trend that was emerging at the time.  When MacDonald’s tried to open a branch at the Spanish Steps in Rome in 2986, a group of local Italian activists held a protest. This included a large pasta feast for the local community to protest the commercialisation of the historic site and handing out a manifesto about it. This single protest and manifesto went on to inspire the slow living movement and is still talked about to this day.

How Do I Practice Slow Living?

There are a lot of different ways you can practice slow living, and what that looks like for you will depend on your circumstances and lifestyle. And while we are going to share some suggestions on slow living practices, remember that slow living is all about living intentionally and at a slower pace.

At Home: 

How often do you end up not doing the things you enjoy simply because you don’t have time for them? It’s an incredibly common issue and a byproduct of our fast pace of life. If you want to live a more intentional life, then a diary is going to become your best friend. Schedule in time to do the things you love, and give yourself permission to focus entirely on that thing during that time. It will help you get more enjoyment out of your activities, and provide you with a structure for your slow living journey.

At Work: 

We’re all guilty of trying to appear busier than we actually are at work. Filling our diaries with constant meetings, buzzing notifications and chatting with co-workers – our work lives are a cacophony of noise and distraction. Which, ironically, makes it more difficult to do our work to a high standard! Try allocating more time to each task you perform, and make space in your work day for the things that are important. Really focus on the tasks that bring you results and drop the busy work from your to-do list. It’s very rarely a mad dash to the finish line, so why treat every day like one?

Hobbies: 

With all that focus on getting as much done as possible, many adults don’t have much time for hobbies. And if they do, they tend to pack their calendar with social functions, feeling as though they have to ‘make the most of every opportunity’, when really they’re doing the opposite. Take some time to reflect on what’s important to you in life, and what it is that genuinely brings you joy. To achieve that you will need to sacrifice some of the things that you don’t enjoy as much, freeing up the time for you to invest in the things that light you up. If you’re not sure what that is, then free up the time anyway, and use it to explore hobbies in a slow and intentional fashion until you find something you enjoy. It might seem counterintuitive, but a meaningful hobby will leave you feeling more refreshed than all the slouching on the sofa in front of the TV ever could.

Reading: 

Our society is really geared towards quick digestion of information. We’re pushed to devour as much as we can as quickly as we can. But this often means we don’t absorb the messages fully and miss out on key aspects of the work. Book clubs are some of the worst offenders for this, encouraging members to plough through a book a week! If you enjoy reading, try to slow down your pace. Instead of your goal being to finish the book, focus on getting more nuance, understanding, pleasure and meaning from the text.

A lot of the messaging we get in the media today is about how we should be more productive. We should always be doing more, achieving more, and allowing ourselves the time to relax is lazy. But this couldn’t be further from the truth. By taking life at a slower pace and approaching everything mindfully, you can save money, improve your general health, build deeper connections with others and, most importantly, feel happier within yourself. Isn’t that a much better way to spend your time?