Slow Movement: How You Slow Down in a Fast World

Slow Movement has been a rising trend in the alternative lifestyle movement. When I first heard of it, I thought of it as an excellent reaction to the current culture.

In the internet age, everything has to be high speed. We hardly have any moment to slow down with the overflow of news and information around us.

It’s leading many of us to be more stressed and anxious than ever. I think that’s exactly why the Slow Movement has risen at this time in our lives.

What is the Slow Movement?

The slow movement is a lifestyle that basically encourages slowing things down in life. It all started back in the ’80s with the Slow Food movement.

It was a protest in reaction to McDonald’s opening a restaurant in Rome, Italy. Slow Food advocates for people to eat more local food and traditional cooking rather than fast food.

When you think about it, we’d probably all be a lot healthier if we ate that way.

Through the slow food movement, the idea of slow living expanded to being adapted to all areas of life. Carl Honoré is a Canadian journalist who coined the phrase “slow movement” in his book titled, In Praise of Slow.

He argues that the slow movement isn’t about doing everything as slow possible, but more so, doing things at the right speed.

It makes me think about how it’s true in different facets of our life doing things at the right speed is necessary for our well being. Driving is one clear example.

If you drive too fast, you can potentially hurt yourself or worse. At the same time, if you drive too slow, you can still potentially get in an accident.

We have speed limits for that reason, and perhaps the same can be said for life in general. That we need limits, and we need to find a good right amount of speed to do things for our well being.

In exploring this, there are different recommendations in the Slow Movement you might find worth exploring in your life.

Slow Living

Slow living is about being more mindful of the moments in your day. In a book titled, ” Slow Living – Learning to Savor and Fully Engage with Life”. Beth Meredith and Eric Storm recommend not rushing to finish your daily tasks.

They suggest that by being more mindful of everything you’re doing in your day, you’ll experience more joy in doing them. More joy sounds better than dreading all the tasks you have to do.

It’s really interesting how much we don’t think about what we’re doing in our days. It all seems like a blur by the time we get to the end.

Then before we know it, we’re another year older. and we feel like life is moving too fast. Maybe being more mindful of what we’re doing will make our days feel longer and more enjoyable.

Being more mindful of what we’re doing has proven to be an effective relaxation technique. Recent research found mindful walking to be helpful in stress relief.

In moments in my day, I remind myself to be aware of what I’m doing. Perhaps you can do the same in your life as well and see how it impacts your mood.

Slow Media

Slow media stresses the importance of people receiving content that has a higher quality. You probably notice most of what you read is usually overly sensational and clickbait

Slow media believes content should be more ethical, enjoyable, intentional, well-researched, and long-lasting. It’s what I strive to provide in my own writings.

In a way, the value of taking time to read something has been kind of lost in all the short articles out there. I myself have been guilty of skimming through articles that are very long.

Perhaps it can be a peaceful thing to just take time to sit and read something really long. It seems like that could help us all slow down a little more in life.

Slow Parenting

Parents will probably find the recommendations of Slow Parenting are perhaps either interesting or controversial. Either way, I found the ideas worth mentioning.

Slow Parenting suggests that children shouldn’t have so many activities scheduled for them. Instead, they should just be allowed to experience the world at their own pace.

It emphasizes children enjoying time for play mostly. They discourage letting children just watch TV because they believe it doesn’t promote much thinking or action.

Carl Honoré advises that it’s also important to let children face the world and in a responsible way, allow them to take risks. An example he cites is forest kindergartens.

Children have preschool classes outdoors and in any weather condition. The goal is for them to play and learn about the world around them.

In a way, it’s kind of like how the animals do it. Birds, for example, will nudge their babies near the outside of the nest to encourage them to fly.

I used to think they push them out of the nest, but apparently that’s a myth. Perhaps similarly, children need to be nudged outside to fly in their own way in the world.

Maybe this would be a less stressful way for parents to raise their children.

Slow Travel

When I read the idea of slow travel, it reminded me of one of my friend’s approach to travel. She likes to be able to spend time in a place for a long period of time to really enjoy the location.

Slow Travel advocates being completely immersed in the destination you travel to. Going to local places, talking to locals, and learning about the customs of the people there.

They encourage going to places local residents like rather than following a specific guide. Above all. it’s about taking your time. and just going with the flow.

Overall, the slow movement seems like an admirable way to live life. At the very least, it provides some good suggestions to help get us to an admirable way of life.

I’m encouraged to take more time to be mindful and intentional in life. I hope you’re encouraged to do so too.

Slow Movement video

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