Racing thoughts, mild palpitations and a faintly droning headache have become acceptable side effects of everyday life. You leap out of bed, slam your day into fifth gear, and spend the next 12 hours desperately trying to catch up on yourself, as work, friends and life all manically compete for first place on your to-do list. FOMO was one of the most toxic social trends of this decade. In an era where we are presented with endless possibilities, we want to experience everything. So, we live every moment against the clock, manically Instagramming our experiences, almost as proof to ourselves that we were even there, because it all went by in a blur.
How about we just stop for a moment. Breathe. Let’s not slam on the brakes or anything, but roll into a more leisurely pace of life and find out what it really has to offer. Carl Honoré, the best-selling author of In Praise of Slow (2004) and The Slow Fix (2013), has spent the past 12 years making a convincing case for slowing down and discovering a more fulfilling life. “The way to get the most out of life is not to go faster, or to cram more and more things into less and less time,” Honoré explains. “It is to slow down, choose the things that really matter to you and give those things the time and attention they deserve.”
As you sprint between the deli and your desk at lunchtime, still chewing your sushi, WhatsAppinn your friend with one hand and attempting to rescue your flat white from falling out of your bag with the other, have you ever felt the urge to halt in the middle of the street and scream: “Stop the world I want to get off!” Funnily enough, it was food that sparked the slow movement. When the first McDonald’s branch opened in Piazza di Spagna in Rome in 1986, a local man, Carlo Petrini, was horrified that the fast food chain was defacing the culinary heritage of his hometown. So, he started a protest against it that ignited
the slow food movement. Passionate about regional produce and traditional dishes, ‘slow food’ encouraged the revival of home cooking and eating at a leisurely pace in the company of loved ones. Over time, the movement spawned subcultures in many other areas, from slow and ethical-conscious fashion and travel to technology and parenting.
“Hurrying is the enemy of pleasure,” says Honoré. “When we try to do too much, we end up racing through life instead of living it.” Imagine a life where the majority of your interactions with other people were brief (and probably via emoji) online encounters, rather than face-to- face. With its promise of connecting more people together, social media actually creates superficial relationships. “Strangerships” have become a new social subdivision: The people you speak to exclusively via your smartphone. Without tactile and meaningful interactions, how can we build relationships based on trust? Our s o c i a l following is not an accurate representation of the number of people we can call upon when we really need advice, or want to share some great news. It’s really just an impression of connectedness when very little of that really exists.
Strong physical relationships make us happy and healthy. But, in order to build new ones and nurture existing ones, we need to listen, feel, connect and touch. “No matter how much of a rush you’re in, you cannot listen faster!” jokes Honoré. “People are yearning to slow down in order to bond with those who matter most to them. That’s why you see the surging influence of the slow philosophy on material culture. Think of the boom in crafts and artisanal foods; public spaces with more greenery and public art; the spread of quiet rooms in airports, schools and offices.”
Indeed, meditation – one of the slow movement’s key mechanisms for a richer, more productive you – is a pastime conventionally done by oneself. More recently, guided and group meditations have become Saturday night hotspots. An 800-strong crowd recently convened in an auditorium in New York City to partake in ‘The Big Quiet’ meditation. The organisers, who also arrange large scale meditation gatherings in Central Park, are now aiming to spread this concept to multiple cities around the world. ‘Unplug’ in Los Angeles and ‘MNDFL’ in NYC offer drop-in meditative sessions that are attracting young, creative professionals, yearning for more intimate interactions, as well as a way to physically and mentally press pause. Meditation helps to lower stress, enhance feelings of calm and sharpen concentration, making it the perfect remedy to a life on overdrive; over time, it has the ability to rewire the brain so that it can process information faster.
Thus, slow living opens the floodgates to creativity. Far from dulling our senses or making us think slower, neuroscience has proven that a less cluttered mind is a precursor to creativity, thereby making us more productive in the workplace. Slow confronts frivolity in all forms. It helps us to recognise what’s valuable and worth our time, and what isn’t. It’s a refusal to be infected by other people’s stress and urgency. Best of all, it doesn’t require a hugely dramatic lifestyle change. Yes, you can be a high powered business woman running your own NGO and still live slow. How does Honoré practice what he preaches? “I take breaks during the workday to relax, eat and do a bit of meditation. I stopped wearing a watch, which helped make me less neurotic about time. I switch off my email, iPhone, etc. whenever possible, to avoid always being connected. I say no to work or social offers now in order to avoid getting overloaded. It’s about quality rather than quantity. I am living my life rather than rushing through it.” And there’s the crux: Life is for living so take it easy, but take it.
