How to Practice Slow Life

Today, we want to tell you how to practice slow life, a philosophy that allows you to enjoy the details of everyday life. Keep reading!

Living without haste is a lifestyle that encourages people to live out their days more relaxed and aware of their surroundings. Sometimes we focus so much on work, study, or children that we forget the essence of everyday things. We reach our goals, we meet our objectives, and we don’t know how. Can you identify? In the following article, we’ll tell you how to practice slow life.

Although the word slow in our society has a bad connotation, we must start by revaluing this word. Taking things slowly doesn’t mean that you have to move an inch per minute–that’s not what this is about. It’s about getting things done without missing the details. How? Think about the color of the sky when you woke up this morning. Can you remember it? Did you even notice it?

This helps you understand what slow life is about, but keep reading to learn more details and how you can start to put this lifestyle into practice.

What is the slow-life movement?

Slow life is a worldwide trend that was set up in opposition to the continuous acceleration of society and the great cities of the world.

This movement that invites people to be more aware of their existence and enjoy the emotions of life was born in Italy, in protest at the opening of a McDonald’s restaurant.

At that time, people began to talk about slow food, which proposes enjoying food and resoundingly opposes the standardization of gastronomy. At present, this movement encompasses other scenarios whose premise is to improve the quality of life, such as slow media or cittaslow.

Yes, this slow-life movement encompasses areas of life such as sex, education, exercise, leisure, fashion, or work. In this way, it’s possible to enjoy the details that are in each thing and makes life more sustainable. In the case of clothing, for example, the idea is that people break the cycle of consumption–buy, use, and throw away.

The consequences of living a fast-paced life

Many will say that there’s nothing wrong with living like most do at this time, where there’s progress and more and more technological support to live more comfortably. However, have you thought about all the details that you miss every day because you’re constantly sitting behind a screen or because you have to spend long periods on the bus or in the car on the way to work?

In 2017, a study revealed that nine out of ten Spaniards, that is, 96% of those surveyed, felt stress throughout the year, while four out of ten felt stressed frequently. It also specified that women are more affected by stress than men.

Among the reasons that generate this feeling of stress, it was found that the main causes are lack of time, with 50.9%, and fatigue and sleep problems, with 46.2%.

In light of this, it’s worth noting that, according to the National Institute of Mental Health, stress can trigger heart disease, high blood pressure, diabetes, and mental disorders such as depression and anxiety.

What are the characteristics of slow life?

If you want to practice slow life, we’ll highlight three of the main characteristics that can motivate you to want to lead this lifestyle and start right now:

Balance the modern and the traditional

The slow lifestyle doesn’t seek to freeze people and towns in time. Cittaslow, for example, seeks to bring local municipalities closer to the concept of good living and its practice in daily life, from aspects such as urban planning, agriculture, and tourism, among others.

Currently, there are more than 100 slow cities in the world that work to improve the quality of life of their inhabitants and those who visit them.

Encourage sustainability

From supporting small businesses to marketing local and seasonal products and promoting the efficient use of handmade clothing, the slow movement promotes sustainability.

In addition to reducing the carbon footprint produced by large industries, it also seeks to take on the exploitation of labor by large multinationals.

Promote healthy lifestyle habits

As opponents of fast food, slow food seeks to make people more aware of the way they eat.

Its objective is for citizens to rediscover local flavors and consider these foods the basis of their diet, thus promoting healthy eating habits.

How to put the slow life into practice

Yes, we all come to this point motivated to live a life that allows us to better enjoy what we have within our reach. But how? In practice, it’s not as easy as it sounds, but it’s not impossible. You just need to internalize it and start working on it.

Here are some actions that you can put into practice to start living the slow life:

Enjoy your routine with awareness

As we already mentioned, day-to-day occupations plunge us into a tedious routine. Therefore, begin to be more aware of your actions: Wake up earlier, take a shower, and savor your breakfast.

If you walk to work, enjoy it, observe your surroundings, and take a deep breath. If, on the other hand, you must use public transport, breathe and enjoy the trip, look out the window at the sky and leave your cell phone in your pocket.

Give up consumerism

It’s easy to get carried away by consumerism. There are so many beautiful things to buy that whoever has the money doesn’t hesitate to satisfy their desires. However, slow life invites us to live with less and with the things that we really need. In fact, to make this process easier for you, you can use the seven-day rule.

When you want to buy something because you think you need it, wait seven days. If after this time, you still need it, buy it. Otherwise, forget it.

Enjoy the present

They say that anxiety is caused by an excessive focus on the future or the past, and this is true. Those are two scenarios that we can’t change. What happened has already happened, and no one knows what the future holds. So, why waste the present thinking about it?

If you want to practice slow life, enjoy the present, and control your anxiety with some meditation techniques such as yoga that strengthen your soul, your mind, and your body. Live in the here and now! This will help you not to accumulate wealth or other things that you don’t even know if you’ll use one day.

Go back to the traditional

As we said before, this lifestyle seeks a balance between the modern and the traditional. So, give yourself the opportunity to enjoy traditional things: Food, clothing, customs, and places.

Identify the natural places you can go to meditate. Give these areas the opportunity to provide you with moments of fun. Get out of the shopping malls and visit an old town, wear something local, and learn a bit of history.

Slow life is synonymous with enjoying

Yes, as you surely noticed while reading this article, slow life is a clear synonym for enjoying. Enjoy everything that has been given to you, identify that feeling in everything that you do, and thus be able to live a little more calmly and on slowly. Stop to smell the roses!

Remember, if you want to start living this way, you can rely on some method of meditation. This will facilitate your relationship with your mind and body and expand your perception of what surrounds you.