What Is Slow Living?

In recent months you may have seen a lot more online and on social media about having a slow living lifestyle. There is definitely a slow living movement taking off in these post pandemic days. But what is slow living? And what benefits can it bring to your home and health? Today I am going to talk about what slow living means and how living a slow life may help us all in everyday life.

What Is Slow Living?

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I’m sure that if you are anything like me you sometimes feel that life is a bit too fast. You may feel like you never have enough free time to do the things you want, and you always feel like you are doing everything in a rush and at a pace. 

You may even feel like this leads to feelings of anxiety and overwhelm. 

Slow living provides a solution to these issues. By choosing a more simple living and slower lifestyle, we can enjoy the present moment more and appreciate more what we have around us.

On this website over the past few years I have spoken a lot about trying to slow down and appreciate what we already have instead of just going out and just buying more. Indeed, as I have got older I can definitely appreciate that having more ‘things’ in life only leads to more anxiety and clutter. In my series about Lagom and Hygge I have already discussed how more is not necessarily more!

See some other ways you can be more eco friendly in 2023.

What ‘Living Slow’ Is All About

The slow movement is not a new thing, it has been around for many years, even from the 1980s and 1990s. It focuses on the fact that life has become increasingly faster and chaotic, and that we as humans haven’t really adapted to this pace of life. Slow living, the movement and the whole lifestyle is proposed as a solution to all this capitalist culture and consumerism. So it really does go hand in hand with being green, eco friendly and zero waste. 

The slow lifestyle aims can be summarised with the acronym SLOW

• S – sustainable
• L – locally sourced materials and products
• O – organic – so avoiding mass produced or genetically modified goods, and
• W – whole, none processed foods and produce.

Living slow and having a slow home is about trying to live a slower pace of life. Of enjoying the small things and appreciating the things and people we already have in our lives. And appreciating quality over quantity.

Some Slow Living Principles

By slow I do not mean walking slowly! It just means slowing down your life and living slower. In fact, in a way it can mean what you want it to, but core principles are to

• Take some time out to concentrate on your breathing – doing this helps you slow down and feel more calm and grounded
• Remove some of the excesses from your life. We all live surrounded by clutter, so make steps to reduce this.
• Practice slow cooking. Choosing to take time to make slow food from scratch will help you enjoy food more and will also help with mindfulness.
• Spend time on your relationships and with the people that you love. Just appreciating what you have and spending quality time together.
• Giving yourself some time. It is so important to allocate yourself some me-time each day. I use mine with my craft hobby.
• Moving more and more regularly. And trying to connect with nature more too.

I do intend on making more posts about just this, so stay tuned.

Slow Living And Minimalism

Minimalism and simplicity are often the keystones to living a slow lifestyle. Not having all the ‘stuff’ and living with less means that you focus more on the things that are important. 

I have already been doing this by starting to declutter and trying to keep on top of the things I buy. Yes, there can be challenges with children, and the reality is that we all have to make money and live in the real world. But that does not mean that we can’t do a few things towards such a life. Every little helps. So what are my tips for trying to do this in the real world?

Slow Living Tips

Here are just some slow living examples –  the things I practice to ensure life is slow. 

• Minimise belongings. Clutter can really slow down your life. Decluttering reduces all those things weighing you down. At the very least it means you don’t have to struggle to find things amongst everything you own.
• Have a slower morning routine. Take time to enjoy the start of your day.
• Get out into the open air everyday. Find a quiet spot, enjoy the peace and quiet and try to connect with nature.
• Take some time every day to just breathe. Even a 5 minute meditation when you concentrate on your breathing really helps.
• Taking time to talk – making sure we all have quality time every day without phones or screens to distract us. 

Basically, anything that encourages us to slow down and lie in the moment, appreciating the people and experiences around us is something that we should be trying to do more.

The Benefits of Slow Living

So what actually is the purpose of of trying to live slowly?

As I have said above, trying to have a slow pace of life really does have a large impact on your health and happiness.

By being mindful and conscious of slowing down our breathing through the day actually does have physiological and psychological benefits. Getting more exercise obviously has a long track record of improving our health and happiness too.

I can truly attest to the fact that decluttering and having less ‘stuff’ improves your mood. Less stuff means less cleaning, means less worrying about what you have. Saves you money and time in the long run. For too long I feel like we have been sold the lie that we need more stuff to be happy and what it actually does is the complete opposite.

Lastly it is obvious that trying to spend more time with the ones we love and concentrating on quality over quantity is going to make us feel better. It is very obvious that living slowly is the way to go.

Some Slow Living Books To Read

There is a whole tonne of slow living resources and even a slow food movement if you feel you want more direction in how to go about changing your fast paced life in pursuit of a more balanced and meaningful life. Here are some of my favourites.

In Praise of Slowness by Carl Honoré – is a great start to finding out how to change your own life.

Slow by Brooke McAlary – has some great tips and guidance, plus she has a brilliant slow home podcast found here.

The Art Of Simple Living by Sam Lacey – gives some wonderful practical advice too.

And do give me a follow, as I do plan to be expanding more on this subject. As I try living a slow life and practice a slower pace of life, I will share with you my tips. So that you too can embrace this slow living trend whilst having a go at some of my ideas too.

Love This Guide? Why Not Read Some Of My Other Slow Living, Zero Waste and Eco Friendly Posts And Reviews?

I love to show you really easy ways that you can make the small changes that add up to make a big impact on your life. So why not read these other posts I have written?

• How Sustainable Is The Fabric In My Clothes?
• 100 Eco Friendly Gift Wrapping Ideas
• Ways To Reduce Your Spending During The Cost Of Living Crisis
• 15 Natural Stain Removers That Work

Also I love to see what you are doing, so please leave your comments below, or tag me on social media.

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