by Haven Logan PH.D

        
    Slow down you’re moving too fast,
You’ve got to make the morning last.
Just kickin’down the cobble-stones,
Lookin’ for fun and feelin’ groovy.
Feeling groovy.

Do these lyrics of Simon and Garfunkel’s bring you back to a time when your life moved at a slower pace? When was the last time you remember going down the street kicking stones and feeling “groovy?” For me, it’s been too many years.

Six months ago at a silent auction fund-raiser I bid on and won a hand-made basket by a local artist. I was intrigued by both the handsomely crafted Shaker “Cat-Hat” basket and its contents. Inside the basket were bath salts, gourmet hot chocolate mix, a small book, and a mug proclaiming thoughts such as “Take Long Walks, Indulge in Hot Baths, Be kind to Yourself.” As I placed my bid I thought, “This is just what I need!”

Then, of course, it took me half a year to find the time to look inside the basket and take out the intriguing book by Véronique Vienne titled The Art of Doing Nothing: Simple Ways to Make Time for Yourself. Last Sunday I carried the book out into my back yard and read the first chapter on “The Art of Procrastinating,” which concluded with an exercise on “Whistling 101.” All my life I presumed whistling was a talent I would never master, but after practicing this skill, I had some immensely rewarding success. Doing something for myself that had no practical purpose reenergized me for the rest of the day. Now I’m looking forward to the rest of the book, especially the chapters on “The Art of Lounging” and “The Art of Yawning.”

In the last forty years the pace of life has accelerated exponentially. Very few of us have not been swept up in this whirlwind. We live in the fast lane, eat fast food, and find our mates through speed dating. When we get a little extra time, we quickly fill it with another activity, priding ourselves on how much we can accomplish in a day. Sometimes living fast is exhilarating. It feels great when we’re “in the zone” and every thing is going along perfectly. Then something goes wrong. For example, our computer crashes and our work is brought to a screeching halt. Or our hurried pace creates an accident that forces us to slow down, such as the one I experienced recently when I tripped over my Chihuahua while rushing off to work. The price paid for moving too fast was a twisted ankle that caused me to limp around all day.

We now have a counter force to the fast life that is gaining momentum- the slow movements! Since the beginning of the Industrial Revolution, there have been movements of people which have emphasized the value of slowness including the Transcendentalists and the Hippies. The recent slow movements were born in Italy in the early 1990s with the Slow Food Movement. The Slow Food Movement has members in over 100 countries. It advocates using local ingredients that are produced in a socially and environmentally responsible way. It also encourages slowness in the preparation and eating of food as healing for the fast pace of modern life.

Since the 1990’s, a variety of other slow movements have come into being. There is Slow Design which creates objects for the home designed to operate like speed bumps for those who are living too fast. There is Slow Travel which emphasizes leisurely trips that give you time to savor your surroundings. There are movements for Slow Media, Slow Yoga, and Slow Medicine. The Internet now overflows with websites and blogs for these slow movements, offering events to attend and life coaches to help you slow down. 

 

Here are some websites where you can explore the wonderful world of slowness:

www.slowfood.com
www.inpraiseofslow.com
www.slowdownnow.org
 www.slowsociety.se/eng
www.worklessparty.org
www.theslowhome.com
www.slowplanet.com
www.slowtravel.com
www.theworldinstituteofslowness.com.  

Where do you stand on the fast to slow continuum? Are there some areas of life where you always go at top speed and others where you are able to slow down? Take some deep breaths and look around. What speed bumps can you put into your life to help you decelerate? Where would you like to experiment with slowness? Perhaps it might be in the pleasure of preparing and eating a wonderful dinner. Or maybe you’ll decide to take a slow vacation this year. It could be that you’ll give yourself time to read that novel that’s collecting dust by your bed or you’ll decide just to lie in the hammock and do nothing! Slowing down not only improves your health by relieving stress, but you will enjoy your life more. Isn’t it wonderful to find some thing that’s good for you which requires you to do nothing!