"Slow life" Culture

I have experienced time and time again the positive effects of a mindful and conscious approach to life, fashion, nutrition and grooming. I've also discovered that I don't need much to feel happy, and freeing myself from excess, reduces tension and stress. But slow life, like everything else, in excess can also be harmful. I have found this out in various situations by falling into the trap of living according to the accepted definition. It's not good to be wasteful, reckless or even spontaneous. The balance comes out in favor anyway, so I'm absolutely not going to give up the slow life, but it's worth being aware that things don't always look as rosy as we'd like.

Slow life is a creation whose roots should be traced to slow food. A movement that was born in the 1980s. Its founder was Carlo Petrini opposing fast food, which was growing like mushrooms. Slow food says to celebrate meals, support traditional recipes and local initiatives. We should eat unhurriedly, savoring the taste and quality of food prepared with heart and from the best local specialties. Slow food has spread around the world, and with it came slow life, slow fashion, slow beauty, etc. Everything, in fact, can be slow.

The trend to be slow

Is it by any chance that slow has become a kind of fashion? A trend that is neatly slipped to us by marketing specs? Choosing to live attentively, we more often reach for books on the subject; we buy products that are much more expensive under the banner of traditional products; cosmetics, which, although they have natural ingredients, do not always serve us either. We choose slow vacations, slow cars, slow clothes, and in the process we screw up the consumption of these products. What was born first? The need to be slow, or fashion? Isn't slow life by any chance common sense and living a life we've actually known since the days of our grandparents and great-grandparents? After all, older generations knew very well how to enjoy the moment, use nature's gifts, make their own products and repair instead of buying new ones. Do we really need to learn this from scratch?

Connected to the network

Today, like never before, we live online, communicate via smartphones and instant messaging, date through social networks and judge the value of our work by Facebook or Instagram likes. I think the need to be slow is a result of technological over-saturation, the constant quest to be better, keeping up with trends and exuberant consumption. The things we buy go out of fashion so quickly that before we know it and we're already old-school and vintage. The result of this rush is rebellion and disagreement with such a world. We want to notice a child's smile, not see a picture of it on Facebook while the child is engrossed in a new game on a tablet. We want authenticity, not idealized pictures from Instagram, because after all, we don't look like that. We have wrinkles, dark circles under our eyes, stretch marks after childbirth, and we don't want to be ashamed of them at all.

The fashion for perfection straight from Instagram

Slow life can handcuff us to perfectionism. Perfect, bright, uncluttered interiors; healthy, balanced meals that are sugar-free, lactose-free, gluten-free; a closet consisting of few things, but super luxurious, and trendy vacations. Not to Bulgaria, Tunisia, or even Croatia, which was fashionable a few years ago. Now those destinations don't get so much luster anymore. Choose the Dominican Republic, Bali, Cuba or one of the islands - Santorini, Sardinia, Sicily. The use of travel agencies has also officially been considered obnoxious, it is better to organize a trip on your own, even if Last Minute offers are more attractive. Have we gone too far into being slow?

A non-ideal closet

Another example is the closet. A place that every woman would like to have well organized. So that when we take out one thing, we immediately find another one that perfectly matches the first one. We want to always look chic and in good taste. While building my closet I discovered one important thing, it will never be perfect, just as I will never be perfect. I stay away from perfection, because it is the biggest obstacle to happiness. It's never good enough, it can always be better. But better is the enemy of good, and if we want to grow and live a fulfilling life, we have to accept non-perfection, including in our closet.

Once we get our eyes on an item, the decision-making process about its purchase is prolonged indefinitely, because maybe what we just picked out isn't good enough, maybe we'll get bored after a week, or find something better in a few days. We hesitate, we put it off, we leave, only to return to the store in a while to see that the item in question is no longer there. Someone has made a quick decision. We walk around in old shoes that have long since stopped serving us, a jacket that isn't warm enough because we haven't found the ideal. It's just that we may never find that ideal, and sometimes a compromise is needed.

Absurdities of minimizing the number of things

Slow life is also about getting rid of excess stuff in our homes. Everything that is unnecessary, old, damaged and ugly. Here, too, it is possible to go into overdrive. We throw away and get rid of things hastily, on impulse. All the time we think that our homes are not quite cleared of excess. We don't know what to do with things that stir up memories for us. Every cabinet must be sterile clean, spacious and contain only what is needed. Each spice must have a separate jar with a beautiful label. Clothes must be sorted by color and folded according to the Marie Kondo principle. Buying one item gets rid of two others. There must not be even the slightest squeeze in the house. Limiting things to a certain number is such an artificial and unnatural creation that causes us to fall into another fashionable trap of minimalism. I try to use common sense and a healthy approach to life in this regard. If a figurine brought back from a beloved trip, although ugly, still evokes fond memories, I don't get rid of it. What about the fact that food products do not have their own separate segregation system. Is this really an indicator of happiness?

Thrifty or stingy

Slow is also about frugal and eco-friendly living. There are many ways to save money and it's worth putting them into practice, but let's also make sure we know how to enjoy life right now. There are areas that are not worth saving on. Many people who decide to live more carefully begin to deny themselves various pleasures. After all, if they ask themselves if they really need something, the answer is usually no. A person really needs very little to survive. He doesn't need to go to the movies, restaurants, go on vacation, buy a new phone, camera, laptop, clothes, cosmetics. He can save for these things by collecting for his future. Just what about the life that is going on now? Yes we fight against over-consumption, everyone intuitively feels where the limit lies. Is buying a pass to the pool and gym, already crossing that line? Or another pair of jeans and a new handbag? We cross the line when the new thing or experience no longer pleases us. They are a temporary satisfaction of exuberant needs. Money is also there to be spent, only it's worth doing so with our heads. And yes, let's save for our future, but let's also live now, because we have no idea how much time we have left.

Mindfulness and focus, noticing the beauty around us, appreciating what we already have and being grateful for each day are the essence of living slow. How we experience each day is up to us. It's up to us to decide whether we focus on subjective and outside world-defined shortcomings, or on what truly makes us happy, what is freely available and at our fingertips. Every day we can work on living more fully and enjoying the little things. The 30-Day Mindfulness Diary, with which we take one step every day toward a fuller life here and now, can help us do this. Without radical resolutions, but we gradually change our attitude towards ourselves, other people and the world.