For a few years, I’ve been feeling increasingly out of sync with the world around me as I experienced what long-term stress could be like, and realised that a fast-paced, breakneck hustle culture wasn’t something that promoted well-being. Today, on the road to slow living, I’ve been feeling much more at peace and happy with my life—I became aware of how slow living is a practice, not a goal, and that mindfulness was key to a fuller life.
The slow living movement also focuses on the idea that a fast-paced way of living is chaotic, whereas a slower pace encourages enjoyment of life, a deeper appreciation of sensory experiences, and the ability to ‘live in the present moment’
(Slow living, Wikipedia)
I’m not suggesting that slow living cures all, and of course you should refer to health professionals in your own life journey. But as someone dealing with stress, like many others, I’ve really benefited from being more in tune with my own mind and surroundings. The thing that stood out the most was how to re-kindle, spark by spark, some love for life through making the everyday more magical.
Here are 15 tips I have selected, taking inspiration from the Slow Movement and my own experience—including leanings towards hygge and mindfulness—to explore the magic in your life!
We often focus on what we see—making a big deal of our near environment—and what we think, risking to live life with tunnel vision. Yet something I have learnt in my journey to wellness is that the five senses are crucial to a more mindful every-day. Let’s say you are working remotely from home—something happening more regularly now—and feel unmotivated, or just tired from work’s fast paced rhythm. You need to regroup and refocus. To make work a bit slower and more mindful, you need to take all senses into consideration to emulate an atmosphere that nourishes you. That means sight, sound, smell, taste, and touch need to be crafted to your liking. Light a scented candle or use essential oils, keep your space visually tidy, have playlists ready for specific tasks or moods (or have a white noise soundscape of your choosing), have good snacks and tea for breaks, keep soft home furnishings close-by… The magic is in the little things, all coming together.
Speaking of magic in the little things, another way to explore slow living is through looking afresh at things that are often overlooked, or seemingly insignificant; things that a fast pace would have passed by without much thought. Take the weather, for example. Is it sunny? That means a nice walk outside to get some groceries can turn into a small adventure. Is it raining? This time, think about all of those flowers and trees that are having a nice watering, while you’re snuggly at home. You’re waking up early in the morning? Take the time to stretch, think about a good breakfast, remember your dream, plan for the day. Romanticising the small things is about making the most of what you have instead of focusing on the bad; and while it’s important to acknowledge when something isn’t going well, it’s more about having a fresh pair of eyes over trivial things and being glad to be in the present moment—even the trivial things can spark joy!
We all know that more often than not, routines can be downright boring or fostering thoughtlessness, which is never really pleasant. But what if slow living allowed us to re-centre around the way we go through the movements? It’s time to transform our everyday routine into mindful rituals—a sacred space and time to just be ourselves, for ourselves, turning repetition into magic. This goes hand in hand with the romanticising of small things: that wake-up routine? Wash your face with intent. Your body is here to support you. Spray a little perfume, like a spell cast for good luck. Take the time to appreciate your first cup of coffee or tea, feeling how it warms you up from inside. That night routine? It is time to prepare your body and mind for rest—wear soft pyjamas, clean your skin, brush your teeth, taking all the energy of the day out of your head. Read a few pages of your latest book find. Slow living is not living slowly, but rather an ode to being in the present. Make sure your rituals are mindful and grateful for this body that protects you and that mind that moves you.
As the old saying goes, “mens sana in corpore sano” (a healthy mind in a healthy body): you cannot enjoy slow living without careful nourishment. This is not to privilege a diet over another, or an injunction to only eat things branded “healthy”; rather, this is a reminder to be happy about what you eat, and to be proud of the food you make. Try new things in the kitchen, by yourself or with the help of a cooking book or video, for yourself. And also for others! Love is stored in the making of a delicious meal. Not only you need to eat, but more intently, you can make nourishment a pleasure—even at a small scale, or with comfort food. Don’t deny yourself good food: by good I mean to your liking, because it’s quite literally your energy source. That’s why you should nourish your body carefully!
After the body, you need to take care of the mind: don’t forget to nourish yourself mentally! Discovering new things will develop your curiosity, and help you stay sharp. The most obvious way to keep learning would be through reading: not only fiction books but also non-fiction works, poetry, philosophy, sociology, anything that catches your interest! Reading articles on politics, or journals about science, you name it. But more than being a bookworm, what also matters is the stimulation of imagination. That can translate in visiting an art exhibit at your local museum, or listening to new music, asking your friends for recommendations about good TV series or planning a date at the cinema, going to a concert—make some space for your brain to relish in new content! You might not notice it at first, but making a habit to dedicate time to feed your mind will make you even more curious, starting a virtuous cycle of good mental balance. The world is your oyster!
Practiced since aeons ago and gaining some traction back in the last decade, mindfulness meditation does indeed help in balancing the everyday and improving both mental and physical health (I can testify!). Old written records from India date it back to 1500 BCE, while Chinese records appear from the 6th and 3rd century BCE, and it has been loosely referenced by the big three monotheist religions (Islam, Judaism, Christianity). Today, it is becoming a staple of psychology: this piece by the American Psychological Association (APA) https://www.apa.org/topics/mindfulness/meditation explains what mindfulness meditation entails of. By focusing on attention and acceptance when it comes to our thoughts, while attempting to “achieve a mental state of calm concentration and positive emotions,” mindfulness is a practice that uses meditation techniques (including but not limited to breathing work, visualisation, and “body scan” routines) that can be best understood as ways to lower anxiety and emotional distress. It is, most importantly, a practice, not something to do just once: we can summarise it as telling our thoughts “I see you, and I release you” over and over again until we achieve a sense of acceptance and quiet calm. Regular practice can improve our focus and help us feel better, especially with people suffering from anxiety—slow living is closely linked to such a habit. For example, when one feels panic incoming, they can go through the motions meditation taught them and after a few minutes, it de-escalates. And there are as many ways of meditating as there are people: you need to find out what works best for you and your needs by trying out various techniques over a period of time. You’ll improve your mental space and your physical health!
We’ve talked about reading to nourish your mind, and there’s a related habit to take to make your everyday more magical: setting small goals to learn new things, easily, repeatedly. Slow living is encouraging us to step down from being overworked by overzealous hustle culture, but that does also mean we need to take some time—each day, each week—to learn something new just for ourselves, not only for the job. By dedicating a few minutes or hours, regularly, to absorbing new information that sparks joy, you’ll have a new ritual that nourishes you genuinely. Like the Konmari method for organising, you can organise your brain into keeping space for learning what makes you happy. It could be some daily Duolingo time for learning a foreign language, or finding a blog or YouTube channel about a crafting hobby, or even starting an online course about something that tickles your fancy; as long as you’re setting some time aside for learning something new. It doesn’t even have to be “useful”—we’re stepping away from the commodification of brain time by encouraging slow living, and that includes dedicating some time to open our minds through learning what interests us. There’s power and, if I may add, happiness in knowledge, too.
When we think about travel, we might fantasise about far off countries and long flights. Yet, while slow living isn’t about living slow but rather living at the right speed, the same can be done to the ways we engage with our physical and geographical environment. We need to re-acquaintance ourselves with it. And to do this helps make our everyday more magical: what about the old cemetery hidden in the middle of the city? A calm escape from the hustle bustle around us. The banks of a river nearby, a lake, the sea, an ocean? Another place to practice mindfulness while soaking in the quiet energy of the water. Same goes for the countryside, a forest, a local urbex spot, a farmer’s market, a contemporary art installation, a rooftop bar, a full moon. Traveling and discovering new places doesn’t have to mean you have to go far or pay lots; instead, explore what’s hidden nearby—you won’t believe how many magical places are waiting to be discovered. The key is to look at it through fresh eyes!
It’s been proven that enough sleep is benefiting us by “feeling more energized during the day, improving immune function, and aiding the brain in processing and storing new information,” and that lost sleep (also called sleep debt) is hard to make up for. By dedicating enough time to our rest function (often from 7 to 9 hours), we drastically improve our waking hours. The effects of sleep deprivation on our body are, in the long run, really dangerous; sleeping should be a priority with a dedicated time and enough preparation to have a good night’s rest, just like we dedicate some time to do physical exercise or meet with friends. Planning this requires more than just going to bed early, though—it’s all about making routine a ritual, as we’ve seen earlier. Screens are not recommended before sleep, just like caffeine, and I’ve learnt that cultivating a habit of getting to sleep makes it even more agreeable. Make it simple, easy, and soft: maybe read a chapter of your current book, listen to some calm music, have a dim light and smooth bedding, have a good shower or take satisfaction in brushing your teeth and washing your face from the day you had… After a while, you’ll know what works and what doesn’t! Your body will thank you for it.
Today, more than ever, social media and news channels shower us with an outpouring of news and ideas and often stressful images—content that can overwhelm us and that takes a lot of brain space, even when they’re not really news, especially with people suffering from stress. It’s time to filter and cater to our news intake by being mindful about what we allow in our life, on our time, through our eyes. It’s really important to stay aware of world politics and other news, but the current flow of information is just not sustainable for our well-being. So, think about carefully selecting your news sources, unfollow what pressures you, and keep your timeline simple. Make it about quality over quantity, and you’ll see—sometimes the smallest of changes can make a big impact on your daily life!
Working an office job in the 21st century has been gradually transformed into being at a desk to deliver thinking through a screen; the brain is exceedingly solicited and our hands, often, relegated to typing or scrolling. But we are, with the advent of readily-available screens and media, not using our hands enough. “Making things promotes psychological well-being. Process is important for happiness because when we make, repair or create things we feel vital and effective. […] When we are dissolved in a deeply absorbing task we lose self-consciousness and pass the time in a contented state,” cites Carrie Barron, M.D. from Dr. Kelly Lambert. We also used to make things with our hands much more as kids: it’s time to go back to crafting and doing manual labour! Making our everyday more magical happens with our hands, doing the most mundane things—it doesn’t have to be very intricate woodworking, anything you enjoy doing will do. Looking at the world through things that we make out of our own hands is deeply humbling and brings us back to the present moment, doesn’t it? It can really soothe and quiet a restless mind.
Any space benefits from being tidy, even if it’s your own brand of organised mess! There are a multitude of organisational techniques, like Marie Kondo’s world-famous Konmari method of objects that spark joy, and the important thing is precisely there: it’s not only having a tidy space that benefits us, but also the process of getting and keeping that space tidy. Doesn’t it feel like the biggest reset button, right after when you hoover your bedroom and open the windows and change your bedsheets and fluff your pillows, to be resting atop of your clean bed? Try it, you’ll see. Keeping a tidy space will help you keep a tidy mind, and not feel too overwhelmed by the visual clutter that can accumulate over time.
This can feel quite ominous, but it really is about being in the present moment. Worriers and stressed people (like most of us!) can tend to be over-planning for each of every possible path a situation can take in the near (or not so near) future. Think of it as a tree: you are, right now, in the trunk—it’s your present. Looking up, you see all of those little branches—the multiple ways in which an event can trigger possible futures. Even looking down, at the roots, you see all of those paths—all the missed opportunities and what-ifs that end up in what-thens. Looking at your life through this framework is, in fact, not really helping (and I know that it can be hard to focus differently!). Keep your energy in the present. It’s one of the biggest challenges of slow living for me, I have to say, because I’m a huge over-thinker and will use any opportunity to plan for the what-nexts, hence losing lots of energy in non-events. So I try to be at the right time (right now) in the right place (right there), and while I keep an eye on potential opportunities and make projects, I try not to have it overwhelm my thoughts. Meditation helps!
Another way to make your life more magical is to explore the yet-unexplored: what do you believe in? What does nature and metaphysics and intuition mean to you? Do you have a side of you that’s open to spirituality? There are as many spiritualities as there are people—the thing here is to be in tune with what you think the universe is, and what you think makes the world turn. It doesn’t have to be separated from science, on the contrary! The idea is to insufflate some intent in what moves you and what moves through you. It’s a deeply personal thing, and you don’t owe anyone the right to explain it, but thinking about it can help in feeling more in tune with your surroundings, your purpose here, and your loved ones. Synchronicity, for example, is a nice concept to think about!
And to finish, this quote from Guttorm Fløistad summarises well what works when you live more slowly:
The only thing for certain is that everything changes. The rate of change increases. If you want to hang on you better speed up. That is the message of today. It could however be useful to remind everyone that our basic needs never change. The need to be seen and appreciated! It is the need to belong. The need for nearness and care, and for a little love! This is given only through slowness in human relations. In order to master changes, we have to recover slowness, reflection and togetherness. There we will find real renewal.
https://aeon.co/essays/take-your-time-the-seven-pillars-of-a-slow-thought-manifesto
© Audrey J. 2022
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