If This Is Slow Living...

“Slow” encompasses several layers of meaning that go beyond simply “sustainable.” Slow is the opposite of “fast” — fast food, fast money, fast living — and all of the negative consequences “fast” has had for the environment and for the health of people and societies. “Slow” embodies cooperation, respect, sustainability, gratitude and resilience. (From the Slow Living summit website.)

I started listening to a podcast recently called The Slow Home Podcast. I went right down to the first episode and popped in my earphones.
​What I realised rather quickly was that I have been living like this for most of my life. Having lived in 3 different countries over the past 12 years, I can honestly be really ruthless at letting go of my possessions. At the point of writing my hubby and I literally own approximately 4.5cubic metres of 'stuff' and it isn't even all in the one place...
I have learnt over the past 12 years that we never really own anything, it kinda owns us. 
Modern consumerism baffles me and yes I do like shopping but if I am being completely honest, I get an icky feeling when I accumulate. Maybe it is years of culling and decluttering but I try to buy one throw one nowadays. 
Whenever I buy something new, I chuck something out to make room for it.

Yet there are some ways in which, especially over the past year, I have not been slow.

• I often feel a lot of guilt around relaxing, even though I know this makes me a better person to be around. I haven't been meditating as long or as often as before. 
• I have been rushing to get places rather than enjoying the journey. I have been known to open my Facebook app on my iPhone multiple times a day to check the little (as I am referring to it now) red panic button. Has this post had likes, comments, hearts and thumbs...???
• Just the other day my better half told me he recognised that my ego was getting a little out there and that wasn't normal for me.
• I have been rushing my food rather than savouring every mouthful as I would have in the past.
  
• I certainly have had difficulty feeling grateful. This is largely to do with the current practices in the UK surrounding renting and not having a 'job' job. You know the one that pays you a regular salary...
  

​I know in my heart and in my soul that being grateful for the uncomfortable situations in life is what I should practice because it gives me the opportunity to heal from them.
So as I write this all down, it allows me to see where I can improve and where I can lean into the slowness again.
Remember: “Slow” embodies cooperation, respect, sustainability, gratitude and resilience. 
Being respectful could start with you. Being sustainable can be easy when you start to notice how. Allowing gratitude to become part of your daily life can be as simple as telling yourself that evening what you were grateful for that day- start small. Resilient can mean changing your mindset on a moment by moment basis by choosing to live in gratitude and abundance rather than fear and lack.

If this is slow living, would you choose it?