Living slowly: all the ways to achieve it

The 14 commandments written by the association The Art of Living Slowly. All simple and clear: you just have to want it.

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Living Slowly: World Slowness Day 2014

Lenses, to live betterNot out of laziness, indolence, avoidance of responsibility, or cunning: no, to regain an important part of one's life, one's identity, one's desires. And not to waste oneself in a hasty and often counterproductive, or at least useless, surrender to hurry, the daily and unstoppable rush.

The energy crisis, the world turned upside down, and the need to rethink our lifestyles: these are all good opportunities to rediscover the necessary, sometimes indispensable, virtues of slownessAnd stop running, spiraling into an eternal present.

LIVING SLOWLY

The actor Luca Zingaretti, alias Inspector Montalbano, in explaining the huge success of a television series launched in 1994, provided a very interesting explanation: «In a world that is too fast, Inspector Montalbano represents thepraise and the virtue of slownessFrom a narrative point of view, there is no doubt that, thanks to the magical hand of Andrea Camilleri, the national popular success of such a well-rounded character, in all his details, owes much to this river of colorful slowness that flows through the pages, and then in the images, of Montalbano. From the point of view of our current lifestyles, slowness is instead a conquest we must achieveAnd slowing down is increasingly perceived, as we often say on this site, as a winning slogan, but also as a battle cry against the wastefulness of the prevailing frenzy. And to translate it into practice, winning our difficult game in favor of well-being and common sense, you have to start from the small things, from small daily gestures. Line them up, and try to win them over one by one, as the association suggests. Living slowly.

ALSO READ: The importance of slowness, if we are too fast the brain does not work well

prisoners of the present buy

COMMANDMENTS FOR LIVING SLOWLY

"Slow down”, look up and take some time to rediscover the authenticity of gestures and moments that accompany our lives. Taking a break to reconsider the pace of our lives, to avoid being overwhelmed by despair and frenzy, in our private lives, at work, and in our free time. It's time to rediscover slowness and also boredom, in a society that sees us always in a rush and in which the few relaxation spaces at our disposal are sometimes experienced as a waste of time.

IMPORTANCE OF SLOWNESS

Let's see the 14 "commanders” for Rediscovering slowness, written by the association The Art of Living Slowly.

  • Waking up 5 minutes earlier than usual to shave, put on makeup or have breakfast without rushing and with a pinch of cheerfulness.
  • If we are stuck in traffic or at the supermarket checkout, let's avoid getting angry and use this time to mentally plan the evening or to exchange a few words with the person sitting next to us in the trolley.
  • If you enter a bar For a coffee: remember to greet the barista, enjoy your coffee, and greet the barista and cashier when you leave (this rule applies to all shops, the office, and even in the elevator).
  • Write text messages without symbols or abbreviations, perhaps starting with dear or dear.
  • When possible, let's avoid doing two things at the same time like making phone calls and typing on the computer…otherwise you risk becoming rude, imprecise and approximate.
  • Let's avoid enrolling ourselves or our children in a school or gym on the other side of town.
  • Don't fill our day's agenda with appointments, even if pleasant, we learn to say no sometimes and to have moments of emptiness.
  • Don't rush to do the shopping, your pantry will certainly allow you to cook a good dinner from starter to dessert.
  • Even if it might cost a little more, let's treat ourselves every now and then a visit to the shop down the street, we will save time and be less stressed.
  • Let's take a walk, alone or in company, instead of queuing in the car to reach the usual trattoria out of town.
  • In the evening, read the newspapers and don't keep channel surfing in front of the TV.
  • Avoid any trips on weekends or during long weekends, but enjoy your city, whatever it is.
  • If you have 15 days of vacation, dedicate 10 of them to holidays and use the remaining ones as pre or post-holiday decompression.
  • Let's stop repeating: "I don't have time"Continuing to do so certainly won't make us seem more important.

HOW TO TAKE LIFE CALM?

Rediscovering the pleasure, both physical and psychological, of slowness means being able to take life slowly. And not run the risk of wasting it in its best moments. But beyond this, there's a fundamental prerequisite for taking life slowly: breaking out of the trap of presenteeismWe live too long crushed by the present, with little momentum toward the future and little desire to remember the past. We've reduced time to a vicious cycle, in which we lose ourselves. We're always in a hurry, the only fuel we recognize as the energy we need. And yet, time, by its very nature, is linear, with a before (past), a during (present) and an after (future).

SLOWNESS IN THE KITCHEN

And here are the 7 commandments for living slowly in the kitchen:

  • Food is your first medicine: Hippocrates teaches… let's believe it.
  • The poetry of food begins when we go shopping.We choose seasonal, high-quality products. If we want to save money, we reduce the quantity: which is also an excellent choice for controlling cholesterol and weight.
  • It is scientifically proven that water does not boil faster if we continue to observe it: so without rushing Let's get passionate about preparing our dinner and we carefully set the table, a flower?
  • We use all our senses to enjoy the individual ingredients: sight, touch, smell, taste… even hearing (the sounds of the kitchen make it feel so homey and warm).
  • We savor every forkful and every little sip of that wine that, even if incompetent, we will have chosen with love and care.
  • Let's avoid the "two in one"If we eat we don't make phone calls, if we make phone calls we don't eat.
  • Let's not rush …the cinema, the dishwasher, the final touches to the computer, etc. await.

LA SLOWNESS IN THE BRAIN

In a precious book for those who want to approach a new lifestyle, In praise of the slowness (Il Mulino editions), the neuroscientist Lamberto Maffei tells how our brain have two thoughts: one rapid, generated in the right hemisphere; the other slow, originating in the left hemisphere. Rapid thought is the oldest, as it is linked to the survival instinct, the need to avoid being overwhelmed and to react quickly to potential enemies. The second, slow thought, appears with language and is then consolidated with writing, but it is the one that characterizes human beings. It is the ability to reason slowly (for example, with logic, mathematics, contemplation) that characterizes humankind.

SLOW CITY

There is also an international network, called Slow City, which unites 232 city committed to promoting lifestyles inspired by slownessSome are in Italy, you can find them on the website www.cittaslow.it and can become the destination of a beautiful holiday. Without rushing.

 OTHER SIMPLE IDEAS THAT MAKE YOUR LIFE SO MUCH BETTER:

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