Learning to Appreciate Slowness

Life is busy. It is over stimulated and people are looking for ways to slow down and reduce the stress in life. I have been wrestling with this issue over the past few years, so when I found In Praise of Slowness I was intrigued.

The cover is what caught my eye.  I know you can't judge a book by its cover but it is the reason I picked it up.  I was in line at Powell's (a Portland Landmark and heaven for book lovers) when I found it – simple and clean with a counter cultural title.

Most people grab breakfast as you run out the door.  Commute an hour or more to work.  Work nonstop all day.  Grab lunch at your desk.  Hurry to finish work and answer email after email.  Commute home and hour or more.  Run the kids from one place to the next.  Drive through some place for dinner.  Put the kids to bed.  Do things around the house all while checking email some more.  Then maybe a few minutes to yourself and crash in bed so you can do it all again in 6 hours or less.  Sound familiar?   I hope not - but I know that is how my life goes most of the time and I know that is normal for many others.

In Praise of Slowness challenges every piece of that "norm".  More and more this routine is part of the US culture.  These concepts are not new - they were the standard at one time.  But with technology and capitalism and many other things, life is fast, complex and stressful.  Many people are trying to find way to counteract that.  This book is about the ever increasing movement to slow down things in life.

The book is broken down into the main sections of life:

· Food - Have you ever had a meal where you sit down, lose track of time, are in a peaceful setting and by the time you leave you are so relaxed you have no idea how long you have been there?  On vacation maybe? But probably not a normal occurrence.  Slow Food is a movement within itself.  The heart of the movement is in Europe but it gives some great examples of how to enjoy a meal from cooking to consuming.

· Cities - Where you live and how the area is designed has a major impact on your life.  A slow city reduces the bad, such as noise and traffic, while increasing the good - green spaces, local farmers, parks, nature, the environment and hospitality.  The book describes it best as "a Slow City is more than just a fast city slowed down.  The movement is about creating an environment where people can resist the pressure to live by the clock and do everything faster.”

· Mind/Body - This is probably one of the areas that more people have started to explore.  Meditation, Yoga, Chi Kung, SuperSlow (a method of weight lifting) are some examples. All of these things try to get the individual to slow down and focus on the current moment.  I do Yoga and some meditation.  I will say that the hardest part of this is slowing down long enough to make your self do it.  Many of these activities slow down time and when you live a life at a fast pace taking the time seems very hard to do.

· Medicine - People are tired of traditional western medicine.  They are tired of being filled with pills or being told that there is nothing wrong with them.  Complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) is a less hurried holistic view of medicine.  This includes homeopathy, herbalism, aromatherapy, acupuncture, massage and energy healing and chiropractic care.  The book walks through many of these.  While these methods can produce results, patience is a must because there are rarely any quick fixes.

· Sex - How much needs to be said about this chapter.  One of the better things in life should be enjoyed.  This book gives you ways to slow down and enjoy it more.

· Work - An area probably everyone can relate.  With email, cell phones, email on your cell phone and laptops, work can rarely shut off.  Believe it or not there is a case for less work - not more.   A different pace of work can result in better results.  A little test - make a list of what you think is most important in your life.  Then make a list of what you make the most important based on your actions.  You will probably find a need to read this chapter.

· Leisure - For me leisure is a good example of how all of these interrelate.  I find myself worrying about what I should be doing while doing something that would be considered leisure.   Leisure is essential to life and it will help you to realize that all of these are needed.  Leisure will let you rest and recharge which in turn will help you address all of the other areas.   It is hard to make any changes when you feel tired and beat down all the time.

· Children - Don't raise your kids with the same hurried lifestyle you have come to dread.  Children learn from what they observe no matter how many times you tell them to do what you say not what you do.  This chapter gives you ideas on how to raise an unhurried child.

The book is good in that it gives many examples of what people are doing and the author experienced many of these to give the examples a very personal feel.  The topics are great but the chapters can seem to go on and on.  I found myself skimming through some of the chapters because I did not know when it would end. After a while it seemed to be repeating the same thing over and over. Each of the examples probably has different impact for each reader.

One of the beautiful things about the way this book is set up is that because that each topic is set apart in chapters you can pick and choose what you want to look at.  It is a good book to go back and re-read chapters depending on what you are working on. More information on the author and the book can be found on his website.  For those of you who want more information quicker there is a 20 minute TED video.

It is not possible to change everything at once and it can be hard to stay with a change when other parts of your life can drag you back into the race.  By recognizing there are so many areas that can be different people can start to make changes.

Please let me know what you think and better yet has any of this worked in transforming your life? Real life examples not only encourage people but let them know it can be done.

– Matt Hixson

A note on the book Jackets: The white is the hard-cover and the black the newest edition in paperback.

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Matt is a husband, father of 2 wonderful girls (4 & 2), employee at a growing software company, soon to be MBA graduate, eBay entrepreneur, part time blog experimenter (My Stress Induced Blog & The Monk and the Riddle of the Red Rubber Ball) and in need of Slowness.

Comments

[Joanna Young]

Thanks very much for this review.

I have read the book some time ago but to be honest the book itself hasn't left a strong impression on me - though the concept has, especially in relation to slow food and slow cities. (I used to work in sustainable development and these issues were very much to the fore there).

Maybe it's time to pull it back off the shelves and dip into another chapter again - slow food especially. I find it hard to eat slowly when I'm on my own, but I enjoy the experience of cooking and eating a lot more when I do.

Joanna

[David Zinger]

This was a good slow go. I also appreciated the link to the TED video as I had forgotten it and went back to watch.

[Dwayne Melancon]

Great summary of this book, Matt. I also appreciate the link to the video - I hadn't seen it before.

I took some time off work yesterday to go a'wandering around the Portland, OR area with my family and my mother (who's visiting this week). Then, this morning, I read your review and the whole notion of "slowness" seems very appealing.

I haven't read this yet, but am intrigued enough to do so because of your comments about this book. Thanks for a thoughtful review.

[Steve Sherlock]

Matt, I get caught with the brain worm "Slow down you move too fast, gotta make the morning last..." (Simon and Garfunkel: 59th Street Bridge Song or Feelin' Groovy") frequently so I can appreciate the need for slow.

I just finished reading Vince Poscente's "The Age of Speed" which is a good read. I am also just getting into Tim Ferris's 4 Hour Work Week based upon Terry's review earlier this month.

Even though these sound like opposites, these books have much in common. Picking up on the dreamlining concept, wouldn't it be good to have a conversation with Honore, Ferris and Poscente!