{"id":31850,"date":"2022-09-11T07:33:43","date_gmt":"2022-09-11T07:33:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.slowtravelgreece.com\/?p=31850"},"modified":"2024-12-30T18:36:43","modified_gmt":"2024-12-30T18:36:43","slug":"the-rise-fall-and-rise-of-the-slow-movement","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.slowtravelgreece.com\/el\/the-rise-fall-and-rise-of-the-slow-movement\/","title":{"rendered":"The rise, fall and rise of the Slow movement"},"content":{"rendered":"
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The rise, the fall and rise of the Slow movement<\/h1>\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t
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By Slow Travel UK<\/h2>\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t
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For a time back in the early 2000s, it looked like Slow Living was about to take off as a major lifestyle change, with the Slow Food movement growing into every other avenue of life such as Slow Cities, Slow Schools and Slow Technology. <\/p>

But the movement seemed to peter out and for many years it seemed like there were just small pockets of people who kept the Slow Movement going. <\/p>

The pandemic has changed things again, with people re-evaluating the way they live, and Slow is back on the agenda. So where did it all go wrong, and how can we ensure it doesn’t get lost again as the world gets back to normal?<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t

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Slow was introduced with great fanfare in the early noughties, with books such as Carl Honore’s 2004 In Praise of Slow opening up the world of Slow to a new audience with the focus shifting from Slow Food to applying the principle to all aspects of living. <\/p>

The book became an international bestseller and the world seemed ready to embrace a new philosophy. Unfortunately for the Slow Movement, just as it was gaining in popularity, so was social media, and the two were just not compatible – Facebook, Twitter and Instagram all came out after the publication of the book. <\/span><\/p>

As people’s lives became ever more public, so did their need to prove just how amazing those lives were – travelling the world, going out to parties and events, ticking things off their bucket lists and trying to look fabulous while they were doing it. <\/span><\/p>

There was nothing impressive about letting everyone know that you spent a day in the garden with a good book, doing the housework or just watching TV in your pyjamas.<\/span><\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t

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Photos are sepia tinted shots of them in chunky knit cardigans, warming their hands around a vast cup of chai tea and endlessly talking about ‘intentionality’, ‘mindfulness’ and ‘creating a morning routine’, before they start their flexible online job, working from a laptop in a healthy smoothie caf\u00e9. <\/p>\n

Although it may be a step in the right direction, it is just as vacuous and self-obsessed. The Slow Lives on display from these practitioners are completely unobtainable for the majority of us.<\/p>\n

You just know that these young women have absolutely no-one to look after except themselves. The rest of us are getting up early to feed children, empty dishwashers and battling the traffic to get to work, grabbing a snack bar on the way out and trying to organise a million things before we reach the office.<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t

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These ‘gurus’ have given Slow Living a bad name and put people off. It has become enmeshed with Minimalism, Konmari, Hygge, capsule wardrobes, tiny houses, van life – all those things that are great for people at the start or end of their adult lives, but not so good for those of us in the middle. <\/p>

We have jobs, kids or parents to look after, bills to pay; we can’t waft around in beige linen making nut milk from scratch and we certainly don’t have the time to thank our possessions or chant life-affirming mantras. <\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t

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I dare any one of you reading this to try those suggestions above, in just five minutes, in your shared office and not feel like a complete pillock, induce hysteria from your colleagues or the wrath of HR for lighting candles at your desk.<\/p>\n

Slow Living is a mindset, an attitude, not a checklist of virtuous things to work through. All of these things can be aspects of it; minimising your possessions, focusing on what matters, but they do not need to be accompanied by the sanctimonious bells and whistles.<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t

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Fortunately, with the lockdowns, it looks like people are now re-evaluating the speed of their previous lives. With travel severely restricted, people discovered the joy of local, and the pressure thankfully came off bucket-list travel. <\/span><\/p>

Finding ‘hidden gems’ on your own doorstep, exploring your local woods, beaches and heritage sites is becoming much more normal and here’s hoping it stays that way.<\/span><\/p>\n

The Slow Movement is ready for a rebirth and it needs to be entirely different to what has gone before; there is no need to replace one set of rules for another. <\/p>

Slow Living does not need to have anything to do with morning routines, quietude or minimalism. If people want to do those while drifting around in linen and bleating on about intentionality then good luck to them, but they really need to stop hijacking the Slow Movement to do it. <\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t

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Read more from the Slow Travel UK \u03b5\u03b4\u03ce<\/a><\/b>!<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t

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