Need of the hour : Slow Living. "Tera saabun slow hai kya?" You must’ve…
Tags: Newyear, 2021, New Year Resolution, Slowliving, Resolutions

"Tera saabun slow hai kya?" You must’ve heard this advertisement of a soap brand telling us that you don’t have to spend much time on Washing your hand! Funny thing is in today’s capitalistic society, even the soap brands are telling us not to slow down and are encouraging a fast paced living!! It’s the irony that we are so blindfolded by these norms of so called "success" that we don’t even question what they’re feeding us!

I came across the concept of slow living recently, and I instantly got fascinated by it.

It simply means living your life on YOUR own terms, not running behind materialistic things which common social norm dictates you as the parameters of success! And necessarily slowing down things a bit!

This concept was there since a very long time, but the world came to an abrupt pause after the pandemic in March 2020 and everyone inevitably has to stop running their respective races and slow down! There was no other choice, and after this pause.. People at their home, away from all the races they were running, started to realise the futility of this constant struggle of reaching somewhere better, of being more of whatever you’re right now! They started questioning the point of running behind more money, higher paying jobs, big lavish homes, luxuries of the world, being more and more richer, etc. Why they’re running so badly? Is this the race they’ve chosen for them or it was forced down their throat by the beast of capitalism? Were they all brainwashed to believe that this is the ONLY way to achieve successful life!

What the fuck success even means?

You’ve all the money in the world in your bank account, but you’ve lost your health, and mental peace then what’s the logic of that much money?

These are not my questions, these are the questions people started raising during the lockdown! And these question are really very valid!

Slow living encourages you to define the meaning of success for your own self! It’s more of a personal, customisable template for living a meaningful life for yourself rather than one-fit-for all template given to us by the world! Life is not one fit for all... It doesn’t work like that..It doesn’t comes with the instruction manual... You have to make it work for yourself!

Being in constant state of comparison and competition leads to increased level of anxieties and insecurities and a heavy feeling in your chest! I’m sure we’ve all experienced that! It’s the alarming sign that is telling us..

"Man! Chill the fuck up! Relax.. Where the hell you’re going with this? With this pace I can see only one end.. The grave!"

Slow living and implementing the concept in your actual living, takes off a lot of this irrational pressure from our brain, mind and soul! It can give us a sense of freedom from our own expectations from ourselves and our life.. Which are not even ours at the first place! These expectations and dreams are feeded to us and hammered on our brain by the monster called capitalism! They’re selling us the illusionary idea of so called perfect life..which in reality doesn’t fucking exists! Wherever you go and look, you will see this system telling you "hey look here! You need this to be more happy! This will make you more happy!" Happiness is so overrated!

I mean seriously? Since when your internal happiness got dependent on the external things?

Slow living saves you from the disastrous consequences of living like a race horse! Of constantly being under stress, and not being satisfied in the present moment and instead chasing the concept of happiness and satisfaction in the future! From inviting your own misery. This is stupid!

If there’s any life, it’s only in the PRESENT!

The problem is, We tie our value and self worth as a person to the bank balance we’ve, to our materialistic things, to the achievement and accolades we’ve received, to how many people know us, and god knows to what not!

Nothing bad in achieving and moving forward in your life, growing, but this association is kind of harmful.

When we say top 10 successful people in the world we measure the success by the wealth they’ve accumulated.. We don’t measure success by the long term satisfaction, how much a person is content with the course of his/her life, how much cheerful and joyful he’s! That’s not on our measurement scales. And that’s the biggest reason of our unhappiness, our misery.

Slow living is a revolutionary way of living a more stable, balanced life!

Nothing to extreme, everything’s in moderation! Balance is the key! But we tend to forget that, and slow living lifestyle is the reminder for that only.

A lot of small towns and nations around the world has adopted to this way of living, where there’s no pressure of earning more, being more, but they emphasis on living a balanced life, to actually focus on what living means, to create your own meaning.. And these are the places which are in top 10 on the WHO’s list of happiness index!

Finland, Denmark, Canada to name a few!

We should also try to understand this secret of fulfilling life and spend our whatever 80 odd years on this beautiful planet, in peace, in joy, being healthy, cheerfully and joyously!

The end of December is Calling, and the new year is on the Verge ,

it’s time when people start talking about their new years resolutions.

I’m taking this resolution to walk on the path of "slow living" and adopt this lifestyle in 2021.

and I encourage you all to chillax, take a deep breath, sit back and wash your hands slowly, even if your soap is slow, feeling water on your palms, lather of the soap, for a good half minute...cause…it’s the need of the hour!😉

This is Akash Kharote signing out,

Until we meet again!