Slow Living

Slowing down, and just slow living, is another important concept. Slowing down, being more present.

Applied to life, we get a Deeper Life. More fulfilled, more present.

Slow living is similar to having a Boring Life, but not 100%. It helps you have fewer obligations and more calm, slow time by default. I’d say everyone’s preferred way after experiencing both.

But slow living is intentional.

As Karun Pal beautifully describes in his essay So, I didn’t Use My Phone for 5 Days. After a while, he went into a state of slow life—he didn’t say it that way, but that’s essentially what he described.

This is beautiful, and very much like his amazing essay on the “ Why a ‘Boring’ Life Might Be the Happiest One”. I’m a writer myself, and I definitely agree with everything Karun says.

The best part of my day is without a phone, unfortunately, there are some handy things still: I can reach my kids, be available for them, snap a picture here and there, and take notes. But he’s right about everything. And it’s intentional, these social platforms are made to make us hooked, even addictive.

If you haven’t, I recommend the book Stolen Focus by Johann Hari; it’s so good and goes into that (I wrote my own spin-off at Finding Flow: Escaping Digital Distractions Through Deep Work and Slow Living). I also like the term slow living and it’s something I try to do every day, and I try to make my life decisions toward a slower life.

[tip] Regarding wanting to take pictures whenever on the go
I do the same as HN comment says, very deliberetly take images, so I still see that I have been somewhere, and have the GPS as a track in my photos. But instead, I try to cherish the moments, not the pictures.

If you need your phone, you can also make it a Dumb Phone, but it’s still tempting and there. But what helps, too, is to go out in Nature, put it away, Daydream, and feel the surroundings and yourself again.

Origin: Flow State
References: Slow Productivity, Slow Life, Deep Life