I recently went through a phase of binge-reading articles about slow living. The name itself gives a clear indication of its meaning. It’s basically a lifestyle that encourages mindfulness by acknowledging the littlest experiences in our mundane lives.

My instant observation was that most of these articles associated slow living with a place of residence. The authors very conveniently tried to convince me that I had to pack my bags and shift base to a town of 500 people to appreciate the beauty of my life. Don’t get me wrong, I have always been the biggest fan of living in small towns. I believe these are places where I could survive and perhaps be happier than living in a fast-paced city. But I don’t see myself moving to a small town to enjoy the countless benefits of living a meaningful life, not right now at least. So I tried to blend my urban lifestyle with tiny bits of slow living.

I started waking up an hour early just to start my day by looking at trees while sitting in my room. I started to consciously make a choice of not being busy at all times.

After months of deliberate attempts of blending slow living into my daily lifestyle, I realised that despite knowing that these little things bring true happiness in my everyday life, I struggled to turn this into an instinctive practice. Even to this day, I feel guilty for sitting idle during the day, even after spending the last 6 hours in front of my books. Every minute spent in front of the tv or scrolling through the phone turns into an unjustified guilt complex. The pressure to leave everyone behind in life and be the first one to reach the top lingers on my head sometimes. I don’t enjoy it, but I also can’t stop it from floating at the top of my mind. Because everyone around me is doing the same, there is an unstated burden to act the same way or else I'll be left behind.

Maybe that’s why its believed that living in a small town teaches you a deeper meaning of the art of slow living. Maybe its because we live in a society that values owning things but they live in one that appreciates structuring a life around meaning. Or maybe its because being surrounded by the busyness and not being a part of the busyness is a difficult place to reach, and I can’t seem to find my way right now.

I decided to find a realistic solution by practising intentional living instead, by incorporating one small task into my daily routine that requires me to step away from the busyness and slow down to reconnect with myself and my surroundings.

My daily task: Setting my phone on ‘wind-down’ mode 30 minutes before sleeping and listing down all the things I was grateful for during the day.

Today, I encourage you to find a task that requires you to slow down during your day and incorporate that into your daily routine and watch it turn into the one thing that keeps you sane in the midst of this chaos called life.