Slow living
There was a time when humanity owned its hours and when days were not ruled by business schedules.
We were able to stop to contemplate and be inspired by what surrounded us, we could dedicate ourselves to observe, to rest slowly, learn, and discover. This slower and conscious rhythm created the ideal atmosphere for the creativity of man to flourish. We advanced in our thoughts with philosophy, we asked ourselves questions and we looked for answers; then we also came to define sciences and experiment with arts, and so humanity began its march at other speeds and with other priorities.
As the years passed, living that way (so slow and loose) became a fantasy, a life of privilege that only a few can access. In our days, the vast majority of us have to get up to work, study, or meet a productivity rate that exhausts us, we give our lives in exchange for money and we neglect our well-being. The speed at which we were going was such that on “free” days we no longer had the energy to contemplate, create, or even worse, think. Humanity was inadvertently ceasing to be human, instead, it was progressing in technological advancements, superficial pleasures, and immediate connections that were lacking intimacy.
But this year thanks to a global virus we were able to travel back in time, we were forced back to live at a slower pace in many ways. We had to be with ourselves, listen to our silences, we had to face all those things that we did not see before because we were always being distracted, we had finally the time to analyze our past and our present.
This year we had to be creative, something that we shouldn't have been for a long time. We had to decide what we wanted to do with our time now that there were no work schedules, no public transportation, no bars, or restaurants. This 2020 has been a milestone in the history of humanity and I hope it has been in your personal stories as well.
I hope that after this year we all have a better idea of what things or actions help us to be well, that we feel more gratitude than before and that we do our best to seek a balance that allows us to take care of our mental health, protect our well-being and advance in our own personal rhythm.
Enjoy the next loop on your journey, happy new year 🖖