Slow living is a growing lifestyle movement that encourages slowing down and living intentionally. In today’s fast-paced modern world, slow living offers an alternative to the culture of always doing and reacting. Instead of living an overbooked, frazzled lifestyle, the slow lifestyle focuses on quality over quantity and savors the present. If you’re stressed out by modern life and technology, adding principles of slow living can help you relax and enjoy life more. But what is slow living, and how does it work? Read on to find out and glean ways you can benefit from this intentional lifestyle.

Related Post: Guide to Slow Running

What Is Slow Living?

Slow living is a lifestyle that embraces slowing down and focusing on the present moment. With the constant phone notifications and social media seeping into all aspects of modern life, the slow movement is gaining in popularity as a healthier way to navigate modern life. Living slow focuses on connecting with oneself, other people, and the environment.

The slow movement began with the slow eating movement in the 1980s. Slow eating places a focus on small, traditional methods of obtaining food, instead of mass-produced food. It began in Italy when Carlo Petrini led a protest against a McDonald’s opening in Rome in 1986. Since then, the slow food movement has expanded to include other areas of life, from shopping to relationships.

Slow living is an increasingly popular way of life that helps alleviate the burnout, anxiety, depression, and overwhelm that many people feel with the obligations of modern life. By focusing on consuming less and enjoying more, the slow lifestyle also helps reduce waste and overconsumption, making it an environmentally friendly way to live.

Benefits of Slow Living

The slow-living movement offers many benefits. Embracing a slow life can improve your physical and mental health. Here are some of the rewards of slowing down:

Physical Health Benefits

Taking time to live more intentionally and eliminate unnecessary activities from your life helps reduce stress and anxiety. Lowering your stress levels helps combat chronic diseases including heart disease, obesity, high blood pressure, and depression, according to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. Slowing down your pace of life also can improve your sleep.

Mental Health Benefits

Slow living is popular for its mental health benefits. In the fast-paced world we live in that often praises hustle culture and overworking, slowing down can ease a lot of mental stress. Embracing the slow life helps increase mindfulness, focus, and intentionality. It can also improve your creativity and overall mental wellbeing.

Learning to reduce unnecessary tasks helps improve your mental health and reduces anxiety. Slow living can also lessen depression, as an intentional, slower-paced lifestyle often gives people a greater sense of contentment and joy in daily life.

Environmental Impact

Living slow helps the environment by reducing consumption and waste. By abstaining from the fast-paced, materialistic lifestyle in favor of a more thoughtful, less consumerist lifestyle, you will reduce your carbon footprint and produce less waste. Slow living embraces sustainable practices like only buying what you need and consuming less quantity in favor of higher quality goods.

This slower paced lifestyle helps the planet by avoiding fast fashion, fast food, and other unsustainable habits that harm the environment. Slow fashion supports high-quality, sustainably made garments that last longer than fast fashion garments, which often fall apart quickly, encouraging more buying.

Some slow livers also choose plant-based eating, which cuts down on the environmental impact of factory farming and supports animal welfare.

Tips for Embracing a Slower Lifestyle

If you want to add slow living practices to your everyday life, try these tips to reduce distractions and busyness and add more intention to your daily life. You don’t have to go out and change your whole life at once (unless you feel that's necessary!), but instead, try adding a few of these slow practices to your routine in small amounts. You can gradually change your lifestyle one habit at a time for the most sustainable change.

Mindfulness and Meditation

Being mindful is a central part of living a slow life. You can add mindfulness to your daily life by practicing just a few minutes of meditation every morning. I love the free meditation app HealthyMinds and listen to a short meditation every morning to start my day.

Another way to incorporate mindfulness into your daily life is to do some deep breathing exercises. Deep breathing can improve your focus and wellbeing while combating the negative effects of stress.

Here’s a simple box breathing technique that you can try:

Inhale for a count of 4, breathing in and feeling the air entering your lungs.
Hold your breath for a count of 4.
Exhale to breathe out through your mouth for a count of 4.
Hold your breath for a count of 4.
Repeat. Continue breathing in this pattern for a few cycles. You can start with 2 or three cycles and add more reps as you get used to the technique.

Related Post: Best Meditation App for Beginners

Time Management

Managing time is a central part of slow living. Being able to slow down and say no can improve your mental state and boost your sense of fulfillment. Embrace the slow principle of intentionality and prioritize what’s truly important to you in life. Practice setting boundaries and say no to things that don’t bring you joy or won’t help you achieve your goals.

Related Post: 51 Self-Care Ideas to Reset

Healthy Eating and Physical Activity

Staying active is one of the best ways to improve your health and quality of life. The slow lifestyle encourages self-care and prioritizing sleep and physical activity. You can set a daily step goal to boost your activity and ensure you move enough throughout the day. For workouts, find an activity you love and do it regularly.

Related Post: Recommended Steps Per Day by Age

Slow food is another central part of the slow lifestyle. Opt for minimally processed, fresh foods as much as possible and skip the processed fast foods that can add pounds to your waistline and cause health problems. Shopping at local farmers markets is a great way to embrace living slowly.

Related Post: Guide to Foods That Are Not Processed

Digital Detox

Setting limits on your digital devices is a common practice for slow lifestyles. The Internet offers non-stop dopamine and tactics to keep you scrolling. Social networks like Facebook, TikTok, Instagram, Twitter, and Reddit can easily consume hours of your time without you realizing it. Set limits on your screen time and unplug from technology at certain times every day.

For instance, you may want to limit your social media checking to half an hour a day and put your phone out of reach for two hours before bed. These practices can help improve your focus and sense of wellbeing.

If you feel you need serious intervention to get off your phone, try doing a digital detox to reset. Check out our post on How to Do a Digital Detox for a complete guide to help you do a digital detox.

Community and Connection

People are an integral part of slow living. Focus on building and improving your relationships with the people you care about most. Avoid toxic people as much as possible and instead nurture your positive relationships. You’ll be pleasantly surprised at how much meaningful relationships can improve your mental and physical health.

Another way to connect with others is to participate in local community events. Support your local farmer’s markets and sign up for events that interest you such as local races, walks, and charitable events.

Nature and Outdoors

Spending time in the great outdoors is another way to live slowly and savor the moment. Going for a hike, walking your dog, or just sitting outside can help you connect to the natural world. Gardening, feeding the birds, or reading a book outside offer more opportunities to enjoy nature. Connecting with the natural world is a central part of slow living.

Slow-Living Resources

“In Praise of Slowness: Challenging the Cult of Speed” is a popular slow living manifesto by Carl Honoré. The book offers practical tips for living more intentionally in the modern world.
Let’s Slow Down is a popular slow living podcast that offers tips for living a simple life and decluttering.
The Minimalists are a trio of men who promote decluttering and living a simple, slow life. They have a book and podcast with tips and insights on living mindfully.

Slowing Down

The slow living movement is a growing lifestyle that embraces a more streamlined, intentional way of living in the modern world. Slowing down offers many health benefits, from reducing stress and chronic diseases to improved focus and better mental health. You can embrace some slow lifestyle practices and find more balance and relaxation in life. By focusing on what’s most important to you and reducing unnecessary buying and busyness, you can improve your life and also help the planet.

If you need a fitness program to help you become more active and live well, visit the Runstreet Training Center. Follow and tag @Runstreet on Instagram to share your wellness journey and get cheered on. Happy - and slow - living to you.

Marnie Kunz is a NASM-certified trainer and USATF- and RRCA-certified running coach, a dog lover, an Akita mom, and the founder of Runstreet. She specializes in helping runners get faster and stronger and helping beginners elevate their fitness levels. She is based in Brooklyn, New York.

Guide to Slow Living - Benefits + Tips