Slow down you crazy child

One of my favourite movies when I was younger was 13 going on 30. My favourite bit was when this Billy Joel song is playing, and she realises that by wishing to be older, by speeding things up, she has missed out on so much, lost so much. And luckily, she has the chance to go back and do it over.

But we are speeding through life at the moment, with no opportunity for do-overs. We now consume more content and information in a day than people used to consume in a year, and we are burning out.

Well, I know I am.

There has been a slow fashion movement, moving away from fast fashion apparel created by slave labour in cheap fabrics, to more slowly made clothing, made by smaller brands that will last.

There has also been a slow food movement, moving away from empty calories that come in cardboard boxes to food homemade and more slowly consumed.

And slowly, I feel we are approaching a slow socials movement. Moving away from the junk food that is social media and moving back to email lists, blog posts, even phone calls, letters and, dare I say it, real world interaction!

I know that’s where I want to go. I want to stop scrolling and start thinking. I want to stop consuming and start creating. I want to appreciate the people and things I have in my life instead of constantly coveting what others have.

I need to do this in order to be able to focus enough to write. And funnily enough, the theme of a book I have in mind is about exactly this – slowing down and unplugging, in order to find ourselves again.

I think I’ll make a plan to unplug from March onwards, and see how things go.