Geir Berthelsen’s ten-point guide to going slow:
1. Set your alarm clock always ten minutes before you need to get up (you
will never run late).
2. Prepare and eat a structured breakfast – for example, from 6.45 – 7.10
am every day.
3. Let all parties involved – children and parents – talk during the breakfast
and say what they think the highlight of the coming day will be. Listen.
4. Hug each other before leaving the house.
5. Smile. Try it!
6. Don’t skip lunch.
7. At 2 pm each day, ask yourself: “How am I feeling?”
8. Prepare and eat dinner with the whole family – no television on – and let
everyone recount the highlights of their day. Listen.
9. Exercise for at least 20 minutes per day. Take a short walk, even if it’s
raining.
10. Before bed, spend five minutes reviewing the day and plan tomorrow’s
highlights.
Don’t live life as if you are afraid of being late at your own funeral!
Mouth: A new genre within journalism: SlowConversation
Read Antonella Gambotto-Burke’s revealing, SlowConversations in her new book MOUTH which is a collection of SlowConversations with people like: Edward de Bono, Jordan Belfort, Jack Falcone, Sasha Grey, Sig Hansen, Marilyn Manson, Bette Midler, Chuck Palahniuk and many more including myself.
The interviews are very well connected together as a collection. Antonella has invented a new genre within journalism namely SlowConversation. A interview without a premeditated agenda (she is in no hurry!). A very important new genre in these times of short catchlines and FastConversations.
HIGHLY RECOMMENDED!
– I have to admit that I am not 100% neutral in this book review because from chapter “The idle revolution”, MOUTH, by Antonella Gambotto-Burke
“In 1999, Berthelsen founded the World Institute of Slowness, a Slow think tank. His favorite challenges are those pertaining to change management, stress, creativity, problem solving and process improvements in what he calls our fire fighting culture.”
“The fast will beat the big, but the slow will beat the fast,” he says.
“The jolly Berthelsen notes that our culture´s omnipresent corporate mindset is long on quantity and short on quality. The focus is on the end product, not the process itself. In the west, the man with most toys wins and not the man with the most time to play with the toys. Ironically, the best business thinking often comes from a walk in the slow lane.”
– From chapter “Buttoned Up + Plugged In”, MOUTH, by Antonella Gambotto-Burke
“Throughout the west, a rapidly increasing number of 20- to-40 somethings are beginning to feel the same way. Over the past few years, there has been a 65 per cent increase in the sales of board games, a boom in knitting, and an explosion in the popularity of poetry evenings, obscure lectures and book clubs. Ballroom dancing has been described as enjoying its biggest resurgence since the 1940s, steam train holidays are subject to flurries of bookings, cooking class attendance is surging, books concerning traditional wisdom for men are selling beautifully (Lost Lore, Red Sky at Night), and hundreds of thousands of men are building vintage Skype phones and Secret Knock Gumball Machines. Such men go to bed early, cultivate mustaches and social sensitivities, trap and skeet shoot with muzzle-loading shotguns, keep bees, and – with an earnestness and enthusiasm antithetical to the eternally adolescent Seinfeld generation – marry young. Their conversational topics? The integrity of architecture, comparative literature, heritage roses and philosophy.”
“Fittingly, there has also been a sharp rise in the number of festivals held by Victorian enthusiasts, horse riders in formal Victorian riding dress, and participants in Tweed Rides (cycling events in which riders clad in vintage formal attire vie to win Best Mustache, Most Dapper Chap, and so on). These technologically adroit revivalists do not necessarily recognize themselves as belonging to a movement, but do acknowledge a profound nostalgia for a time in which life pivoted on meaning, rather than net worth.”
Here is the link to the book and free Kindle app:
World’s first multilingual study about simpler/slower living
We recommend you to participate in this study. The world’s first multilingual study about simpler/slower living.
What is life ? “Life is What Happens To You While You’re Busy Making Other Plans.” John Lennon
Wanted: Downshifters
At a certain point in your life, have you decided to downshift/simplify/slow down your life? Very much so or just a little? Then please surf to www.essencing.com. Your experience may be very valuable to your fellow humans.
Hein Zegers, a Belgian PhD Student at the UvH University in Utrecht, explains: “You can find a questionnaire on www.essencing.com. This questionnaire explores your simplifying experience. It takes about 10-15 minutes to complete. Your responses will be treated with the utmost confidentiality. This is a non-commercial research project. Even if you’re living only a little bit simpler or slower, I’m grateful for every answered questionnaire!”
It is estimated that millions of people worldwide choose a simpler/slower lifestyle. Yet research into this growing population is scarce. Multilingual research has been virtually nonexistent. Until now.
This multilingual research into simple/slow living is the very first of its kind. When enough people have responded, a results summary will be published on www.essencing.com. If you have any questions or comments, please feel free to contact hein.zegers@phd.uvh.nl.
Les Echos – The 4 ideas to remember from … “Slow Business”
Time, a factor of well-being and performance
Speed does not guarantee performance.
Introducing the deceleration principle in some work methods can pay off. Let’s fight against the waste of time (meetings, frequent interruptions, emergency excesses) and toxic weather. And let us grow our time out for the sake of better well-being.