1986
The Slow Movement advocates a cultural shift toward slowing down life’s pace. Italian activist Carlo Petrini’s protest against the opening of a McDonald’s restaurant near the Spanish Steps in Rome in 1986 sparked the creation of the Slow Food organization.
29,127
The number of days we have to slow down and live our lives. The overall life expectancy in the United States is 79.8 years, which translates to 29,127 days. How many of those days are you going to speed through without notice? How many are you going to savor and soak up?
7-9 hours
The recommended hours of sleep for adults, ages 18-64. If you are over 64, you need 7-8 hours of sleep. Every person is unique, so find your happy place and make sleep a priority!
68%
According to a 2008 Pew report, when asked what was important to them, 68% of Americans replied “having free time.” It ranked even higher than having children (62%) or a successful career (59%).
Need some inspiration?
- Watch Carl Honoré’s TED talk “In praise of slowness.”
- Read Arianna Huffington’s book “Thrive.”
- Log onto www.calm.com and take a deep breath.
- Check out mindfulschools.org, which is trying to teach children the value of slowing down and being mindful.
- Take 3.42 minutes and watch “Just Breathe” an original film by Julie Bayer Salzman.
- Stop, unplug, turn off your device, take a long, deep breath and do absolutely, positively nothing …
Slow down with the best of them…
- Albert Einstein was famous for staring into space in his office at Princeton University.
- “Slow down, you move too fast” from Simon and Garfunkel’s “59th Street Bridge Song.”
- William Shakespeare wrote “Wisely, and slow. They stumble that run fast.”
- Charles Darwin called himself a “slow thinker.”
- Abraham Lincoln once said, “I am a slow walker, but I never walk back.”