The good news is that we believe we can offer practical tips to incorporate into your everyday life, along with some seriously playful experiences that can help you slow down and enjoy London. The even better news is we’d like your help for our next Slow Club and are offering a great deal for you if you join us!

Our next Slow Club started on Thursday 17^th February 2011 for five weekly sessions, 7 – 8.30pm, at the peaceful St Alphege Church in SE1, ending with a conversation dinner. The cost is ‘pay what you can’ from £30 to £50 for the whole course. If you’re interested please sign up here.

Pay what you can

Pay fifty pounds £50.00 Pay forty pounds £40.00 Pay thirty pounds £30.00

The Club

During the five weeks you will meet up once a week (on Thursdays) with us and your fellow ‘clubbers’ to check in and participate in slow adventures including meditation exercises, food tasting, play, mindfulness and art appreciation.

We will be working with four themes during this time:

*Finding your own pace

*Switching it off – ( don’t worry we are not going to deprive of your favourite TV shows, or Iphone unless you choose to do so!)

*Being here now

*Creating space

Each week you will also receive an email with your ‘slow actions’ (or in-actions!) which you can do at your own pace. We will offer you as much or as little support as you need, both online whenever you like, and in person at the weekly meetings.

We ran our first Slow Club in 2010, and this will be our second pilot before launching more publicly later in the year. The special reduced cost for this pilot scheme will be ‘pay as you can’ between £30 and £50 for the whole course, plus the cost of the final dinner (approx £15 plus drinks). Any money we make will help support our non-profit organisation in our mission to encourage a slower and saner lifestyle in this big city of ours.

Interested? Get in touch on our contact page or sign up via the Paypal link above.

If you would like to know more you can also visit our Slow Club page to find blogs from people who took part in the first club. Here is what some people said:

‘This made me smile because it helped me see that usually I’m rushing around when I don’t really need to.’

‘I am more aware of different ways of slowing down. And I look at art in a whole new way!’‘

‘I have remembered to appreciate what I have here and now.’

‘Awareness is increased. I am more consciously taking ‘slow routes’ even if only to Tesco’

‘Enjoyable, enlightening, empowering.’

Sounds good? We’ll see you there - Help us to Slow Down London!

Ed Gillespie (pictured), Director at communications agency Futerra will talk about his journey around the world without planes for his ‘Slow Traveller’ series for The Guardian, and discuss the philosophy of slow travel.

Hayley Cull, co-author of Slow London, will run a Slow Writing workshop and will also share ideas to help you live more and fret less.

Youth Food Movement UK, a network of young people committed to food that is good, clean and fair will be exploring the importance of family recipes and recipe writing in a session called ‘Recipes for Remembering’.

Surprisingly, London, one of the most frantic cities in the world is also one that offers amazing opportunities to slow down and enjoy a re-discovery of the senses. This rediscovery is the basis of the ‘Slow’ movement.

This movement is spreading and reaching many different areas that celebrate the idea of stepping back and taking the time to look around. This event will introduce ‘slow’ travel, writing and cooking. The speakers will share examples of their own experiences of slowing down and tips to enjoy a differently paced London lifestyle.

Image: Ed Gillespie

The day will begin with a session on developing mindfulness, trying out simple meditation exercises which help us move out of ‘automatic pilot’ to bringing awareness into everyday life. Then awaken your taste buds as the Youth Food Movement presents a slow food tasting and discussion. After lunch, explore the little pleasures of London with Hayley Cull, co-author of Slow London. And finally, rediscover the joys of putting pen to paper with poet Miriam Nash.

You can book your place now on the Foyles website. (Please scroll down).

The day’s schedule:

10:30-10:45 –Welcome from Slow Down London

10:45-11:45 Being Mindful
Start the day with a session on developing mindfulness with Tessa Watt and Deepa Patel, directors of Slow Down London. How often are we caught in a whirlwind of speed and stress, missing the present moment because we’re constantly thinking about what we have to do next? Explore simple meditation exercises which help us move out of ‘automatic pilot’, bringing awareness into every day activities like breathing, hearing and walking.

12:00-1:00 Slow Food
The Youth Food Movement will host a session on what’s in season, the ways in which we use our senses when cooking and eating, and the fantastic flavours unlocked when we try foods that are local and ‘slow’.

Lunch break – weather permitting, join us for a picnic in nearby Phoenix Gardens, a small city centre idyll run by local volunteers. Bring your lunch or buy food nearby.

2:00-3:00 The little things
London is full of places that invite you to stop and stare and listen; histories and secrets lay in every old street or snippet of conversation. This depth and texture makes London a perfect place to go slow. In this session we’ll share our favourite little things about the city and encourage you to explore the area with a slow mindset. Led by Hayley Cull, co-author of Slow London published by Hardie Grant.

3:15-4:15 – Snail Mail
When was the last time you wrote a letter? What happens when you start? Developed in partnership with Slow Down London, this creative letter writing workshop explores the forgotten art of letter writing, opening new and unexpected doors to creativity. Led by poet Miriam Nash.

4:15-4:30 – Closing from Slow Down London

To book a place please visit the Foyles website:
http://www.foyles.co.uk/events.asp(please scroll down)

Image: jcoterhals

Megatation is a very simple concept aimed at providing the whole meditation community with the unique opportunity to come together to share their experience and to celebrate the common benefits of meditation.

There will be one hour of meditation from 2-3pm; however you like to do it; without ceremony or formal introduction and we hope that everybody will bring along a picnic to share afterwards.

Megatation is a totally free, non-profit event and all are welcome.

Please visit the website, say you are attending on facebook and help spread the word.

If you’ll be organising it, you’ll need to buy resources by 19 March. If it’s not you, let the right person know, whether it’s your Head of Human Resources or Environmental Officer.

There is everything from posters and leaflets to pedometers, footcare kits and shoebags – perfect for letting people know about the Week and creating some healthy competition in and around the workplace.

The Week centres around our free online tool where you can register your workplace and then start encouraging individuals to sign up. During the Week, all you need to do is make an extra effort to walk and log what walking you do. You’ll be able to see how far you’ve walked, how many calories you’ve burned, compare your workplace results with other workplaces and even write Twitter-style ‘updates’ to let everyone know how you’re getting on.

Visit www.walkingworks.org.uk for more information.

Forget the hustle and bustle of travelling high speed around the Capital. It’s only when you take the time to wander round an area that you start to notice all the places that you usually rush past in a hurry.

Golders Green was London’s first Tube-created suburb and these walks are part of London Transport Museum’s exploration of the myth and identity of London’s suburbs.

During March 2010 London Transport Museum is inviting you to slow down and explore Golders Green on foot.

Local residents will guide you around and let you in on the suburb’s secrets.

There are three walks to choose from, allowing you to take time out to taste local delights, ramble in luscious green spaces or reflect in spiritual places.

The walks are free but tickets need to be pre-booked online via this link.

You can also see the exhibition Suburbia at our Covent Garden-based museum until 31 March 2010 - for further details visit London Transport Museum

Jane Audas / London Transport Museum

Carl Honoré

Slow down with Carl Honoré, author of the global bestseller In Praise of Slow, on his first-ever weekend Slow Retreat in Devon, England – March 19th-21st 2010. Always in a hurry? Is every moment a race against the clock? Do you yearn to slow down? Well, then, you’ve come to the right place.

Reset your metronome and reconnect with your inner tortoise in 2010, on the spring Slow Retreat weekend, exploring the ideas behind the book that defined the international Slow Movement with author, Carl Honoré.

Surrender your mobile phone when you arrive, and relax as the roadrunner world melts away. Swap bleeps and rings for birdsong and the crackle of log fires at Fingals Hotel, idyllic Devon farmhouse hideaway.

A lively weekend of workshops, debates and slow activities will bring to life the benefits of deceleration and show you how to put the Slow creed into practice. Carl will be restricting the Retreat group to no more than a dozen people to ensure plenty of slow time and personal attention.

The aim? For you to return home with your own personal recipe for slowing down – and the confidence and tools to make it work.

A weekend of laughter, reflection, conversation, rest and the finest slow food – the Slow Retreat weekend is guaranteed to lift spirits and change lives.

For more information log on to www.carlhonore.com

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The Slow Retreat weekend starts from £399pp, including accommodation, full board (inc wine), all activities and a signed copy of In Praise of Slow. Fingals Hotel, Devon (www.fingals.co.uk). For more information please contact Carl Honoré (carl@carlhonore.com) or Anna (07855 465970, info@slowretreat.co.uk)

First published in 2004, In Praise of Slow looks at how the world got stuck in fast-forward, how more and more people everywhere are slowing down and the rise of the Slow Movement. In Praise of Slow is published in more than 30 languages and has been a bestseller in many countries. In October 2009, it was the inaugural selection for the new Huffington Post book club. Newsweek called Carl Honoré “an international spokesman for the concept of leisure.” ABC News christened him “the unofficial godfather of a growing cultural shift toward slowing down.”

We‘ll give practical tips you can incorporate into your everyday life and playful experiences to help you slow down and enjoy the city. We hope that at the end of the course you’ll have a new, deeper appreciation of your life and London.

What’s involved

Each week you’ll get an email with the following:

Slow Instructions

• Daily Task – an action (or in-action!) to do every day this week. This will not be a large time commitment: the task might take ten minutes in the day, or no extra time at all, more a matter of doing something differently.

• Weekly Task –an activity to do at least once during the week –though you are welcome to try it more often.

Slow Adventure

• An invitation to do something new in London – go somewhere you’ve never been, try something different. Suggestions will be offered each week from Hayley Cull, co-author of Slow London published by Hardie Grant, coming out this spring. Your weekly Slow Adventure might involve visiting one of London’s secret green squares, going to a farmer’s market, or into a gallery to look at one piece of art.  Or you can do your own thing – it could be as simple as wandering into a different part of the bookshop. We will also be organising several group activities which you could choose to do as your slow adventure.

Slow Reflection

• Each week we’ll ask you to feed back to us (and yourself ) on how things are going. This will be a very short questionnaire that takes a couple of minutes, with the opportunity for more creative reflection if you feel inspired.

Slow ‘Progress Report’

• We will need you to fill in a slightly longer questionnaire at the beginning and end of the club, and then again two months after it ends.

‘Slow’ friends

To support and guide you during the eight weeks we invite you to:

• Tea meetings: Once a fortnight, the Slow Down London directors will host a cup of tea where you’ll have a chance to meet up with other members of the Slow Club and share experiences.

• Slow Adventures: There will be several opportunities to enjoy an activity together as a group – these may involve a walk, an art gallery talk, a session of ‘slow conversation’.

• Email us or visit our website: You can take part in our web forum, to share images on Flickr and Facebook, and email us if you’d like advice or to share your ideas and comments.

Booking information

We have now closed registrations for our first course, but we hope to run the Slow Club again – if you’d like to receive information, please ‘Sign up for Slow News’ on the right panel of our homepage.

Image by Paul Finn

Join leading yoga teacher and self-confessed slow person Graham Burns on 17 January for two hours of yoga in the slow lane – and be amazed at the inner scenery you might see for the first time.

Open to all levels, including beginners to yoga, this workshop will combine discussion, breathing practices, movement, restorative postures and the deep guided relaxation of yoga nidra, an essential yogic technique to help bring our intentions to fruition. Slow Down 2010 is offered by The Life Centre in conjunction with Slow Down London.

Graham Burns’ 23 years working as a commercial lawyer and even longer playing competitive sport helped give him a unique perspective on how yoga can help with the stresses of daily life. He is a firm believer in the power of yoga to enable us to reconnect to what is really important – it certainly helped him slow down and become more aware of all the beauty he was missing in the world. Graham is known for his humorous and light-hearted approach to teaching, while still preserving the best elements of the yoga tradition, and has been recognised by the Evening Standard as one of London’s top teachers of yogic relaxation.

‘So what exactly is “creative letter writing”? Well, I’ve sort of made up that term myself to try and describe what the workshops are about. They are essentially creative writing workshops, but instead of using poetry, short story or scriptwriting, they take the letter as a starting point. Letter writing is beautiful because it offers total freedom. Rather than worrying about whether your writing is ‘good’ or if you’ve chosen the ‘right’ subject, you can just focus on writing freely and communicating whatever it is you want to.

Letter writing is a form of freewriting – letting ideas and thoughts flow freely without censoring every word as soon as it meets the page. Of course, these aren’t letters you necessarily have to send (although Foyles provided envelopes and stamps for the last workshop), but they are creative explorations into territories you might not have visited before. To me, writing a ‘creative’ letter is a bit like writing a poem addressed directly to someone, or something, but without worrying yourself about the term ‘poem’.

To demonstrate: in my first letter writing workshop, one participant wrote a letter to the science cabinet at his primary school. He described the mystery of the cabinet, with its skulls, skins and odd-smelling plants. For him, the cabinet represented everything that science promised to be: delicious, strange and tempting. On his first day at secondary school, he was deeply disappointed to discover that there, ’science’ was all about categorisation. All the excitement of the cabinet was forgotten.

This letter was written in response to an exercise where I asked participants to make a list of objects that were important or significant for them and write a letter addressed ‘to’ one of them. This participant’s letter had many ingredients of a poem – detail, epiphany, striking imagery – but had I asked him to write a ‘poem’ he probably wouldn’t have arrived at the same place, in fact, he probably wouldn’t have come to a ‘poetry’ workshop at all. That doesn’t mean that what he had written was some kind of ‘poem in disguise’ – it was a letter. The point is, the letter opened a door into something this man, who was now a teacher, had wanted to explore for some time but hadn’t known how. This is the long version of what I mean by a ‘creative letter’.

These workshops are not about how to write letters, they don’t push letter writing as something we should be doing more of, but they do give people the chance to explore creative writing in a form they feel safe with, and in doing so, they draw out some beautiful, original and unexpected material.’

The next Snail Mail Workshop takes place on 28 November 2009.

To book a place please visit the Foyles website:
www.foyles.co.uk/events.asp (Please scroll down)

Image by jcoterhals on flickr