It’s hard to believe that we are already into the third week of 2012. Our year is slowly taking shape. We are using the winter months to think, plan and create practical ways to bring the slow philosophy to this speedy city.  There’s a sense of uncertainty about how one can survive, let alone thrive, during this time of upheaval; but also a very clear sense that things have to change.

A new book called Slow Finance, which asks if the financial sector is out of scale with the real economy, has inspired our thinking. Written by the award-winning fund manager Gervais Williams, the book outlines how the excessive scale of the financial sector is reliant on globalisation and the expansion of credit.

“Just as the Slow Food movement represents a reaction to the food industry losing sight of its ultimate purpose, Slow Finance explores how parallel trends will soon appear in the investment world.” Bloomsbury Publishing

It’s a thought provoking but accessible read, especially if you don’t know anything about Finance. We met with Gervais at the beginning of the month and he has given us two copies of the book to give away so please email us at slowdown@slowdownlondon.co.uk by 31st January and we will send the books to first two names out of the hat. 

For those of you that have too many books to read you might want to attend a talk that Gervais is doing on 9th February or you can just download an app to help with your investments and savings! 

Slow Down London was created to bring the intellectual ideas behind the Slow Philosophy together with practical ways to implement these ideas in our every day life, so I am very pleased to announce that Tessa Watt, Co-Director at Slow Down London has a new book out on Mindfulness. I found myself reading it from cover to cover on the train last week and was once again reminded of the simple things we can do to help us appreciate life.

It is full of straightforward advice, case studies and step-by-step instructions that are easy to follow. The ones that caught my attention are the exercises on how to become mindful of our bodies. I have been doing the “feeling your fingers” exercise every morning, which doesn’t take long but which has really helped me to become more aware of what I am feeling which in turn has led to me being fully present to this moment.

As to our plans, The Slow Down London team is looking forward to the global Slow Living Day an annual event that started in Italy and which will be coming to London this year on Monday 26th March. We will be doing another slow club in the spring – and of course it will be hard to avoid the Olympics if you live in London, and we feel that the slow philosophy will be much needed in the crazy summer months, so we are cooking up some plans around this as well. We will be sending more information in the coming months and hope to see you at our events.

Finally, Slow Down London has a wonderful pool of volunteers who help us with our events, PR, administration, fundraising and other things. If you would have some spare time and would like to come and volunteer with us please email slowdown@slowdownlondon.co.uk

Here’s to all of us finding the tempo gusto (the right speed) for our lives in 2012.

Deepa Patel

Co-director, Slow Down London

Image by Simon Bisson

1. Energy/Appliances

We all know that leaving electrical devices on standby is BAD and we should turn everything off at the wall. Another alternative is just to have fewer electrical appliances. The wind is a great natural hairdryer; it takes longer but you can enjoy a nice walk in the local park, thus killing two birds with one stone. (See #3. Exercise.) Be aware however that wind is often accompanied by rain, which is far less effective as a drying method and should be avoided at all costs.

Television uses up electricity and you have to pay the licence fee. It can also spark off addictions to certain series which can in turn lead to the purchasing of expensive box sets.  Box sets are usually so mind-numbingly boring that they require the additional entertainment of comforting snacks, thus instigating more expense. (see #.2 Eating/Drinking.)

2. Eating/Drinking

Cutting down on snacks and meals out could help to economize, painful as it sounds. The whirlwind of London life can seem like a constant provocation to consume, and it’s hard to leave the house without spending a tenner. Convenience is one of the culprits – your local 7-11 is only a few minutes away and while it probably doesn’t have what you want, it has plenty of over-priced sugar-rich alternatives.

Drinking is another notorious money pit – especially if you frequent the kind of establishments that charge £7 for a glass of wine. The added bonus of eating and drinking less is that you will undoubtedly shed a few pounds, possibly even disposing of your beer/muffin belly, thus enabling you to fit into all your old clothes instead of having to shell out for a new winter wardrobe.

3. Exercise

There’s no way round it, despite what the trainer manufacturers would have you believe. Exercise is hard work. But it feels great when it stops. And it releases all these dolphins in your brain so that afterwards you are left trying to figure out how to get rid of them. This takes up time that you might otherwise have spent indulging in retail therapy. Alternatively you can keep the dolphins and they will be your friends for life, providing you with companionship whenever you feel stressed.

Gym membership is tempting because in all the adverts it looks as if you just get on a machine and the machine does all the work and suddenly you are thin and you can go and lounge around in the sauna. Don’t fall for it. Exercise can also be done without the machines. Go for a walk or a run around the park, do yoga, play tennis, cycle – all valid forms of exercise –
and free!

Whatever you do, try being contemplative about how you spend your money, instead of frittering it away in a quest for momentary satisfaction. It may provide a brief respite from the tumult of twenty-first century living, but the key to a longer lasting peace is in the mind….

Annalie Wilson
www.annalie.co.uk/

Read more of The London Loaf.

Image by kalandrakas (Flickr)

ice painting

I am an experimental event colourist, using traditional components such as oils, acrylics and canvas, manipulating them in interesting and experimental ways. Actual movement of paint and colour interaction rather than depiction plays a major part in my creativity, with the movement being supplied through naturally occurring energy systems.

One such project is “Ice Painting” and involves moulding ice bowls, positioning them on canvas, then filling them with different types of paint, oil based, water based, or different consistencies. When the ice melts, the nature of the paint and positioning of bowls determines the type of colour interaction in different places.

This project takes a huge amount of patience and experimentation, because a learned process has to be gradually obtained, together with an acceptance of the “happy mistake” of random movement. This patience is mirrored in the viewing of the event where careful attention needs to be paid to catch the escaping paint spiralling out of tiny the gaps created when water freezes.

If you wait, you can then see the resulting naturally beautiful luscious colour interactions that follow. All this happens over a long period of time, and really makes the viewer aware of the passing time. This piece can be reflected into how people observe the world around them, and how they themselves interact with others, as if they were a colour in the installation.

Billy Styles

www.billystyles.co.uk

Bob and Violet were the last vestiges of the three hundred market traders, or costermongers, that lined the Cut, and are so vividly described by Mayhew is his wonderful work London and the Working Poor. Further down the Cut in Lower Marsh are the last few stalls of that once thriving market, just a few traders clinging on, and one has two slightly younger men, (one a rather cute blonde), who sell vegetables, nowadays brought in by a white van, but still weighed out into brown paper bags, no plastic nonsense, still a sense of place, a memory of who you are, they are always ready for a chat, a laugh, a chance for you and them to meet as humans, and sometimes on a rainy Monday, a chance for them to decide not to bother to open up, which is what happened when I went out for my potatoes this week – can’t say I blame them, it was one of those days that give Mondays a bad name.

Lyndall Stein

Slow Planet

What does Slow really mean?  And how can slowing down make the world a better place? These are questions that more and more people are grappling with in London and beyond. Slow Planet is the new global forum for this debate.

Slow Planet’s bloggers explore how the Slow philosophy can reshape everything from design, work and technology to food, parenting and sports. In the Comments and Forum sections, people from across the world ask questions, make suggestions, learn new things, share success stories, analyze setbacks, disagree, have fun, test out theories, get angry, get inspired.

The connections made on Slow Planet are driving the Slow revolution forward. Why not come along and add your voice to the mix?

Carl Honore – Patron, Slow Down London