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!

Artist Annalie Wilson records a joyful and spontaneous response to Ai Weiwei’s
exhibition of sunflower seeds at the Tate Modern.

Visitors have been denied the opportunity to walk on the Chinese artist’s carpet of seeds for
health and safety reasons.  In a non-aggressive act of curiosity Annalie
explores the feeling of liberation that comes from daring to go beyond the
confines of the captive mind. Her video incorporates original music. More
of Annalie’s music videos can be found at
http://www.youtube.com/annaliewilson

Mindfulness describes a way of paying attention. It’s about being aware of whatever is happening in the present moment, and noticing rather than judging or reacting to that experience. Participants learn to bring mindfulness into daily life, whether walking to work, eating lunch or taking a shower.

Mindfulness courses are popular with people who simply want to increase their general wellbeing, or who are interested in meditation and would like a structured framework to help get going on a regular meditation practice. They are also recognised by the medical community as a means of reducing anxiety and depression. In January the Mental Health Foundation published a report showing widespread support for mindfulness training amongst GPs in the UK.

The Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction course was first developed by Dr.Jon Kabat-Zinn at the University of Massachusetts Medical Center in the USA.,and has been used over thirty years to help with anxiety, chronic health problems, and general well-being. More recently in the UK, the Mindfulness-Based Cognitive Therapy (MBCT) course was developed specifically for people with a history of depression. MBCT is recommended by NICE (National Institute for Clinical Excellence) for those who have had several episodes of clinical depression in order to reduce significantly the likelihood of future relapse. The two approaches are very closely related and share all the same core techniques and practices.

Slow Down London director Tessa Watt has practiced daily meditation for many years, but still found the Mindfulness approach brought something fresh and powerful. ‘There’s a big emphasis on getting into the body –learning to notice and feel how the body reacts to difficult situations, and to relax with those sensations instead of responding in knee-jerk ways. There’s also a wonderfully practical approach to bringing mindfulness into daily life by training ourselves to be more aware of the little things that bring us joy, and cultivating those moments of openness.’

Tessa has trained as a Mindfulness-based teacher and is teaching her next 8-week courses on Thursday mornings starting 27 Janaury in Clapham, South London, and Friday evenings starting 11 February in London Bridge/Borough – visit www.beingmindful.co.uk For more information about Mindfulness based programmes, and for other courses offered around the UK, visit the Mental Health Foundation’s website www.bemindful.co.uk.

www.beingmindful.co.uk

Image by aussiegal (Flickr)

Lunchhour by Simon Kimb

Slowing down in London can seem like a contradiction in terms. But it’s the little changes that can make a difference. Here are some tips that work for us on the Slow Down London team.

Please share your own tips and experiences of what works for you by leaving a comment below.

SLOW DOWN: IN THIS MOMENT

Notice your speed
Are you rushing? Do you need to?

Be still
Research shows that a goalkeeper who stands still when facing a penalty has a higher chance of saving a goal.

Breathe
Three deep breaths will help clear our heads and give us a new perspective on a situation.

Look up and around
Rushing around the city we often forget to see what is around us.

Savour the moment
Even a crowded tube has interesting people to look at!

SLOW DOWN: THIS WEEK

Start your day differently
Wake up five minutes earlier than usual so you have time to get dressed and have breakfast without hurrying.

Take a real lunch break
Eat al fresco, not al desko! Go and look at something; eat your lunch in peace, away from your workplace.

Listen with undivided attention
to a piece of music; to a bird singing; to your friend or colleague who is speaking.

Switch it off
It might be your email or your phone – take some down time to relax.

Walk a different route
With a change to our routine we can discover our neighbourhood and our city with fresh eyes.

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

————————————————————————————
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.”

Did that happen? Absolutely not. If anything, I’ve been whizzing around with renewed gusto – if you live in Hackney you might even have seen me sprinting to the station on several mornings. But I think that’s okay. Just taking time now to pause and reflect on that feels like a step forward. It takes time to reduce your speed. You can’t do it instantly – otherwise they wouldn’t call it slowing down.

So I’ve now put a sign up on my wall saying ‘Slow’, which might make me pause when I wake up in the mornings. George Orwell once said that “seeing what’s in front of your nose needs a constant struggle”. Now I know that struggling is not what Slow Club is all about – but building in gentle reminders seems like one way to keep my speed demon in check.

In more positive news, I did manage to tackle one of my Slow challenges. On Wednesday after work I walked slowly over Waterloo Bridge, watching the lit-up buildings blinking along the banks of the Thames. It didn’t last long – perhaps ten minutes. But it was enough to remind me that London is a beautiful place and that I’m lucky to be living here. Even an insight as simple as that can be lost among the daily grind, when I’m more likely to be complaining that life here is so hectic and stressful. The point is that it doesn’t have to be: you can choose your own pace.

Chris Cox

Image: ‘Home’ (from Waterloo Bridge) by Jimbus.org on Flickr

But while this distresses me, I’m also implicated up to my eyeballs. I spend my weeks madly wedded to work deadlines, cramming in as much as I can and getting by on minimum rest. Hell, it’s only the third week of January and I’m already feeling burned out. So it’s exciting to be signed up for Slow Club, which over the next eight weeks will throw down the Slow gauntlet and challenge me to take my foot off the gas now and again.

According to my first email from the Slow Club team, my first challenge for the next week is simple: just noticing my speed. They recommend picking one moment in the day where your ‘internal speed demon’ kicks in. For this challenge I nominate my early morning routine, which generally involves leaping hysterically out of bed, skipping breakfast and running around swearing about not being able to find my keys. Sticking with the instructions, I’m not going to judge myself about this; but I have sneaking suspicion this is one moment where I could start slowing down.

On top of that, there’s a Slow Walk to take, which may involve tearing myself away from my computer screen one lunchtime. And most excitingly, a Slow Adventure around the city, which sounds like the perfect opportunity to remind myself that London has more to offer than screeching underground trains and heaving pavements of pushy people. Even in the most built-up areas, you can find peaceful places of retreat.

So there’s plenty to get cracking with. I look forward to reporting back with tales of speed, slowness and (attempted) contemplation in the Big Smoke.

Chris Cox

Image by Mike King

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

I’m sitting in the airport now having finally managed to score the only available notebook from the dismal array of shops at Terminal 4. Alarming that writing by hand with a pen is considered so out of fashion as to be served by a solitary spiral pad left to rot on a dusty, out of reach shelf in WHSmith. Besides, it’s tiny, and my writing, as has been noted, belongs in a doctor’s surgery.

Suddenly, time switches its focus. Instead of not having enough, I’ve got too much, so I’m trying to make things last longer instead of trying to get through them. I was lucky with the notebook mission, I’ve been to Boots (twice), had a few goes on the moving walkway – which was surprisingly bouncy, incidentally – now what?

Coffee, of course.

I’ve often cringed at the phrase “people-watching” – perhaps because it brings back memories of scruffy-haired boys at school trying to impress girls by being all aloof and philosophical (at the same time cultivating a clever excuse to stare at them.) But there are certain patterns of behaviour I see others doing or find myself doing that make me smile, because deep down we are all the same.

The little deceptions we practise on ourselves, for instance – the women who order a skinny latte and then balance it out with a calorie-laden blueberry muffin; the diet coke and large fries syndrome. My own version of this is to work on the principle that broken biscuits don’t count, cake doesn’t make you fat if it’s on someone else’s plate, and anything with fruit in the title is healthy.

I catch myself picking up my coffee and sipping it as the waitress walks past, in case she swipes it away despite the fact that it’s almost full; it’s a split-second impulse to protect my property – swiftly followed by a feeling of shame at being so neurotic and grasping.

As humans we are often in a mess because we have these instincts but are bewildered by them, embarrassed or unable to admit them at all. Most of the time I catch my inner monologue huffing away at someone for taking up two seats on the train or shouting and laughing hysterically on a mobile phone – and then I catch myself doing the exact same thing and justifying it defensively to an imaginary audience.

Amazing really that there are so many of us, humans – and we all think we are different – the main character in this feature film called life – the centre of the universe. It can be a relief sometimes to admit we aren’t perfect, and to cut other people a bit of slack as well. After a few minutes of sitting in Costa coffee I too am an armchair philosopher, ready to embrace the world with an unconditional
empathy – at least until the next threat to my ego arises…

Annalie Wilson
www.annalie.co.uk/

Read more of The London Loaf.

Image by larskflem.

Zelda writes:

Following this exciting ten-day Festival through a lens, this ten-minute film documents the Slow Down London Festival 2009. It grasps the essential notion that as a collective we are finding ourselves in a time – especially in relation to the economic crisis and climate change – where alternative ways of living are vital to explore.

The Slow Down London Festival offers debates about time, speed, travel, food, craft, mediation, gardening, yoga, culture and history. It is trying to give a space to place ourselves now, in real time, to inspire the idea that living more slowly is not that difficult. With the balance in each step, and each decision we make, we can create a more sustainable present.

Watch the Slow Down London Documentary

It is Saturday evening at the Queen Elizabeth Hall, and Carl Honoré invites us to the revolutionary idea of SLOW. Carl Honoré is the author of In Praise of Slow: How a Worldwide Movement is challenging the Cult of Speed and explores how we live in a speedocholic culture.

Considering the economic crisis that we are faced with today, and our well-known stress-factors, the question arises if we are ready to slow down? If we are ready to re-evaluate the meaning of time in relation to our lives and if there are alternatives to this culture of speed? Carl Honoré encourages us to see that Slow is for every one, that Slow is about doing things at the right speed and that being in fast-forward mode eventually only does us harm.
Watch Slow as a State of Mind

Dan Kieran, Ian Vince and Prasanth Visweswaran are living examples how it is possible to travel really sloooowly. They made an exciting road trip across the UK by travelling in a 1958 electric milk float. This little adventure brings to light how magnificent slow travel can be when we take it slowly.

Watch Three Men in a Float

STOP! Excuse me please, but why are you walking so fast? Standing outside the bookstore Foyles at Charring Cross Road, Bruno Contigiani director of the Italian organisation The Art of Slow Living is handing out speeding tickets to people who are walking at a speed of lightning. Along with the tickets Bruno hands out 14 ‘Slowmandments’, inspiring people to make a little change in their daily routine, and maybe to bring more happiness to life.

Watch Speed Ticketing

For more footage visit Zelda’s YouTube page

Image by Liz Poirier