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Slow Knowledge

slow work

In the times marked by a constant pressure of time, stress, and working overtime the slow work model seems to be necessary. Slow work’s assumption is to move through life more consciously, taking the time for the little pleasures of everyday life and dealing with mind and body spiritually – on the level of a workplace. It gives time for reflection, putting away materialism and the pursuit of more money, more success or more achievement. Instead, its objective is to create the work-life balance, taking active measures against burn-out, taking the stress out of the workplace, sometimes implementing flexible working-time models: all this to give a chance for a long-term mental and physical well being. 

Slow work is about being more productive: by slowing down the work, one gives themselves the opportunity to regenerate. The general stress level also drops as the concentration and creativity rise up. In this way people have more energy resources and performance over the long term. Slow work doesn’t literally mean one works slower, but that one performs more mindful and thus also more concentrated, which one can achieve without time pressure or hassle. Finally, the idea of slow work encourages people to break with the willingness to be more, faster, bigger, and instead to bring more peace to the working world. Although this method might sound not easy (or even impossible) to implement, by trying to follow it we give a chance to a more healthy and efficient society. 

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Slow Knowledge

mindfulness

Mindfulness  originally a psychological treatment intended to heal the mind – is a simple technique similar to meditation or relaxation: a way of experiencing life being fully present. Its core idea is to help us regain control over our lives by focusing our attention on mental, bodily, and environmental signals, and to make us fully aware of them. This method helps us live the moment and be immersed in it, while slowing down our accelerated pace of life. Through slowing down, we give ourselves time to thoroughly process the impressions we experience, to reflect on them and thus make conscious decisions, or to find new sources of life-changing inspiration that help us redefine who we are. 

 

 

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Slow Knowledge

self-sustainability

Self-sustainability is a state of being in which the basic needs of an individual or a family can be fulfilled based on their own sources, without outer help. Self-sustaining entities make themselves independent of money, global economy and employers. This idea has emerged repeatedly in the modern history of mankind – see David Thoreau’s Walden – On the Duty of Civil Disobedience (1854), which gives insight into withdrawal into nature from the maiming impact of civil society. In addition, numerous other examples could be mentioned where individuals or complete communities withdrew from industrialised society to reach self-sufficiency by producing all raw materials and products for themselves and their families using traditional methods. Withdrawal does not only mean independence but also progression – through building a harmonious relationship with nature, one can also develop spiritually. Traditional methods of producing do not exploit nature the way industrial agriculture and livestock farming do. Self-sustainability can also be realised in an urban environment: by baking our own bread, by using chemical free sanitary and cleaning products, by drying, preserving or pickling fruits and vegetables, or by sewing our own clothes. 

 

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Slow Knowledge

minimalism

Joshua Fields Millburn and Ryan Nicodemus made minimalism as a lifestyle famous around the globe; however, simplifying one’s style of living according to actual, essential needs had previously been practised by many. 

Becoming a minimalist makes us rethink our routines, enhances our understanding of which habits or objects hold genuine value in our lives, and helps us detect the unnecessary. There are no rules in minimalism. It is up to us to analyse our work, personal relationships and home – i.e. all aspects of our lives, and differentiate between what provides us with real joy and content or causes negative reactions. The aim is simplification, and discovering possibilities that benefit our lives. In developed countries, overconsumption has resulted in the bad practice of organising our time, health, goals and hopes and dreams into a perpetual work-consumption cycle. Minimalists try to break out of this cycle to find joy, spare time, new experiences and real personal connections by pursuing a slower, but truly mindful lifestyle. 

voluntary simplicity, awareness, mindfulness, anti-consumerism, critique of consumerism, wastefulness