For most city-dwellers like me, breakfast is
a half a cup of coffee taken while running to the car or the MRT
station. Work is never ending. Cellphones also are now essential
to daily living with its users having panic attacks when they
don’t check their messages every half hour.
As the result of the breakneck pace of
living, some people are in an eternal state of anxiety. Worse,
some people wake up one day and find that in their hurry to get
things done, they’ve missed out on very important things.
This trend of doing instead of living has
become such an epidemic that it has inspired a counter-trend,
called the slow movement. This rebellion against time tyrants is
something that Europe adopted, a conscious effort to bring about
a cultural shift toward slowing down life’s pace. One of its
proponents, Carl Honoré, is a Canadian journalist and a
self-identified recovered speedaholic. In his book, In Praise of
Slowness: How a Worldwide Movement is Challenging the Cult of
Speed, he asks questions like: Are you always in a hurry? Does
life feel like a never-ending race against the clock?
If the answer is yes, then chances are it’s
time to slow things down a bit. It could simply mean cultivating
the proper attitude.
One of the first things to do is to associate
a space for the occurrence of slow living. Place a demarcation
line where stress cannot enter. When you enter this place, set
your phone on silent and switch off your Blackberry. Treat
yourself to the complete and total absence of pressure, and let
yourself experience life at your own pace.
To accomplish this, it helps to have a home
that is conducive to this kind of movement, such as those
provided by Landco Pacific Corp. A developer of resort
communities, it prides itself on creating living spaces that
allow its homeowners to live better in the hectic modern world.
Because of what these unique living spaces have to offer,
choosing a home becomes more than just a decision on location.
It’s a commitment to work-life balance, a place to relax,
unwind, and savor life’s simple pleasures. For me, it’s a
statement. It’s a testimony of what I value – my family and
their quality of life.
