Reclaiming Your Pace: On Autonomy & Slower Living

I find these days that the world is spinning faster than ever. Everyone seems to be jeering for what’s left of our precious little attention. Algorithms, AI, and popular demand feel more in control of my life than ever. Thoughtful prose and lengthy content are less popular, while lightning-fast, high-octane creations crowd our screens and minds. As the speed and pressure of the world keep accelerating, I find myself gravitating more and more toward slower and slower pacing. Decelerating.

Many years ago, I used to joke that I was born in the wrong time period—I longed for days I never lived, where I imagined it felt like the world turned on a slower spindle; when mail was the primary mode of correspondence, when cozy winter nights reading a classic by the fire or enjoying humid summer evenings with neighbors on the porch felt more commonplace.

Over the years, though, I began appreciating the age I was born in (versus tinkering with time travel, naturally). Appreciating the women and men who fought for all the rights, privileges, and conveniences I enjoy today, the internet providing me with access to education and a niche industry where I could spend some corporate airtime working toward my life goals. And above all, the choice and free will to cultivate a pace of life that fills me up, not drains me dry—a concept sometimes easier to think about than to be about.

Although choice can sometimes feel like an farce (as major news outlets, food brands, and similar industries leverage the illusion of choice…), we do have it! If a slower, more relational, connected, and analog life is what we want, we can choose that today—no time travel required.

Here are a few ways we can explore a more intentional and less technologically controlled speed of life:

• Instead of relying on entertainment availability from TV channels or streaming platforms, research and buy the DVD (or owned equivalent) of the films and shows you want, curating your own collection.

• Take the time to invest in smaller brands, writers, entertainers, and crafters, intentionally researching brands and spaces that align with your goals, values, and intentions.

• For the visionaries: if you don’t love the algorithms or social platforms out there, blaze a path and make your own (and let me know—I’ll be looking out for you!).

• For those more technologically savvy, explore open-source programs, often free and governed by the group rather than the corporation.

• For times it might feel easier to turn to AI to help you write the blog post, slow down and savor the writing process yourself.

  
  

We can’t lose or surrender our creativity, inner peace, or autonomy for convenience.

If you ever get overwhelmed like me with the pace and construction of our modern world, remember that you have the choice—not just of what influences your life, but of what you let influence your life. We can’t always control the situations, people, or technologies around us, but we can control how we respond to them, engage with them, and occasionally, we can choose the long way home, a pour-over coffee, and a real paper book—even if it’s eight times longer than the movie version.

So what about you?

How do you protect your inner peace and personal pace of life in our bustling, modern world?

What ways do you apply your creativity and autonomy to curate the life you desire?

Let me know in the comments below, and thank you for your precious time.

P.S.

I originally sat down to write about tea, nature, the relaxing ritual both are for me. I also was going to talk about the availability of the Pine Tea notecard in my Etsy store. Writing about my artwork helps me connect with people who want to find it. But it felt important for me to step back further in this morsel about the paces of life and autonomy in it. I look forward to future posts about little rituals that bring joy to life, slow living and much more.

So until next time,