Blessings, beautiful souls –
The Slow Living movement started with the intention of bringing us back to stillness, but it was quickly hijacked by capitalism and consumerism. This is something I speak about in my newest book, Mothering in the Mountains. I emphasize that Slow Living became so restrictive that it stopped feeling like something you surrender to quite naturally and became something for the more privileged. Of course, this is a lie. It’s just another lie manufactured to keep you stuck in a loop and away from inner peace (“Am I doing this right?”).
Now, this is also trickling into the analog movement. The analog movement aims to take life offline and into real-time; journaling, crossword puzzles, colouring books, and craft hobbies. There are just a few problems I’ve noticed right away, and I’m not alone here: one, the analog activities are being documented for online validation, and two, the shopping list to “live a proper analog life” is huge, and it’s really just consumerism disguised as peace.
Slow Living and Analog Living have become performative identities rather than lived experiences. For some strange reason, peace has become an aesthetic rather than a natural state of being. Peace is no longer our birthright and our natural vibrational state, but it is being packaged and sold to us – and most people aren’t even aware of this manipulation! People are filming these moments instead of actually inhabiting them, being in them, surrendering to them. Now, it’s about curating a perfect and beautiful life rather than just living in a peaceful one.
Instead of sitting quietly with a cup of coffee and our journal, we now carefully arrange, photograph, and share it. The moment – the most important part – no longer becomes important; only the presentation becomes important.
“Peace can be purchased!” is what these movements have told us, but that’s an illusion. Industries are profiting from people seeking calm – from people on a hunt for their natural state of being. The path to peace does not require purchases.
The irony is difficult to ignore: many people are discovering offline hobbies only to document them online. The analog moment becomes another piece of digital content. These activities are not inherently peaceful; they only become peaceful when you slow down enough to live in the moment and receive the peace the activity offers you.
Real slowness and analog living aren’t curated, they’re lived. Consumerism may disguise itself as healing, but we need to see through it. My recent release really unravels what slow living truly is and the fact that it’s not exclusive to a select few but is the state everyone deserves to settle into.
Live in the moment without taking a photo of it. Step outside and breathe the fresh air. Touch a tree. Listen to bird song. Journal without reservations. Sit with a book of crosswords instead of doomscrolling. Find freedom not in having to prove your freedom to others, but in the moment.
If you wish to support my work further, have a look at all my books and journals, available here. My newest book, Mothering in the Mountains – reflections on slow living, spiritual motherhood, and finding soul serenity in the French Alps, is available now! If you want to work with me as a spiritual healer, check out my services through Seeking Celestial Grace and Awakened Little Souls.
xx C
lifeofcloud 