Too Fast? The Slow Down Revolution in the AI Age and How Mindfulness Could Be Key.

From Ralph Waldo Emerson's advice on patience to Lao Tzu's teachings on nature, slowness has always been associated with wisdom. However, in the present day, this perspective has taken on a tone of urgency. French economist Timothée Parrique, in his book 'Slow Down or Die', published last May, warns about the madness of maximizing economic growth at the expense of social and ecological collapse.

Japanese philosopher and economist Kohei Saito also addresses this theme in his 2024 manifesto 'Slow Down', pointing out how the obsession with GDP growth contributes to collective suffering and eventual demise. Psychotherapist and author Francis Weller, in his collection of essays 'In the Absence of the Ordinary: Soul Work for Times of Uncertainty', highlights how constant speed in modern life prevents us from appreciating the essential.

In the AI era, where the average person consumes more information in a day than someone in the 15th century would in their entire life, slowness becomes essential. People are caught in the rat race, leading stressful and over-connected lives. Mindfulness, in this context, emerges as a tool to slow down and cultivate well-being.

The practice of mindfulness offers a tangible way to slow down, allowing people to disconnect from the 'doing' mode to immerse themselves in the 'being' mode. This transition has a significant impact on our internal perception of speed, as noted by scholar Andrew Olendzki.

Andrew Olendzki, an expert in mindfulness, asserts that the practice of mindfulness is a tangible way to slow down. It invites us to abandon the 'doing' mode to immerse ourselves in the 'being' mode, even for a brief period.

This practice has a tangible impact on our internal perception of speed. Research shows that long-term meditators exhibit slower respiratory rates than non-meditators. The ability to physiologically slow down can bring deliberation to the accelerated endeavors of modern life.

Slowing down involves unlearning the addiction to speed imposed by information and technology. Anthropologist Thomas Hylland Eriksen distinguishes between 'fast time' (such as writing an email) and 'slow time' (such as creating art).

In this sense, mindfulness can be a support to reorient ourselves towards the rhythm of breathing and nature, and to work with the mind. The proliferation of books on 'Slow Birding', 'Slow Productivity' and 'Slow Pleasure' suggests a growing need to reconnect with nature and slow time.

Slowness, as advised by Lao Tzu, Emerson, and Weller, invites us to take an example from natural rhythms. Weller recalled his mentor Clarke Berry, who operated at geological speed: the rhythm of the ages, of millennia, etched deep in our bones.

By granting ourselves the time and rhythm of stone, we remember values such as patience, restraint, and reciprocity. Mindfulness can help us shape systems that prioritize slowness, although it does not solve political and economic problems. The key is to be aware of the rhythm we inhabit, and to notice what happens when we slow down to connect with the world.