The Deckchair Diaries Part 1

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Originally inspired by Tom Hodgkinson’s Country Diary and the excellent Orwell Diaries, this blog, when it was over at wordpress.com was entitled the “Deckchair Diaries” and was a more personal journal of my journey on the path to slowing down.

Some readers have requested a bit more of a personal touch on this site, with details of what I have been getting up to in my (mostly) slow lifestyle, to show “slow living” in action. So, I thought I would revive the style of a more personal journal as an occasional entry here on Tortoise Knows Best, sharing with you what I have been up to and how I have been implementing (or at least trying to!) the Slow Philosophy.

I have been doing a lot of staring out of the window recently. I have become a terrible “inside of the window” type of gardener, time, inclination and finances have stopped me getting out there and doing some much needed pottering around. I fancy growing some veg, but once again, left it a bit too late…

(Although I stumbled across this from the brilliant Hugh from River Cottage – the River Cottage cookbook is a must for any idlers bookshelf – and contemplating giving it a go – as a bit of cheat and headstart…)

I love this time of year, but nature moves fast, giving me a feeling that we are rushing towards summer. It is hard to take a step back and take it all in and so easy to get caught up in the torrent.

Every day a new plant seems to bloom, blossom, flower or grow leaves (sometimes all at once), it is too easy to miss something and next thing you know it has done its thing. I see plants and flowers and birds and insects, I notice new sounds and sights and smells. This time of year is really is an orgy for your senses if you switch on and stay mindful. I must learn the name of things.

Nature, being involved with nature and learning to flow with it (it’s changing weather and seasons) really is essential to the slow lifestyle.

I spend as much time as I can watching the clouds go by, trying to make shapes in them. Dali called this the paranoiac-critical method, which was his description of how we make shapes and faces in abstract images such as seeing Jesus face in a piece of toast. For more information on cloud spotting (an excellent idle pursuit), I highly recommend the Cloud Appreciation Society.

Although the time I have to give to Idle pursuits has been somewhat cut down recently. Work wise I seem to be working longer and longer hours, which is no way for an idler to behave!

Luckily I enjoy what I do to make money (and as Confucius said “Choose a job you love and you will have to work again”).

Like many self-employed people, the recession has effected my work. Although I have managed to weather the worst of the financial storm I have been forced (like those self employed people that have also survived) to be creative; developing different ways of doing things and alternative income streams. It is a bit like chucking mud at the wall to see what stick a lot of the time. So far I have had the most success (and fun) with teaching people to be “Psychological Entertainers” in the vein of Derren Brown, Banachek, etc as well as teaching the skills of those fictional characters Patrick Jane in the “Mentalist” and Cal Lightman in “Lie to Me” (although these are fictional characters, their abilities are based on real life skills), if you want to learn more about that, please feel free to visit the website www.psykologika-esoterika.com.

I am being philosophical about the whole thing, this recession has made me be much more aware of my financial situation and I have made the effort to live much more frugality (“just in case”). I am enjoying seeing how little money I can get away with spending and it is very illuminating seeing how much money I frittered away.

And things are looking up…

It has been a few weeks since the election here in the UK and I must admit to being optimistic of the result, we have an unprecedented and revolutionary coalition and I wish them all the best (more cynical – and revolutionary – friends of mine have already written them off, but, since this is the system we have right now, I am hoping for the best. Call me daft and optimistic if you want…).

Forgetting political ideology for a moment, I like David Cameron, he seems very “Slow” to me. I first warmed to him because of this chat that he had with President (or Senator, at the time) Obama, about how to govern, then in the run up to the election and in the Conservative manifesto he spoke about “Big Society“, community is a central tenant of the Slow Manifesto (I think the slow movement is essentially anarchic in its political viewpoint), and then when he became PM, the first thing he did was ban cell phones from cabinet meetings!

My right knee has been playing up which has curtailed my idle exercise routine. My daily Tai Chi and Chi Kung practice has been effected (and I have almost got out of the habit of doing anything) I have had to give up running. It has even started to affect my daily mediation practice, evening kneeling using a stool to support myself it really aches. I have been doing the manly thing and ignoring it, but I have noticed how easy it is to use it as an excuse to just sit on the sofa, and how much more twitchy, distracted and lethargic I have become in such a short space of time. So, I have begun a process of rehabilitation. Hopefully with a bit of rest and recuperation, skilful strapping and painkillers I will be back embracing the tiger and repulsing the monkey (as well as being able to sit without the distracting ache in meditation) very soon.

I am currently re-reading “How to be Free” by Tom Hodgkinson, I have to admit to not finishing it first time round, I got distracted by something else. It is a very interesting discussion of the Medieval lifestyle and how we can reintroduce and emulate that in current times to free ourselves from some of the bonds of modern living.

Anyway, I am off to watch the rain out of the window.

See you again soon,
Matt

Saint Monday Coaching and The Tai Chi Guy

Hello,

Just a shortish post to let you know what I have been up to.

Saint Monday Coaching

Firstly I have a new coaching practice in Cardiff, South Wales, where I will be doing coaching and teaching (one to one at the moment) Tai Chi and Meditation/mindfulness.

I will still be doing telephone and Skype sessions for people who cannot meet face to face, so don’t worry, but if you do want face-to-face sessions and can get to Cardiff, it would be great to see you there!

I will be seeing clients on a Monday between 3pm and 9pm (I have dubbed it my “Saint Monday Coaching Practice”!) at:
Associated Contemporary Therapists LTD
53 The Parade
Roathe
Cardiff
CF24 3AB
www.actcardiff.co.uk

The coaching page will be updated as soon as I can (I am away for the next month and off doing trainings, so I may not get the chance to do it until I get back). If you or anyone you know may be interested, either give the coaching page a read to find out more about what I do, or feel free to contact me by clicking here.

The Tai Chi Guy

I have been meaning for awhile (well since I started this blog to be honest) to write a post waxing lyrical about my addiction to the magical art of Tai Chi. I have been doing martial arts for over 20 years and I have been Tai Chi for 10 years of that and been teaching martial arts since 1999 (Tai Chi since 2007).

I will be adding details about Tai Chi and how you can learn it very soon, until then check out my dedicated Tai Chi site at www.thetaichiguy.co.uk

So, rather than doing a post here about Tai Chi, I have set up a specific blog about my adventures:

Confessions of a Tai Chi Addict

If you are interested in learning more about Tai Chi (and my often idiosyncratic take on the subject) please check it out. It is in it’s early stages at the moment, so I haven’t added any RSS or anything yet, but things will be added soon(ish).

I think that is about it, I will be back next time chatting more about Slow Blogging and my Slow Blogging Manifesto. When I get round to it.

Now if you will excuse me, all this talk about Tai Chi has put me in the mood to wave my arms around a bit…

Matt

Idlers Accessories: The Walking Stick

I lament the passing of the days when a gentleman wouldn’t leave the house without a walking stick. You see, I have a bit of a “gammy” knee, nothing too serious, I can still do Tai Chi, squat heavy weights, and walk without a limp, but I can’t run and occasionally when walking down hill, or stairs, my knee gives out and I fall over. Which can be quite embarrassing. So I often walk with a cane, but I don’t limp, so I sometimes feel a bit daft strolling round looking perfectly healthy, but with a stick (how pretentious)!

But, with my experience of using a stick, I think it needs a bit of a resurgence, it is an excellent idlers accessory. It is incredibly useful and can make walking a more leisurely experience. You seem to walk with a better, more casual rhythm when you are walking with a cane, like it is a metronome swinging at you side, counting out a slow beat.

Beyond that it has a host of uses: You can use it balance yourself; lean on it when you are bending over, or staring into space, or sitting on a bench; you can point with it; poke things with it; and (if you use a crook handle cane, which I recommend) you can reach for things. You could even (with a bit of practice), use the walking stick as a very effective form of self-defence, in the unfortunate event that you should ever need to (learn the Tai Chi walking stick form).

I think it is about time the cane had a renaissance!

Looks like rain? Get a hook handle umbrella instead…

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How to be Slow in a Fast Environment

Good morning,

Well, last week was all very hectic.

The weekend before I had spent in London, we had gone down to see “Monkey: Journey to the West”.

London really is the antithesis a Cittaslow (a Cittaslow is a Slow Town or City), it is all hustle and bustle, rush and non-stop, crowded and selfish. Everyone looks through you.

After about 5 minutes in that place I can find myself getting all agitated! I can see why people act like zombies, it’s defence mechanism, they cannot cope with the speed and the pace of the place.

So, what can you do? Can you be Slow in a fast environment?

Well, remember Slow isn’t actually about being slow, as in crawling around and being dim witted. Slow is a first and foremost a mindset, a philosophy, an attitude.  This then leads to a method of slowing your life down and practical ways to do that (which is often unique to the individual, even though many of the principles are the same…).

So, as long as you have the mindset in place you can be Slow pretty much anywhere. Almost. No one is perfect (I admit to a minor rant whilst driving the day – it’s cathartic alright?!).

The mindset can be defined as being mindful (paying attention), unflustered and unhurried, centred.

I am going to focus, on this post on being centred. As I think it really is the key to managing your “slowness” when all around you in speeding along.

It is something that I have learned through martial arts and meditations. Particularly the Taoist style. Itr is used a lot in Tai Chi (the slowest martial art of them all…!).

It is very easy to do and practice, and will improve your state of mind, focus and posture.

So, what you do is this: You centre. Easy huh? How do you find your centre? It is 2 finger widths below and in from your belly button. Get two fingers of one of your hands and hold them width wise below your belly button, take one finger from your other hand and press gently. That is your centre.

If you focus on it, breath from it (imagine your nose is at that point if it helps – breathing is very important, so I will come back to that in a later post) and move from it, you will find that you will be less flustered by the rush going on outside (and inside your head too – it slows down those anxious “what if?” panicky thoughts…)

For best results. Aim to make all your moves and thoughts from this point. Start simply by focusing on it whenever you can, after a while you will just start to naturally work form there as a starting point. Then, when you find yourself getting flustered you can just gently move your attention there…

Incidentally, the new slowplanet.com is up and is an excellent place to mean other slow-minded people and learn more about Slow in all it’s forms(I have no affiliation!)

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