What is slow living? Marylander describes trend that promotes mindfulness, mental health.

BALTIMORE -- There's a lifestyle all about taking things slow.

Slow living is all about taking your time and acting more conscious with what you value in life. With the help of social media, it's become widely popular and there's even a book on the topic.

Slow living really took off at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic. On Instagram, the hashtag slow living has been used on more than 6 million posts. It's been used in more than 250,000 posts on TikTok.

Slowing down

In a hustling, bustling world, Marylander Catherine Volcy likes to enjoy the moment and really take her time.

"[I like to] sit down, enjoy a meal…take time to do your daily tasks. That for me is what helped heal a lot of things," she said.

It wasn't always this way. 

Volcy said she was constantly in a rush growing up. Then, when she was going for her undergrad degree, the toll on her mental health reared its head.

"All of a sudden, I'm having panic attacks. I'm having symptoms of anxiety or depression," Volcy said.

"Haven't had panic attacks in years"

Studying psychology and learning about the nervous system, the body's center for mental activity, got her thinking she needs to slow down. This lead her to finding the slow living lifestyle.

It's all about slowing down, being present, and more mindful and intentional in one's actions and decisions. The aim is to give more time to what matters for you.

For Volcy, it's what she needed.

"I literally was going from multiple kind of panic attacks a week, they'd just come and I didn't know how to handle it, [to now] I haven't had a panic attack in years," Volcy said.

Volcy has now been slow living for a few years. While she'll still get an anxious thought or feel rushed here and there, she's able to handle it now with no problem.

"It's been a night and day difference," Volcy said. "I feel like I can be present when I'm having a conversation with people. The way my inner world is, I have a lot more control."

"Simply Look Only Within"  

Stephanie O'Dea used to write recipes for slow cookers, but now she's writing and podcasting about slow living. In her new book, "Slow Living: Cultivating a Life of Purpose in a Hustle-Driven World," she made slow into an acronym: Simply Look Only Within.

In her approach, O'Dea believes slow living starts with decluttering -- not just physical things, either, but everything that's on your mind. She said it's about deciding what you value.

"With a little bit of purposeful planning and living with intention, you actually can do all of the things, you're just choosing what's important and kind of dismissing the rest of it," O'Dea said.