AUTHENTIC LIVING TREND
If retail was the ‘new religion’ during the Celtic Tiger years, where hanging out in shopping centres was the national past-time, it is no longer. Thankfully. Replacing it is something more meaningful and fundamental to life. We are re-re-discovering the physical and going back to basics. People are flocking to the physical world, going to parks, hiking, walking, running, cycling.
Is running the new religion? We asked ourselves why are people running, cycling, glamping and crawling through mud in various crazy events around the country more than ever before? And why in Gods name are muddy assault course events like ‘to hell and back ‘ extreme 10K runs selling out? We believe these behaviors reflect a desire for authentic living. This does not mean we wish to shun technology or the modern conveniences and opportunities that life affords us. But it does mean finding a delicate balance of living with the best of old and new. Too much of a good thing and all that.
There is a desire for the simple things, a desire to feel grounded, which explains the attraction to the physical, and to real experiences here and now. People need and want to feel connected to people, to places, and to themselves. This trends acts as a counter-balance to the hyper-pace associated and omni-connected lives we lead. By offsetting with a more rudimentary way of being, we find a more harmonious and real, or authentic way of living.The one thing that connects us more than anything else, technology, is the one thing that is distracting us from connecting in a real way. But more on that later….See technology
Interesting Statistics:
- Personal exercise is the most popular sporting activity with running up 50% (Irish Sports Monitor, 2013)
- 70% of people now enjoy cooking ‘a great meal’, up from 57% in 2005. (Mintel 2014)
