What is slow living?
I used to be the person that said yes to EVERYTHING. Every outing. Every favor. Every new project at work. I thought I thrived on staying busy and doing all the things. But really all that I was doing by staying busy was keeping my mind disconnected from my body and what it really wanted and needed. And that led to, you guessed it, burnout. My thyroid struggled, I was diagnosed with Adrenal Fatigue, and I kept feeling worse and worse.
As I’ve learned to tune in and understand my needs for health and vitality, I’ve realized that I no longer want to do all the things. In fact, I don’t want to do most things! I want to experience stillness. I want to do less activity that depletes me of my energy and more of what fills me up.
That’s when I found the concept of slow living.
Slow living is all about taking things slow, being present, and experiencing gratitude with exactly where you are right now. For some, it means taking time to enjoy a good book, cook a leisurely meal, or spending time outside in nature. For others, it might mean savoring a conversation with a friend, taking a relaxed approach to work, or slowing down to really experience all the beauty your life has to offer.
Slow living is all about savoring the moment and taking the time to appreciate the simple things in life. It's about disconnecting from the digital world and reconnecting with the people and things that matter most.
Here are four ways to start living a slower, more peaceful life:
Evaluate what in your life feels like clutter.
Whether that is at home, in your mind, or within your relationships, clutter can begin to feel invasive and burdensome. But for many of us, removing clutter can be a challenge. Here are a few tips for removing clutter:
Start by identifying the areas of your life that are the biggest sources of clutter. Is it your home? Intrusive or negative thoughts? Toxic relationships? Look at and identify what is no longer serving you and your best self.
Once you've identified areas of clutter, come up with a plan to tackle them one at a time.
For physical clutter - work through each room in your home and begin to evaluate the things that don’t feel good to you. Donate or discard those items. Look into organizing the rest so your home can feel spacious and breathe.
For mental/emotional clutter - take time for self-reflection or utilize therapy with a professional as a tool to help clean our intrusive, anxious, or negative thoughts and allow space for stillness of the mind.
For relationships - look at who doesn’t make you feel good and who does. Prioritize relationships with those who cheer you on and support you unconditionally.
Focus on presence
When you're fully engaged in the present, you're able to appreciate all the small moments that make up your life, and you're able to experience them more deeply.
It's so easy to get caught up in the past or to worry about the future, but when you're centered in presence, you're able to let go of all that. You're able to focus on the present, and that's a really beautiful thing.
When you're living in the moment, you're able to appreciate the present for what it is. You're able to appreciate the good and the bad, and you're able to accept things as they are, releasing control, which can be a huge source of stress.
Disconnect from the digital world
We are overly reliant and chronically connected to our devices making it so that we lose touch with what's happening in the real world. We can lose sight of what's important and what's not. We can get caught up in the virtual world and forget about the people and things around us.
It's important to take time to disconnect from the digital world and connect with the real world. Spend time with your friends and family, go outside, and experience the wave of gratitude that comes from being in presence. Take a break from your phone, computer, and TV and enjoy life.
Define your values and prioritize what aligns with those values
Knowing your values makes it easy to make decisions to add things into your life that align with those values and remove things that don’t. I talk all about the importance of doing this practice in this blog post. Aligning the things you do, the thoughts you have, and the people you are in relation with to the values that you hold help you experience more ease, and there’s nothing quite like that! Once I defined my personal values I was able to speak my truth, have more confidence, deepen my relationships, say no when it doesn’t feel right, and spend more time listening to my body.
I’ve been on a slow living journey for a few years now, and I’m continually learning and refining what slow living means for me. Please know that due to the nature of our society, slow living is a de-conditioning for how we are expected to live and transforming to a slower lifestyle will be a process that takes time and evolves as you do, so always remember to meet yourself where you are.
