Hello everyone! Today, I thought I’d share an update on how that concept of “slow living” is working or isn’t working for me.

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I realized I hadn’t given an update on this for awhile, probably since BirthMay at least, so I wanted to share what I was thinking. I’ve had plenty that has been working and that hasn’t, so here’s what’s been going on with that.

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Bringing Slow Living into My Life

So, in case you missed my previous posts on this, I thought I’d share a bit of what slow living is. I’m not an expert but I have learned a lot from TikTok and YouTube. Basically, the concept is focused on living a more peaceful and stress-free life, focusing on intentionally working towards a “slow” paced lifestyle.

I had been moving towards this concept independently when I came across the “official” name for it during the quarantine. At the time, I wasn’t working after being furloughed from my event management job and so I had all the time in the world and wanted to give that time some purpose.

What’s Been Working with Slow Living in My Life

A lot has been working still! I try to focus on slow living in small portions of my day/time. I intentionally created a slow morning routine, waking up early to give myself plenty of time to go for a walk with my puppy niece, make and enjoy a quiet coffee, and then journal for a bit in my bullet journal before I start my work day.

I also have a slow evening routine to get ready for bed, particularly if I have not had anything scheduled in the afternoon. And the weekends are very slow-living focused too. I try to keep at least one day in the weekend completely unscheduled to work on my blog, catch up on reading if I wasn’t able to do much in the week.

At work I try to incorporate some slow living practices too. I try to be mindful and take breaks when needed/required. For those breaks I make sure to leave my desk and take the time to eat, stretch, or hang out with the dog. Of course, I still need to be sure I’m focused on my work and keeping up with everything but I also try to take the time to get to know my coworkers.

What Hasn’t Worked with Slow Living in My Life

I have found quite a few problems with the slow living mentality as displayed online. For the most part, slow living content creators are super against the 9-5 jobs. They are good at promoting self-employment and sharing work-life balance tips during that time but they are so anti-corporate work it’s quite frustrating! I totally understand that corporate life isn’t too slow living friendly in general, but it’s so annoying to be so interested in this lifestyle mindset only for the content to be so against your current lifestyle.

So in general, I’ve been thinking of the work version of slow living as a separate and intentional mindset. I work from home but I find that I can’t do the dual work-home stuff that other people do such as do laundry or clean or other home duties at the same time as working. I just can’t shift like that! If I’m working I am solely working and therefore when I’m not working I am just enjoying my life at home. Therefore, work-me is very different from home-me.

As I mentioned, I try to keep some slow living concepts while at work though. Especially with breaks but I also do things like keep a soft, cozy blanket nearby in case it gets cold in the house, maybe light a candle, and stuff like that. I also try to “say no to ‘busy'” as much as possible. Of course, sometimes it can’t be helped but I will try to make sure that I’m not stressing more than necessary. I schedule out my breaks to make sure I get reminders to take them during the day. I’ve created a “morning”/set up routine for myself and was thinking of creating an “end of the day” routine but now that I’m leaving it wasn’t necessary anymore. I’ll definitely do that for my new job though! I also did make sure to regularly digitally declutter my email inbox, computer desktop, and saved files too.

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So that is what has and hasn’t been working for me with this “slow living” mindset concepts! Of course, I know I’ll never find a concept where I agree with 100% of the recommended aspects of it, but it’s a great starting point to try stuff and work through it.

Thanks for reading!

Pamela

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