Doesn’t the idea of being surrounded by books, Instagram-worthy shots of latte mugs, perfectly positioned on coffee tables with little tufts of lavender boughs and beeswax candles, just sound romantic and dreamy? It does to me, but that’s certainly not my life…although it sure would be nice. While I can catch bits of those moments from time to time  it’s just not how my day runs from beginning to end.  Days in this house are spent in what feel like a never-ending power struggle with the dishes in the kitchen sink, the overflowing laundry baskets in my bedroom giving me the evil eye, and chasing chickens out of the garden before they chomp all the kale. It’s just not that dreamy or romantic.

 

It’s actually pretty ordinary.

 

But, when I stop to take a good look at it, I realize it's good. And it’s unhurried.

 

If the idea of living a slower, more purposeful life is something you’ve always wanted, but know that in your house, latte mugs get knocked over by toddler hands and candles would just catch the drapes on fire, then this is the post for you. Starting your slow living lifestyle is easier than you think— a few small, but mighty mental shifts, and you’ll be on your way to being more fully present in your day-to-day moments, and hitting the brakes on the daily rush that seems to define the world around you.

 

Oh, my friend, it doesn’t have to define yours.

 

 

Most people think slow living is lazy, indulgent living. Or worse, that it’s just about a bunch of bubble baths and the somewhat meaningless ‘self-care’ ideas. The concept of living slow sounds like an ideal you only see in those magazines at the grocery store check-out line—you know, one where like Jo-Jo is smiling back at you, lounging effortlessly on a super cute couch with her gorgeous hair. I guess it can be, but it’s not necessarily a reality for the rest of us. With kids, schedules, and vet appointments, the idea of living a slow life seems like it’s always for somebody else, not for you. Am I right? I used to think the same thing.

 

What if I told you that slow living starts with a mindset, a perspective that—when you let it—will impact all of the other things in your life, the little things, the big things, and all the stuff in between? What if I told you that living slow is really about living with more purpose in the moments you do have, and being intentional with the choices you make?

 

Yeah, slow living really starts as a mindset. It’s like a lens by which you see the choices and moments in your day. And it really all starts with a shift in your way of thinking.

 

Living slow is about being mindful. A more intentional lifestyle starts in your mind. It IS attainable to you, regardless of how many littles you have to shuffle to baseball practice or how many loads of laundry are waiting for you when you get back. Living mindfully is accessible to everyone, regardless of whether you work full time outside the home, full time within, or somewhere in between. Living purposefully begins with consciously thinking about how you want to live your life and then patterning choices and decisions around that thinking. It's about asking yourself honest, real questions, and being truthful with yourself (and others) about what is important to you, and letting those answers be at the forefront of your thinking.

 

What if making simple changes to our lifestyle gave us just a few extra minutes in the morning to enjoy a coffee out on the front porch, or having the energy to play a board game with the kids after dinner (even though you worked a full day), or let you pick up the knitting hobby that you really loved but that fell by the side after the third baby was born? What if adjusting our mindset led to adjusting our decision-making that then gave us a bit more space and time and energy to enjoy our families, our interests, and our marriages?

 

Author Brooke McAlary once said, "Slow living is all about creating time and space and energy for the things that matter most to us in life, so ask yourself what you stand to gain." What would you stand to gain if you had a bit more space and time and energy? What if those simple adjustments to our decision-making patterns could give us the things that we really wanted?

 

 

Slow living is an invitation to more--more bandwidth, more mental space, more being present with what matters most. It's an invitation to strengthening the relationships that are valuable, a calling to embrace more time for the activities and events that fulfill you, an encouragement to view the beautiful gifts of grace and presence with gratitude and thanksgiving. It's never an immediate or overnight transformation (because hey, it's really not a race), but a gentle, more intentional prompting to be the curator of your life.

 

And let me tell you, my girl, if you don't curate your life, someone (or something) else, will. Someone else's deadlines, someone else's needs, someone else's agenda...I've been there and don't want to go back.

 

And here's the thing--it's so easy to get caught up in that lifestyle, because, let's face it, it feels like everyone is in the rat race.

 

You don't have to be. I don't have to be. We are being invited to live differently and to live for more.

 

Let's be real. It's pretty counter-cultural, to live outside the 'matrix.' Our culture values fast everything--fast food, fast fashion, fast (and faster) internet. I could go on. A slow living lifestyle calls us to develop not just a mindset, but a set of routines and habits that take the hurry out of our everyday living and replace it with that sweet invitation of gratitude and presence with what is important to us.

 

But the thing is, you have to choose it. YOU have to make the choice to live slower.

 

My slow living lifestyle started it's evolution almost a decade ago, but when my husband passed away after our 3.5 year struggle with his brain tumor, I looked at our life together and wondered what so much of it was for. So much of the busy, so much of the hustle, so much of the hurry that we let into our lives.

What was it for?

For a bigger house?

More money?

More friends?

More dinner invitations?

More community service?

 

What I really wish, instead of all of those things that we chose, is that we had more time.

 

I can't get that time back. I can't go back and be more present with him, encourage him to work less, agree to take that trip, slow down to take that picture...it's time, gone forever.

 

What I can do now though is be even more intentional in what I have here and now--be more present and savor the gratitude of another day with my son, enjoy a time of prayer and journaling with cup of Earl Grey before the sun comes up in the morning, bask in warm sunshine as I'm feeding the farm animals and listening to our rooster sing his little heart out.

 

I can take every moment and every choice and every decision and run it through a slow lens filter. I can choose. I have agency.

 

Oh, friend. You do too. You may feel like you don't, but you do.

 

I know you know this, but time is a currency, and it's the most valuable one. So what are you spending it on?

 

What choices are you making in the every day that give you more of it?

Or take it away?

 

Have the courage to ask yourself, invite yourself, to choose what is most important to you and then begin to build your life (and your home) around that answer. You don't have to do it all at once. One small choice, one saying 'no' to something that doesn't really need to be done, one tiny decision to choose something more valuable in your every day will lead to another decision and then another,

and then another.

Before you know it, you've created a small set of habits, or routines that grow.

Grow space. Grow time. Grow energy.

Now, wouldn't that be amazing?

 

Want a few ideas on how to get started? Join my monthly newsletter to get easy, tangible, start-right-now ways to begin living your life more slowly and purposefully. Connect with me on Instagram and let me know how it's going. 🤍