Category Archives: slow life living

gardening, home decorating, slow life living

Slow Living Sundays #1: June 04, 2023

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This post is part of my Slow Living series. Check out the original post here and related links.

It is early Sunday morning and I have been awake since 5;30 am. It was one of those things where I woke up and had no idea if it was morning or evening. But, I got up, had some coffee, watered my plants. Did a bit of writing. Listened to the birds and am enjoying the cool morning breeze.

And now I’m watching slow living videos for inspiration on how to carry on my day.

In a couple of hours, I’m heading out to play some music for my biweekly volunteering service. I used to volunteer weekly before I moved. It’s too far of a trek when you don’t drive on Sunday mornings. But I enjoy seeing family friends for coffee after.

Later, I think I might go shopping for some needed retail therapy. I found a quilt I really wanted for my bed on Amazon but alas, it’s no longer available. I have some gift cards for The Bay that I need to use up. So, maybe I will hit the mall on the way home. Plus, the mall has ice cream, and AC. It’s gonna be a hot day.

I’d like to spend some money on decorating my room and making it an oasis like the rest of the condo. I spent some time cleaning up my kitchen and freshened up the flower supply with carnations. It’s nice to have a clean table again. I love having plant life around and they are mostly all still alive.

Plant life update

I moved the poor fern outside and it seems to be doing a bit better. The leaves are a bit longer than when I bought it. It’s still struggling. Hopefully the hot humid summer air can spring it back to life.

The potted Dahlias from Home Depot all turned brown. But alas, new buds came in last week and I have new blooms already. I was so proud of myself for this!

I think next summer, I’m not going to buy Petunias. They have been difficult to maintain and do not survive well in the wind. The violas also took a beating this week and have all started drooping.

The pansies are doing okay, though the pot doesn’t seem to drain well. I try and water them every other day. But look at those colors. I planted them myself.

I try and spend some time every morning outside even if it’s just watering plants. There were a few geese outside when I was standing on my balcony. We have a lot of wildlife around here – mostly of bird and feathered variation. There are lots of nature trails and parks, and greenery that I just love. I really love my neighborhood.

Last night, we had the Strawberry Moon here. Unfortunately, there was too much smoke in the sky and I couldn’t get a clear picture. You can check out my post from yesterday though.

That’s about it for updates. I saw my dad finally and he was fairly quiet. I’m single again and that’s a story I don’t want to get into here. Still processing things. Deciding that I want to be on my own for a while and just enjoy being with friends.

My first crafting group meetup is happening next week and I can’t wait to meet new friends. We already have a few outings planned to check out markets and events. It will be nice to be social again.

And strangely enough. I’m the lowest weight I’ve been all year. I don’t know how. But I’ve been working on my book nonstop and first draft will be finished — VERY soon. I’m excited for it.

That’s it for now.

How do you spend your Sunday mornings?

I’m off to play some music, have some coffee with family friends, and maybe comfort myself with another plant or two. Or three. Or four. It’s an addiction now!

mindfulness, slow life living, spiritual

The Slow Living Movement

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A few years ago, I had to leave my career due to rising and complex health issues that were preventing me from attending work on a regular basis. Like many people, I was working a full-time job, volunteering part-time, and was part of many groups and social activities. The burnout towards the end was extreme and my health took a turn for the worse.

A diagnosis of hEDS would seal the deal and now I’m officially, “medically retired” which has left me with mixed feelings about my purpose in life. I was always told, “you’re too young to be in this much pain” and now…

Life has become about – quality now, not quantity. And learning to just well, slow the f**k down. The struggle of keeping myself busy during the day is for real, and I’m adopting some new habits and forming new routines, so I get the most out of those good days. On those bad days, I’m mostly just sleeping in bed and those pain flares can last for a week or two. It’s a very unpredictable medical condition.

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It was only recently, like in the past few months as I got back into spiritual practice, that I learned about “slow life” living and it’s something that I think we can all learn from. Stress and anxiety can impact our health so much, that we take for granted all that life has to offer us. Thanks to channels like this.

This is how I start off my mornings, sipping my coffee, eating my toast and fruit and watching relaxing videos like this. I start off every day now outside, watering my flowers and deadpaning the ones that need some TLC. It’s a great way to start the morning.

Slow Life Origins

The slow living movement started in the 1980’s in Italy. It started with the opening of a McDonald’s restaurant in the capital city of Rome. A man named Carlo Petrini banned together with a group of activists and they formed a movement that they coined, “Slow Food.” This movement was created to defend regional foods to keep long standing traditions alive in Italy.

Photo by Chait Goli on Pexels.com

Concept of Slow Life

The overall concept of slow living is where people openly choose to live a slower and more meaningful life. This isn’t always easy to do if you have a lot on your plate like two jobs, or a full-time career, or you are a single parent. Or parents of a large family. Or heck, even the single professional person can struggle with taking too much on. I speak from experience having done this for decades.

In the simplest of terms, slow living means making more time for yourself to “stop and smell the roses” or just practice selfcare more. Or spending more time in nature, with family, or doing things you really love.

While some people may consider this movement, more of a fad, for me, I’m trying to incorporate this into my daily routine. Some people consider slow living to be more of a concept or philosophy – they call it a reflective or mindful approach to everyday life.

If you’re of Scandinavian culture, you may be familiar with the concept of Hygge – in which people adopt more a cozy and comfort sort of aesthetic in their homes and slowing down to enjoy time with family and loved ones. Slow Living is similar in a sense, and I’ll cover what Hygge is in a separate post.

Slow living starts with softness, a desire to move more calmly.

Secret of Slow Life Living

There really is no secret to slowing down life a little bit. The key is to find things that bring you peace and joy, and do those things more often. It’s ensuring you get the proper amount of sleep at night to feel rested. It’s about finding “quiet” time to practice mindfulness, or working with intention setting. It’s about living a life of intention and making those little moments for yourself really count. It’s about self-reflection, journaling or even just spending time out in nature.

Some ways you can slow your life down:

  • Connection: build on current relationships with friends and loved ones that bring joy into your life. Find time to connect with Mother Nature. Sit out at night and stare up at the moon. Or spend time in your garden. Or tend to flowers and indoor plants. Connect with your natural surroundings and elements. This can help ground your energy as well.
  • Intentions: start incorporating and working with intentions in your daily life, planning for downtime or time to focus on you.
  • Slow down: if your schedule is too packed, perhaps learn to let something go that isn’t necessary for you to be involved in. Or if you can, delegate the task to someone else. Plan for at least one day a week (or even per month) where you can do something for just yourself.
  • Take a pause: take the time to enjoy those precious moments you have to yourself. Meditate or just practice deep breathing exercises and reflect on your day so far. Take your coffee outside and sit in the sun for your morning break. Or go for a walk for some fresh air.
  • Well-being: practice the art of selfcare and make sure you are getting some time in nature, regular exercise, sleep — sleep is crucial for your overall mental health.

First of all, I’d suggest taking some time to journal and think about what it is that brings you peace. Is it going for a walk? Maybe it’s a certain spot out in nature. Or maybe it’s someone in your life that calms you down. Or maybe it’s as simple as sitting outside with a good book. Whatever it is, jot down ideas and make that effort into bringing mindfulness into your daily routines.

Or maybe your idea of a perfect day is sitting down with friends while working on arts and crafts. Like Indoora World does on her channel and I find it so inspiring.

Resources

Sometimes my YouTube suggestions feed gets it right, and I’m amazed by the creativeness out there from fellow artists and partisans. These are some of my favorite channels to help set your morning off on the right vibe. To learn more about slow life and mindfulness practices, please follow my blog. I post weekly.

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mindfulness, slow life living, witchcraft

Poetry of slow living and daily mindfulness

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I can’t take credit for the title, it’s inspired by a youtube channel that I follow. In fact, most channels I watch on a daily basis, are all focused on slow living, cottage life or fairytale dreamers. Or people like me, who like to do witchy things sometimes.

I’m working on another post that will explain what Slow Living is, but the gist of it, is making more time for yourself and taking time out from the daily grind, to enjoy those little moments. No matter how many little moments you get each day to yourself.

What does that look like? Well, for me – now that spring is in full bloom, it’s become a little easier to do.

Green Space

Every morning, the first thing I do when I wake up, after general hygiene practices, is to wander sleepily into the kitchen and flip on the kettle for my tea or coffee. As I wait for the stainless steel kettle to beep, I check on my green altar space. Now, I call this an altar space but mainly it’s a place where I start my day, and can get centred.

There’s something so calming about inspecting green plants, ensuring they’ve had enough water, pruning off the dead or dry leaves. Though, the frustrating part here is that many of my plants are struggling. It’s really hot and dry here right now for this time of year. I think I need to bite the bullet and purchase some fertilizer to see if this helps.

Balcony garden

A couple of weeks ago for Beltane, a friend and I went to the local Home Depot to take advantage of an early flower basket sale. I picked up as you may remember, some purple petunias, some pink Dahlias, and a large pot of violas which start off white and then turn brilliant shades of violet. I also have a pot of pansies that are really struggling in this crazy wind we’re having. Alberta weather is not friendly for gardening.

Every morning, I will check on the flowers and move them around as needed or take in the cushions if it’s going to be a really windy day. I spend some time out in the sun, listening to the birds. If I’m up early enough, which doesn’t happen often anymore, I’ll sit and watch the sunrise. The world is quiet at 6 am and not many people around. I suppose it’s why I used to love getting up that early. That’s something I need to get back into but my sleep schedule is out of whack again. The heat doesn’t help.

On good days, I will then come back inside, eat my breakfast which usually consists of a combination of fruit, toast, eggs or oatmeal, a hot cup of coffee and drink my first litre of water for the day. I’m trying to drink at least 3 each day and that’s hard for me.

If it’s going to be a hot day, then I make sure all the windows and curtains are drawn by 10 am, and the fans are going to help keep it cool. It didn’t work today, and I’m melting currently. I’m a puddle.

Connection and always learning

Then I spend a bit of time responding to business for the day. Whether it’s personal emails, emails related to my benefits or comments on social media. I try not to spend too much time here, otherwise, you waste a few hours. While sipping my coffee, I’ll enjoy videos like these for inspiration on what I can do during the day.

I’ll spend a bit of time leaving comments on their videos to spread the love, do a bit of reading and maybe get started on a blog article. I have so many half written drafts and just haven’t been in the mood to finish them. Though, I am back to book writing and it’s going well.

Outdoor time

Every day, regardless of how I am feeling, I make the most effort to enjoy the sunshine. A few minutes outside as I wait for my kettle to boil and spend time with the flowers. Then I’ll pop out with my headphones in the afternoon if construction isn’t too noisy. And then I’ll head out again in the evening for at least 30 minutes to 1 hour or more on really warm nights.

If I’m sick, I’m sick. Like this morning I was having some stomach issues so that meant some time in bed. And on the weekend, it was a sinus/migraine thing. On those really bad days, which happen more than you’d think, I can’t even muster up enough energy for a shower. Baths can help but it’s so much work. So, I tend to just sleep and sleep. I slept 20 full hours the other day and it felt good.

But I try at least for 15 minutes to 30 minutes of outdoor time daily because it does help with the mood. I took this one a couple of weeks ago. Edited with clipart to hide location 🙂

Daily mindfulness practices

The rest of the day is spent in the kitchen with meal prepping. Though now that the weather is too hot for the oven, meals are usually salads, sandwiches, fresh fruit or vegetables. Anything I can buy premade from the deli that just gets heated up in the microwave.

I might listen to music while writing, or while outside and this helps me get in a calm headspace, especially for writing. Sometimes I’m listening to pop or pop rock music, sometimes acoustic folk and sometimes, some really deep meditative music to help me “zone out” for a little while.

I check in with my partner daily and while we don’t get much time for each other, we send morning messages, chat over lunch, and then again in the evenings. I check in on friends (when I remember to), and can be bad for not reaching out. Not because I don’t care, just because I’m used to being on my own. So sorry, if you haven’t heard from me.

I need to get back into doing readings, if not daily, at least a couple of times a week. If you’d like a reading done, let me know. This too, is a great way to decide what to focus on that day. You pull one card with your morning tea or coffee, meditate on it, and that will be your focus for either that day, or week. It’s up to you.

Writing and journaling

And lastly, I will spend time writing a little each day. Whether it’s a draft entry here, in my private journal, or to share with friends on social media. Or like now, as I try and work on my books on those good days. I can get lost for hours if not careful. Sometimes I have to set timed reminders to take breaks for water and food. It helps to have good people check in on you too.

Note: I pulled all my books from Smashwords in hopes of rewriting and reformatting since I’m constantly getting notices to do so. If you’re an editor and you’ve made it this far, let’s connect. I’ll need an open minded one soon!


How do you incorporate mindfulness in your daily life? Let me know in the comments. I’d love to hear from you.

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