Slow Living Tips

Many of us long to slow down.

And many of us desperately need to.

But too many slow living tips involve ditching everything at once for a picture-perfect slow living lifestyle.

The harsh reality of struggling finances mean that slow living idyll isn’t on offer for most families so it becomes another fantasy to fail at!!

Yet there are simple small ways to slow the crazily busy treadmill of our modern world and find more joy.

And these are the very doable slow living tips I have for you here.

They truly have brought real riches in health, happiness and resilience to my family. I do hope they help.

How To Start A Slow Living Lifestyle Simply

My slow living tips are NOT a strict set of rules we all must live by.

Most are tiny tweaks to strengthen our daily life whilst creating chances for us either to press pause for a period or to take the first steps on a longer journey in slower lanes.

There is no single place to start so explore first what speaks to you :

1. Let Go
2. Gentle Rhythms
3. Proper Rest
4. Unbusy
5. Local Living
6. Embracing Nature
7. Being In The Moment
8. Loving Low Info
9. Celebrating Seasons

Weaving just a few of these slow living tips into the fabric of our day lets us feel for real that we don’t have to hurtle hectically through our time here holding on for dear life!!

There are different slower ways to live and they can be very good.

80 Slow Living Tips For A More Joyful Life

Let Go

Letting go little by little releases the chains of anxiety that lock us onto the treadmill of busy-busy …

Declutter Your Life

• Ditch … don’t delegate.
• Very gently declutter just a few things every single day.
• Start living debt free so you stop having to run so fast to fund a lifestyle you can’t sustain.
• Stop buying things you never use.

Embrace The Familiar

• Stop reinventing the wheel for the sake of it when same old does fine.
• Allow yourself to enjoy the familiar without fear of missing out.

Detox Gently

For at least 6 weeks every year, detox from stimulants …

• Coffee
• Sugar
• Alcohol
• Screens …

Repeat this gentle detox for a fortnight twice a year, every year.

Rest Properly

Resting properly truly can transform our family’s health. It is the foundation of a slow lifestyle …

Sleep

• Cherish sleep …
• Learn to sleep better …
• … and stop sabotaging it.
• Take care of your circadian rhythm, get up & outside in the light early.

Real Rest

• Have a day of rest weekly …
• … and when you just need one.

Re-energise Your Way

Put aside time to energise yourself in the right way for you every day …

• Introverts need time alone
• Extraverts need time to talk.

If you’re an introvert and get exhausted by other people, don’t try and live your life by the standards of extroverts, and vice versa.

Recovery Time

Give yourself time to recover from …

• Illness …
• Grief …
• Heartache.

We come back stronger if we convalesce properly and let ourselves retreat from the world for a time when we need to.

Unbusy

In today’s world we worship the constant buzz of busy-busy as a symbol of both success and virtue but too many of our exhausted efforts are empty of real meaning :

Practise Saying No

• Stop making a virtue of having no time available for anyone.
• Write a not doing list, so you consciously acknowledge all the things whirring around in your head that you’re not going to do.
• Say NO politely but honestly and directly when you need to.

Time Block Responses

• Time block communication and only answer emails and messages in that time block.

Value Slack

• Build slack into every day.
• Stop over scheduling kids …
• … enjoy slower happier parenting.
• Learn to do more in less time and savour the time saved, don’t fill it.
• Keep plenty of weekends free.
• Clear your calendar … by half … and then by half again.

Travel Slowly

We don’t always have to race from A to B in the quickest possible way …

• Enjoy the huge health benefits of walking more daily.
• Give children the time they need to transition between places.
• Travel slowly by train and enjoy watching the world go by.

Learning to enjoy being un-busy breaks our addiction to the adrenalin of always being on the go.

Gentle Habits & Rhythms

Gentle habits & rhythms give us back some ownership of the structure of our lives so we’re not always reacting to incoming demands :

Habits & Rhythms

• Build simple daily habits.
• Build weekly rhythms.
• Help children learn to contribute to family chores.

Love The Familiar

• Keep going back to the same place.
• Play old games or do old jigsaws with phones off.
• Re-read books.
• Re-watch old movies.

Practise Manual Skills

• Learn to done one thing better and better with your hands.
• Practise for 5 minutes a day.
• Enjoy being in the flow of doing something well.

Live Local

Living more of life locally cuts the wasted hours and constant pressure of long, tight travel time tables :

Love Local

• Give up your car when you really, really don’t need it.
• Stroll, saunter, wander …
• … take time to stop and stare.
• Ride a bike.
• Holiday at home.

Walk Everywhere

• Walk every day wherever you can and use the downtime …
• … to talk
• … to connect with your community
• … to muse & ponder.

It roots us in the resilience of a strong community and makes travel more exciting when we do go.

Embrace Nature

By embracing nature in simple ways we can’t help but slow down and feel how it keeps time without the constant call of clock and calendar:

Notice Nature

Notice nature …

• … see which way the wind is blowing every day …
• … look at the stars …
• … spot what the trees are doing.

Grow A Few Things

Grow a few things but don’t go crazy just start …

• … a few simple vegetables …
• … some basic herbs …
• … a pot of spring bulbs.

Be In The Moment

A slower lifestyle allows us to be in the moment and enjoy the richness of daily life free from the nagging anxiety of diaries and to do lists :

Notice Yourself

• Notice yourself in the full flow of feeling happy … what are you doing? … do more of it?
• Keep an eye on why you’re doing things … very often it’s not because they’re important or actually make us happy.

Be Real

Rather than constantly trying to squeeze in time for artificial exercise, get real exercise from physical work :

• Travelling
• Cleaning
• Gardening.

Value The Everyday At Home

• Make time to clean …
• Make time to cook simple healthy recipes you know off by heart …
• … be in the moment …
• … and enjoy what you’re doing.

Low Info

Our chronic fear of missing out has left us addicted to news and updates that distract us from the personal practices and rhythms that truly support and sustain our lives :

Don’t Be Always On

• Switch off phone notifications.
• Go out without your phone.
• Switch your phone off when you’re with your kids.
• Go on a wifi & phone free retreat every year.

Cut Down On Incoming

• Go on a low information diet.
• Break your cable news addiction … whatever our politics, it is equally bad for us!!
• Deinstall any apps you’re addicted to on your phone.
• Stick to one messaging app only.
• Unsubscribe from a couple of email lists every day.

Celebrate Seasons

Marking the seasons of the year provides a profound pattern to the seasons of our lives that over commercial celebrations never reach:

Be Seasonal

• Follow the seasons …
• … join the harvest
• … sleep more in winter.

Honour Past Rhythms

• Find time every week to connect with the past.
• Enjoy the calm of the old and familiar …
• … and organise your calendar around simple traditions.

But recognise the times in the year you take on too much e.g. Christmas, holidays, new school year and work out what else you will stop doing to build in slack.

My very last slow living tip is to be a little more sceptical of progress.

A forever chase after the future leaves us rootless and lost. A simpler slower lifestyle builds a stronger bridge to both the opportunities and the challenges of unknown times ahead.

I do hope these slow living tips help you find more joy living slowly. For more easy ways to enjoy a resilient life read these :

• Slower Happier Parenting
• 50 Little Ways To Ease Stress
• 14 Simple Frugal Life Skills
• 30 Lovely Ways To Calm Down
• 30 Ways To Live Debt Free

Original image source: under licence from rawpixel.com