Yes to all of this! Especially not reaching for your phone when you have a few minutes alone. That’s quite hard to do mind you! But it does open up tiny little pockets of time throughout the day when you manage it. Essential day-dreaming time! 💫
When I did yoga teacher training years ago, my instructor challenged us to not pick up our phones in any free moment of time for a week and I couldn't believe how many times I absentmindedly went for it! That's definitely stuck with me.
And yesss, we need day-dreaming time for sure!! So glad this resonated with you!
I clicked comment so I could say this exact thing! I find that going analog, basically doing anything unrelated to my phone or laptop is slow living. My mindset is “slow” in a good way. It’s more at ease, it’s more present, and intentional.
This is great Hunter, thanks for being open with your secrets ☺️
I've been leaning more into slow living this past year but for me, I can't always think of it as slow, as because when life isn't slow, which as you've said isn't always the case, I feel like I'm doing it all wrong. Intentional living is how I like to think about it. There will be times where life will be busy but you can still live intentionally during those times 💫
Yes! At the end of the day, slow is just another label. It's what it means to you and if intentional feels better, then use that! Or use nothing at all and just call it living life 😂 You can't do anything wrong when you're just doing life!
I’m so sorry you’ve been dealing with long COVID, that’s incredibly hard. Slow living can definitely be something we embrace, I came to it after a very hard season of depression and while it frustrated me that I was stuck in this slow living way of life, learning about the movement helped me to see the beautiful aspects that I can incorporate into my life when I’m feeling good too!
I love this! Especially interesting about how slow living has now become a 'thing' to capitalise on and create an Instagram-perfect vision of, which likely goes against the whole point of it in the first place 🙄
No doubt if it was called 'intentional living' there'd be the same thing. I've observed we humans seem to love creating labels which then result in whole industries crafted around them (especially more so in the social media age).
Oh definitely! I think most of it is sincere, but it's definitely hard when any type of lifestyle becomes more popular and is made 'Instagrammable'. Reminds me a lot of the minimalist movement too!
We definitely love capitalizing on any sort of label. I know slow living will surpass that though, or at least I hope so!
Thanks for sharing! Earlier this year, I started my mornings with a cup of coffee and writing morning pages - it’s helped so much to start my day off in “slow” way and I think, I’ve slowed down a lot this year. Like you, I still have times where I don’t know if I’m coming or going but I appreciate the calm only more. 💕
Mmm love that! And I love that you do morning pages, so soul-giving!
That's beautiful. It's funny how once you start to incorporate those tiny moments you realize that you want more of it and slowly craft your life around it, even in the midst of busy times!
Omg I love this!! This especially resonated with me: "Slow living is not lazy living, sitting on the couch all day doing nothing (though resting is absolutely necessary!), or having zero drive to achieve anything. It’s the opposite, actually, because when you are so in tune with your deepest desires of what you want out of life, all the distractions dissipate and the purpose emerges stronger than ever before."
To me, slow living is about being purposeful. Refusing to buy into the hustle, and instead taking life in the direction I want. Thank you for writing this.
Gosh what wonderful advice. Being a natural people pleaser (Im an enneagram 9 if that means anything to anyone!) I find it so hard to say no to people without a really good reason! When in fact if someone said no to meeting up with me because they weren’t feeling social or needed a day of space, I would totally respect that and not be offended! Also not reaching for my phone whenever I’m in a queue or sat on my own...now that is something I definitely want to work on. Thank you for this post 🙏🏼
Ahh yes! You're the peacemaker!! I'm an Enneagram 4 but I have some 9 friends, so I totally know what you mean! And I definitely find it hard to say no a lot too, especially to family. It helps me to remember that saying no allows me to show up as my best self so that when I say yes, it's a fully embodied yes. I'm not saying no because I don't want to see that person or do that activity (though sometimes I don't haha), it's because I wouldn't be showing up as my most authentic self at that moment and probably wouldn't be very present. So to me, saying no is the compassionate response for when I'm out of alignment (or just not feeling it) and has nothing to do with the other person. Hope that helps! Xx
Great post, Hunter! It made me laugh when you spoke about your code words as a child. I remember doing the same and then ‘blaming’ my mum for being too strict.
But my daughter is the same! She approached me a while back and said she’d thought of a secret phrase to use when she had had enough of being at her friend’s house and wanted to come home. If she ever texts me asking ‘have you fed the dogs yet?’, then this is time for me to reply something like ‘something has come up, I need to come and collect you, can you get ready please?’. She’s definitely my daughter 🤣
I was hoping someone else would say they've done the same thing 🤣
That's so sweet that you guys have that communication!! I always thought I'd have a kid like that, but I have a feeling Maverick will be the kind of kid that never wants to leave her friends house, she seems so social and very opposite of me 🤣 but who knows! Ha!
Love your take on this! Especially love your first point about slow living being aligned, intentional living, I found a slower/more gentle way of being after a good few years in the hustle culture of doing way too much and living a long way away from what is right for me and my body. I have found my 30s and undoubtedly motherhood to be a pathway of healing this and feel I am now much more in tune with myself which generally requires a much slower approach x
I truly think slow living is the ideal way for women to live life because it aligns so well with our natural circadian rhythm and cyclical way of living. When we try to go against that and live in a masculine world (for an extended period of time) with a lot of masculine energy and not a lot of feminine energy, we get burnt out and sick from the hustle.
Motherhood is such a beautiful gateway to give ourselves permission to live slowly. I love that you've been exploring that more in your 30's! Xx
I couldn't agree more. In fact, I knew things were really up when my 'hustling' caused me to lose my cycle completely for some time. The healing work I did to get back on track led me to a different slower path of ebbs and flows which naturally continued into pregnancy and motherhood...it continues to be a learning process of listening inward and focusing on what feels most nourishing. Thank you again for your words! Lx
Wow, yes! What a direct result of not living in alignment with our biology. So glad you've been able to dive deep into healing and slow living, and that it feels so aligned for you!!
This really resonates with me. Thanks so much for sharing it. I used to shy away from slow living posts on Instagram and their intentionally curated aesthetic. It just felt like one more thing I wasn't doing properly. Then I found accounts like yours that really spoke to me and made me realise that slow living is much more of a mindset thing, an internal focus. It's not something you can necessarily take a cute photo of and pop on your grid .
Absolutely! I definitely get caught up in the aesthetic version of it. I really went down the rabbit hole with the sustainability movement to a point where I felt like everything I was doing was wrong or everything everyone else was doing was wrong, and I slow living felt like it naturally had sustainable elements to it, but it wasn’t so dogmatic in its thinking, if that makes sense. It totally is just a mindset at the end of the day, and whatever magic comes from that is beautiful!
Lovely article Hunter. I long for slow living but my life is crammed full out of necessity currently and to get to a point where I can slow down, I need to juggle more things than is ideal. So just finding some little moments through out the day is definitely something I can do 💛
It’s definitely about those little moments, and slowly (pun intended) they’ll turn into your big moments. ❤️ hope you can lay down the juggling act soon!
Yes to all of this! Especially not reaching for your phone when you have a few minutes alone. That’s quite hard to do mind you! But it does open up tiny little pockets of time throughout the day when you manage it. Essential day-dreaming time! 💫
When I did yoga teacher training years ago, my instructor challenged us to not pick up our phones in any free moment of time for a week and I couldn't believe how many times I absentmindedly went for it! That's definitely stuck with me.
And yesss, we need day-dreaming time for sure!! So glad this resonated with you!
I clicked comment so I could say this exact thing! I find that going analog, basically doing anything unrelated to my phone or laptop is slow living. My mindset is “slow” in a good way. It’s more at ease, it’s more present, and intentional.
I love that! Spending time in 'analog' mode can be so good for the soul, and definitely aligned with slow living!
I'm trying to keep my phone in my pocket too, in those little windows of time. It's quite sobering to realise how often I tend to reach for it.
It’s SO hard! And definitely a wake up call when we become aware of how much we reach for it. So crazy.
This is great Hunter, thanks for being open with your secrets ☺️
I've been leaning more into slow living this past year but for me, I can't always think of it as slow, as because when life isn't slow, which as you've said isn't always the case, I feel like I'm doing it all wrong. Intentional living is how I like to think about it. There will be times where life will be busy but you can still live intentionally during those times 💫
Yes! At the end of the day, slow is just another label. It's what it means to you and if intentional feels better, then use that! Or use nothing at all and just call it living life 😂 You can't do anything wrong when you're just doing life!
Haha absolutely!
I love this framing of being able to live intentionally even when life is moving fast. Thanks for sharing your thoughts!
So glad it resonated with you!!
Great post! I was sort of forced into slow living by Long COVID, but lately I’ve been able to see it as a silver lining of the illness.
My husband has Long Covid - we’ve had lots of healing break throughs in the 2.5 years since he got it - let me know if you need any support. 💖
Thank you! I’m slowly getting there. 3.5 years for me.
(If you’re interested, here’s my latest post, which is really at its core all about slowing down: https://open.substack.com/pub/longcovidandme/p/is-your-underwear-clean-if-so-everything?r=o3zsi&utm_medium=ios&utm_campaign=post)
I’ve added your post to my reading list! Can’t wait to dive in ❤️
Great, thank you!
I’m so sorry you’ve been dealing with long COVID, that’s incredibly hard. Slow living can definitely be something we embrace, I came to it after a very hard season of depression and while it frustrated me that I was stuck in this slow living way of life, learning about the movement helped me to see the beautiful aspects that I can incorporate into my life when I’m feeling good too!
Did you see this post from Jen Carrington? https://open.substack.com/pub/jencarrington/p/when-slow-is-a-requirement-not-a?r=2198qd&utm_medium=ios&utm_campaign=post
I feel like you might resonate with it! Sending love!!
Thank you for this link!
I love this! Especially interesting about how slow living has now become a 'thing' to capitalise on and create an Instagram-perfect vision of, which likely goes against the whole point of it in the first place 🙄
No doubt if it was called 'intentional living' there'd be the same thing. I've observed we humans seem to love creating labels which then result in whole industries crafted around them (especially more so in the social media age).
Really liked the framing of your article :)
Oh definitely! I think most of it is sincere, but it's definitely hard when any type of lifestyle becomes more popular and is made 'Instagrammable'. Reminds me a lot of the minimalist movement too!
We definitely love capitalizing on any sort of label. I know slow living will surpass that though, or at least I hope so!
Thank you so much for sharing your insights!!
Thanks for sharing! Earlier this year, I started my mornings with a cup of coffee and writing morning pages - it’s helped so much to start my day off in “slow” way and I think, I’ve slowed down a lot this year. Like you, I still have times where I don’t know if I’m coming or going but I appreciate the calm only more. 💕
Mmm love that! And I love that you do morning pages, so soul-giving!
That's beautiful. It's funny how once you start to incorporate those tiny moments you realize that you want more of it and slowly craft your life around it, even in the midst of busy times!
Thank you so much for commenting!
Omg I love this!! This especially resonated with me: "Slow living is not lazy living, sitting on the couch all day doing nothing (though resting is absolutely necessary!), or having zero drive to achieve anything. It’s the opposite, actually, because when you are so in tune with your deepest desires of what you want out of life, all the distractions dissipate and the purpose emerges stronger than ever before."
To me, slow living is about being purposeful. Refusing to buy into the hustle, and instead taking life in the direction I want. Thank you for writing this.
Ahh purposeful yes I love that so so true!
SO good!
Ah yes Theresa! So glad you feel the same!
Mmm purposeful is such a good way to describe it. Yes, saying no to hustle and yes to an authentic, well-lived life. Thank you!! ❤️
Much, much love for this beautiful reminder of a post. Let's cherish our life to the fullest, even if it means embracing the ugly parts too!
Mmm, absolutely!! Thank you so much!
Gosh what wonderful advice. Being a natural people pleaser (Im an enneagram 9 if that means anything to anyone!) I find it so hard to say no to people without a really good reason! When in fact if someone said no to meeting up with me because they weren’t feeling social or needed a day of space, I would totally respect that and not be offended! Also not reaching for my phone whenever I’m in a queue or sat on my own...now that is something I definitely want to work on. Thank you for this post 🙏🏼
Ahh yes! You're the peacemaker!! I'm an Enneagram 4 but I have some 9 friends, so I totally know what you mean! And I definitely find it hard to say no a lot too, especially to family. It helps me to remember that saying no allows me to show up as my best self so that when I say yes, it's a fully embodied yes. I'm not saying no because I don't want to see that person or do that activity (though sometimes I don't haha), it's because I wouldn't be showing up as my most authentic self at that moment and probably wouldn't be very present. So to me, saying no is the compassionate response for when I'm out of alignment (or just not feeling it) and has nothing to do with the other person. Hope that helps! Xx
That makes such wonderful sense 🥰
Absolutely 👍🏻 living intentionally and in line with your values is so expansive!
It truly is, expansive is such a good word for it!!
Interesting. Love the term slow living.
It's empowering, isn't it?
Great post, Hunter! It made me laugh when you spoke about your code words as a child. I remember doing the same and then ‘blaming’ my mum for being too strict.
But my daughter is the same! She approached me a while back and said she’d thought of a secret phrase to use when she had had enough of being at her friend’s house and wanted to come home. If she ever texts me asking ‘have you fed the dogs yet?’, then this is time for me to reply something like ‘something has come up, I need to come and collect you, can you get ready please?’. She’s definitely my daughter 🤣
I was hoping someone else would say they've done the same thing 🤣
That's so sweet that you guys have that communication!! I always thought I'd have a kid like that, but I have a feeling Maverick will be the kind of kid that never wants to leave her friends house, she seems so social and very opposite of me 🤣 but who knows! Ha!
I thought it was sweet, but also clever of her! Harriet is very social, but she has her limits 😅
Sounds like she's very balanced in that way. I love that!!
Love your take on this! Especially love your first point about slow living being aligned, intentional living, I found a slower/more gentle way of being after a good few years in the hustle culture of doing way too much and living a long way away from what is right for me and my body. I have found my 30s and undoubtedly motherhood to be a pathway of healing this and feel I am now much more in tune with myself which generally requires a much slower approach x
I truly think slow living is the ideal way for women to live life because it aligns so well with our natural circadian rhythm and cyclical way of living. When we try to go against that and live in a masculine world (for an extended period of time) with a lot of masculine energy and not a lot of feminine energy, we get burnt out and sick from the hustle.
Motherhood is such a beautiful gateway to give ourselves permission to live slowly. I love that you've been exploring that more in your 30's! Xx
I couldn't agree more. In fact, I knew things were really up when my 'hustling' caused me to lose my cycle completely for some time. The healing work I did to get back on track led me to a different slower path of ebbs and flows which naturally continued into pregnancy and motherhood...it continues to be a learning process of listening inward and focusing on what feels most nourishing. Thank you again for your words! Lx
Wow, yes! What a direct result of not living in alignment with our biology. So glad you've been able to dive deep into healing and slow living, and that it feels so aligned for you!!
This really resonates with me. Thanks so much for sharing it. I used to shy away from slow living posts on Instagram and their intentionally curated aesthetic. It just felt like one more thing I wasn't doing properly. Then I found accounts like yours that really spoke to me and made me realise that slow living is much more of a mindset thing, an internal focus. It's not something you can necessarily take a cute photo of and pop on your grid .
Absolutely! I definitely get caught up in the aesthetic version of it. I really went down the rabbit hole with the sustainability movement to a point where I felt like everything I was doing was wrong or everything everyone else was doing was wrong, and I slow living felt like it naturally had sustainable elements to it, but it wasn’t so dogmatic in its thinking, if that makes sense. It totally is just a mindset at the end of the day, and whatever magic comes from that is beautiful!
Absolutely love the reclaim here... and your honesty as always! ✨🙏
Thank you, Claire!! ❤️
Loved it!
Thank you so much!
Lovely article Hunter. I long for slow living but my life is crammed full out of necessity currently and to get to a point where I can slow down, I need to juggle more things than is ideal. So just finding some little moments through out the day is definitely something I can do 💛
It’s definitely about those little moments, and slowly (pun intended) they’ll turn into your big moments. ❤️ hope you can lay down the juggling act soon!