There is a version of slow living the internet sells you: candles, linen, baking from scratch, empty afternoons with nowhere to be. While there’s nothing wrong with any of those things, they don’t always align with your current life. And your life, like mine, is probably busy, rushed, and overwhelming. Otherwise, we wouldn’t be here.
For the longest time, I thought slowness meant stillness. A lack of progress. Stagnation. So I resisted the idea of slowing down until my body gave up and forced me to. This is how this blog came to be.
In this post, I want to talk about how slow living does not mean stagnation or a lack of progress. It just means moving at a slower pace that’s more in line with your own life and values.
You Can’t Force Change — You Have to Be Ready for It
Whenever my life was becoming a little faster, busier, and fuller, I tried hard to slow it down. I felt like I wasn’t showing up for myself or for my blog readers. How can I write about slow living when my life is anything but slow?
I thought if I could just finish my to-do list perfectly, life will finally slow down and then I’d have something to write about.
But the truth is, I was forcing it. I was trying to perform slow living instead of actually living it. What I needed wasn’t to slow down harder. It was to stop trying to prove that I was living slowly enough.
But here is what I’ve come to understand: you can’t force change. You have to be ready for it. Mind, body, and heart, you have to be ready to let go of the comfort zone and grow into a new version of yourself that you haven’t met, ever.
And that can be scary.
Slow Living ≠ Stagnation
There’s a cultural narrative we’ve picked up about productivity being the ultimate marker for worthiness and success. Busyness is glorified as a virtue, and when it morphs into an identity, the result is a life you can’t wait to escape from.
This is exactly why you’re drawn to slow living: you need a breather from your own life. And most of us do from time to time but if you’re drowning in your own day-to-day, it’s time to consider a different path.
If this resonated and you’re ready to start building your own slower life, my Simple Guide To Slow Living ebook is a gentle place to begin. You can find it here. Or if you want both the philosophy and the practice, my Soft Life Planner is the perfect companion to living more intentionally. You can get it here.
What Slowing Down Actually Looks Like In Real Life
Slow living isn’t just a bunch of aesthetic reels on Instagram or perfectly positioned images on Pinterest. It’s entwined in real life, among the mess, the uncertainty, the chaos, and the stressful moments.
It’s in the little things that make up the big things: making decisions more carefully, saying no to things that cost you your health or wellbeing, choosing depth over volume in work and relationships, and creativity, however that looks like for you.
Slow living is about taking a break to come back to your body. It’s about appreciating the cup of coffee that keeps you going. It’s about playing with your kid or a pet and letting that be the most special moment of the day. It’s about the pile of dishes and being thankful that you serve food for your family in them.
There are some things that can only come to you if you slow down. Things you can only hear when you stop to listen. Things you can only see if you take a moment to look within. An entire life waiting to be lived fully, and that actually feels like yours.
What Would You Do Differently If Slow Was Enough?
What if slow living wasn’t a destination that seems so far away compared to your current life? What if living a simple life was enough to be happy? What would you do differently today?
If this post leaves you with anything, let it be this: if you resist change, you resist joy. The question is — why?
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