Slow Living - Doing It Old Style!

Duchess2

Congratulations @Brie. I hope you have a long, happy and fulfilled retirement. You won’t regret it😃

Moorviews

Congratulations @Brie🎉 You will have no trouble filling your time!

@MissRikkiC - I keep thinking about this thread too. It’s great that you are taking that time to observe when you get a moment in your busy life. I do believe that it rests our minds and helps us to connect more deeply to life and our surroundings. Chicks grow so fast that it is lovely to enjoy them while you can. 

For myself, I am trying to stay out of supermarkets, support organic farming and shop small and local. Still cooking and baking, although I need to watch my waistline now so I need to boost the healthier side of that! Sitting in the garden each day is an essential for me because the birds are so amazing to watch at the moment. I love to hear birdsong and the other sounds of the countryside around me. I can tune in fully only when I am still. Walking with the dogs and playing with the GC, spending time with my DC provides such rich enjoyment that I can detach from the stresses of the wider world goings on. I have been creating a more secluded area in the garden so that I can practice yoga without being overlooked. Gardening by the phases of the moon where I can and trying to enhance our surroundings generally. Decluttering is an ongoing process and essential for me because too much stuff stresses my mind and I want to clear out the junk so that my DC never get left with that. 

Brie

Late yesterday afternoon we went from the sublime to the ridiculous.

 Had a little hummingbird flitting about seeing if it could get in through the window to inspect some flowers on the window sill.

 And then there were some huge birds in the orchard tidying up the remains of a squirrel that the dogs had partially devoured. Spread their wings and I realised they were turkey vultures which have about a 6 foot wing span. Apparently there are about 10 of them nesting in the barn again this year.

(currently in Canada just west of Niagara Falls)

Today I am most likely going to be sitting in the shade and doing a bit of sketching once we've listened to the Archers Omnibus assuming I can access it!

Mrs_Salad_Dodger

Brie, absolutely brilliant 🤩 

leftatthetrafficlights

Good morning everyone! 😁 

I've decided to come back to the boards earlier than planned as it feels right and I'm all for doing what feels right at the time! 😉 

My slow living has been re-imagined and transformed over the past 10 months as I have much less 'free' time now due to family commitments and responsibilities that I've taken on, but I'm still fully committed to acknowledging and appreciating the beauty and joy in every day 😍😁

My digital detox has been wonderful - I have no interest in breaking that other than for these forums and a yoga forum I occasionally visited last year. I have used YouTube for my yogic practices and music but that's pretty much been the extent of my digital engagement; I stayed with a relative a month or so ago for a few days and they had breakfast news on and it really brought home to me how toxic to me being the digital world is so there's no going back for me. 

One of the things that I have fully embraced over the past ten months is the fact that making plans is not necessarily a good thing - despite my absolute acceptance that change is the only definite in life, I have focused too much on the detailed planning of my day to day and have been disappointed in myself when those plans have failed or not worked as expected. I will no longer live like that - I am officially goal and plan free!!

Having broad guiding principles is a much better way for me to live and leads to a more balanced and happy life - I genuinely feel pretty much stress free these days despite having many more responsibilities than I did ten months ago so I know that it genuinely works for me 😁 

I'm going to have a mooch around the boards now - I hope that everyone is well and managing to live a slow life - it would be lovely to hear how you're all doing 😁🐌 

Wednesday2000

I thought about you yesterday! I was watching Happy Highland Life (or something like that) on YT and I think you recommended her to me on here.

I’m doing well. I am up to 24 out of 25 classes to hit my goal of 25 classes in 2025. I just did my reiki level 1 the other weekend. 

Duchess2

Welcome back @leftatthetrafficlights. Lovely to see you again. I too find planning puts unnecessary stress on me. Now I am fully retired I go with the flow. If something doesn’t happen today there’s always tomorrow or next week. It all eventually gets done and there’s no need to worry.

leftatthetrafficlights

Good to hear from you @Wednesday2000 and @Duchess2 😁 

Congratulations on completing your Reiki @Wednesday2000 🙌 are you planning on offering it to the general public or is it going to be a family & friends thing? Or have you just done it for the pleasure of learning it? 

@Duchess2 - I never thought that I did stress about the day to day stuff until I started really looking into the second niyama of the eight limbs of yoga (Santosha - contentment). I realised that when I was looking at the bigger picture (my overall aims) I was critical of what I hadn't achieved because of my laissez-faire attitude towards my day to day actions 🙄🤦‍♀️ It made me realise that I was still reacting when my reality failed to conform to my expectations rather than seeing and accepting reality for what it is and then acting skillfully. I'm getting much better at it now but it's a process! 😉 

Wednesday2000

I just did the reiki workshop for the experience, but I am thinking about doing level 2 next year. I became financially independent/ retired at 48 last year so I don’t really need the money to start my own business doing reiki, but it might be something I would consider.🙂

It is nice to see you back on here.😍

leftatthetrafficlights

@Wednesday2000 - it's lovely to learn things just for the pleasure of doing it - I'd definitely do level 2 if you enjoyed it 😁

Yesterday started with driving to my dd's house so that we could take my grandbaby to school and head out for a day in the city. It was a beautiful drive - the fog was laying on the fields and looked ethereal; I had a meditation music cd on and it felt so serene 😍

We had a lovely day; I got some things from the zero waste shop, a few bits from the health food shop and some new clothing for my grandbaby. We had a wander around the market and then had lunch in a falafel place which was very nice.



Today I'm going to walk my ds's dog (I do this three times a week now to help him out) then I'm going to clean the house, cook dinner, pick up my grandbaby from school (he moved to a specialist school 20 miles away earlier this year which he attends 4 days a week so I do the afternoon pick ups as my dd is at work) and then I'm bringing him home for his weekly sleepover 😍 I'm just hoping I can get back to sleep tonight so that I'm not too knackered to enjoy it all!! 😂

Hope you have a wonderful slow day! 😁🐌