My take on 'slow living'.

Recently I stumbled across 'slow living' while browsing Pinterest at 1am because I couldn’t sleep so thought I’d use my time 'productively' and find some inspiration for some upcoming equine photoshoots as you do at that time.

Now if you know me you know I like to be busy, I have to do lists, lots of ideas in my head that never actually get down on paper, different projects half finished, any 'spare' time is spent thinking about blog ideas, new products and ideas for my little business, new schooling exercises for the horse. My brain never stops, I get bored easily and time passes quicker than you know. With that said most my days are productive, I get a lot done but I don’t think I ever truly switch off.

We also live in the age of the 'girl boss' a phrase often used with constantly hustling, striving for perfection, if time isn’t spent working on your goals then it’s time wasted and therefore actually sitting with a cuppa without doing your emails at the same time kind of makes you feel almost less of a wonder woman? But is this constant energy and busyness actually good for us? probably not.

So while browsing at 1am the idea of slow living seemed quite useful given the time of day and need for sleep! After reading a few posts it was actually quite appealing, I took it as a leisurely or relaxed pace to life, enjoying the moment rather than rushing it . The complete opposite to how I currently live so definitely a change that’s not going to happen over night!

In fact I don’t think I want to live all my life leisurely and relaxed, I don’t think I could juggle my full time job as a paramedic, a horse, two dogs, boyfriend and a small business if I spent all day looking out of the window with a book in hand BUT I think I definitely could make some parts of my day slower and I think that’s the most important point I want to make out of all of this. We deserve time off and so does your brain!

So I’ve been 'practicing' this new way of living, well my own take on it and actually I felt much more chilled and got pen to paper, orders complete, and even managed this blog post so it must be a good thing?

What I’ve done so far

Normally after my last night shift I don’t go to sleep, I stay up try to cram as much as I can to keep me awake and ultimately by 3pm I crash, everything’s half heartedly done and I resemble a zombie. I used to think this was productive as time asleep is time wasted right? Wrong.

This week I came in, went straight bed, woke up at 12 and spent the afternoon refreshed, got lots and lots done giving 100% and looked like a slightly healthier zombie. Result.

I Took the dogs a walk and actually stopped for ten minutes. As much as I enjoy walking the dogs, I’d always be editing a photo to schedule for later, make a phone call, listen to a podcast etc as again if I can multitask then I will. However as much as this is fine from now on 10 minutes out of the multitasking dog walk is going to be spent doing nothing. Literally just taking in the views, throwing rocks for the dogs as they splash in the river and just taking that 10 minutes of tranquil to fully recuperate.

Now I’m a long way off getting up earlier to enjoy 2 hours of chilled breakfast, cuppa in hand just enjoying the morning without touching social media to respond to a message or cracking on with the days to do's but eventually who knows.

Can I still be successful?

Yes, this about choosing what’s important to you and allowing time to do it. Whether that’s seeing your friends, taking time to ride your horse without rushing to be back, or even allowing yourself time to write a blog.

Being busy doesn’t make you anymore successful, and slowing down doesn’t make you lazy or any less of a 'girl boss' ( I really don’t like that phrase).

How can I do it?

Again, this is all my take on what it is and what it means to me but whether you want to go at it 100% , little and often or just now and again to start with I think it’s about just enjoying the moment and cutting out a little bit of the busyness!

Now if you go on Pinterest you do get bombarded with pretty coffee posts, countryside views and knitting by a fire which are lovely but let’s be honest we can’t just quit our jobs and lives so not all of it is feasible but little bits are. Instead of washing up as quick as you can why not look out of the window and embrace the view, using your dog walk to catch up on Instagram notifications and business phone calls why not take 10 mins of the dog walk to just sit or stand and take in your surroundings, truly relax and just enjoy.

Admittedly I did this and then thought ooooh let’s write a blog post about this so back came the busy brain but I think it’s a journey to slower living? Even if 10 minutes a day are slower than the week before then we are heading in the right direction.

Life is about balance, and balancing busyness and slowness to create productiveness for my business, blog and life sounds like a good thing to me!

So have a happy slower life, from the new lady of leisurely living , she says while rushing off to get emails replied to, before another load of washing is done in time for the horse physio maybe more work in progress lady of leisure?

Speak soon,Meg xx