There is a lot of rushing around in motherhood. There are appointments to get to. There are after school clubs and meetings and sports practices and all of the things.
Then at home there is laundry to do, and cooking, paying bills, making appointments, cleaning the house and the list just keeps going on and on.
It’s busy.
Motherhood is busy.
One of the ways that we can make this a little bit easier on ourselves is to practice slow living.
What is slow living?
Slow living is choosing to live at a simpler and slower pace so you can live life more intentionally.
It’s intentionally choosing what our values are and what is important to us, and living with that in mind.
You are in the drivers seat. You get to choose what is important, and then you can say no to anything that isn’t that.
It’s about slowing down and noticing the simple things that make life that little bit better, and when we are rushing around a million miles an hour it’s very difficult to notice those things…Like the way your child’s nose crinkles when they laugh, or how much joy they get out of the smallest things.
It’s easy to get caught up in the busy-ness of motherhood, especially with social media. We can see families doing all these different things, and naturally we are going to feel concerned that our child or our family will miss out if they don’t do that too but it’s not true.
It’s just a pressure we are putting on ourselves.
Of course there will be things that you have to go to, like hospital appointments, but there is so much that we can consciously decide to NOT do.
If you are doing the things that are important to you and your family and that you value – you are not going to feel like you are missing out because you are doing the things that matter MOST to you.
Some examples…
Let’s say for example, spending time as a family is important to you and it’s one of your core values.
If every evening and every weekend is spent rushing around to different activities, and you are taking your son to football and your husband is taking your daughter to swimming lessons etc every night and then you have a small chunk of time together for dinner and then everyone is back doing their own thing again – even though you are doing things, you are not spending time as a family, so something inside you is going to feel like something isn’t quite right.
It’s not that your child can’t do activities but if spending time as a family is important but there is no time because of activities maybe it’s time to have a family meeting and ask your child to choose just one or two favourites so that you do have some spare evenings to be a family.
Another example could be…
You would like to go on more adventures on the weekend as a family, but there is just no time because the weekends are just full of cleaning and getting on top of the housework.
An intentional way of dealing with this would be to decide that those family adventures and more important to you than tidying up and you do a huge declutter of your home and become a more minimalist family.
This doesn’t mean you need to get rid of all of your stuff, it means getting rid of the things that you don’t love or need to make room for the stuff that does matter.
I’ve got a blog post on that here if you are interested!
What does slow living look like?
Slow living is going to look different for every family.
It might look like intentionally choosing to spend less time on your phone so that you can spend more time playing or chatting with your children and family.
It might look like intentionally choosing to have less things by doing a huge declutter on your home so you spend less time cleaning and more time going on adventures as a family or finally having the time to start that passion project or business you’ve been dreaming of.
It might look like choosing less after school activities so you can spend more time as a family.
It might look like saying no to the things you don’t want to do so that you have more time to do the things that you do want to do.
It might look like less takeaways and fast food and spending more time in the kitchen cooking nourishing meals for your family.
It might look like spending less money and making a budget so that you can save up for those big adventures you keep dreaming of.
It might look like intentionally becoming a stay at home mum to spend more time with your children.
It might look like intentionally deciding to enjoy being a stay at home mum even though that’s not what you had planned but you are a carer for your child.
It’s being intentional about your life so you can create an amazing one.
So how do I start?
The first place to start is to decide on what is important to you and what your values are.
I have a blog post here if that is something that you haven’t worked out yet.
For example these might be spending time with family, going for adventures, cooking home cooked food etc.
Then when you have found your values, look at your life now, the things that you do everyday, the activities that you say yes to. Do they match your values?
Remember…
If you google slow living there seems to be a typical aesthetic for it. Maybe it’s a family living on their own small holding, or a family homeschooling, or someone reading with some cosy blankets, a candle and a warm cuppa.
Your version of slow living does not need to look like anyone else’s.
If you have children there is still going to be loud and there is still going to be kinda crazy and completely unexpected and out of your control things happening – but when we live slower and more intentionally it allows us to be able to cope with life a little bit easier.
It’s about creating a life that you love, rather than living one you want to escape from.
It’s about slowing down and noticing the simple things that make life that little bit better, and when we are rushing around a million miles an hour it’s very difficult to notice those things.
Do you practice slow living? Let me know in the comments!
Beth x
