slow home

Brooke first discovered the idea of deowning via Joshua Becker and initially found it quite challenging to understand. Surely isn't decluttering the same as deowning? Letting go of the excess is the same as no longer needing to own them, right?

Not quite.

Turns out it’s more about letting go of the need to own things at all. And tied up in that idea are things like ego and convenience, expectations and habits, boredom and discontent, advertising and status.

In this episode Brooke and Ben talk about their own realisation that decluttering and deowning are related and yet quite different, as well as some of the ways they’re learning to deown even now. 

This includes sharing, hiring and borrowing things, and thinking outside the box when it comes to needs versus convenience.

Head over to http://www.slowyourhome.com/194 for the full blog post and excerpt from SLOW.

Enjoy!

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And thanks so much for listening!

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It’s been a couple of months since Brooke and Ben announced their plans to head off in to the wild and spend 2018 travelling, and quite a lot has happened since then. So they decided (somewhat foolishly, perhaps) to sit down, hit record, and just… talk. No notes. No plans. No idea.

In a looser, more conversational episode, Brooke and Ben share a clear insight into life at the moment, including the preparations for their upcoming trip (or rather, their lack of preparations) as well as the first couple of weeks of book launch life.

Brooke talks about the vulnerability hangover of the book’s release and the beautiful (and not quite as enthusiastic) feedback she’s been receiving over the past couple of weeks.

They also talk about the importance of creating and honouring their personal boundaries at the moment, and Brooke’s ongoing project of learning to say no more often.

Ben thinks this is the loosest poggie they’ve recorded in a while, and isn’t sure whether that’s a good or bad thing… Head over to http://www.slowyourhome.com/193 for the full blog post and to let Brooke and Ben know if you like these off the cuff check ins, or…not.

Enjoy!

====

If you're enjoying the show and want to know how to best support it, leave a rating or a review in iTunes or head over to the Patreon page to help support the show financially and join in on our live monthly video calls.

And thanks so much for listening!

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See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

To celebrate the release of SLOW in Australia and New Zealand this month, Brooke and Ben are spending the next few Mondays diving in to four central ideas in the book. It’s a way to share some of their favourite parts of SLOW with you, but also a way to say thank you for all your support over the past few years.

In today’s episode Ben and Brooke talk about the importance of caring more and caring less.

It can be really easy to become overwhelmed as we begin to walk the path of slowing down, with every blog, every podcast, every book telling us different things we need to focus on in order to do life right. And the hard part is that none of them is necessarily wrong. The key is to figure out what matters to you, and what doesn’t, then spend time learning how to care more about the former and less about the latter.

Ben and Brooke talk about their personal take on this duality of caring, and what Brooke calls her Barometer of Caring.

They also talk about how you can learn to care less about the things that don’t matter but that might take up an inordinate amount of time. You can do this by monitoring your inputs. That is, look at the utter BS stories we’re sold via media, social media, TV, shoulds and expectations of others, and ask yourself how you would feel if you cared a little less about those stories.

Head over to http://www.slowyourhome.com/192 for the full blog post as well as the Barometer of Caring illustration from the book.

Enjoy!

====

If you're enjoying the show and want to know how to best support it, leave a rating or a review in iTunes or head over to the Patreon page to help support the show financially and join in on our live monthly video calls.

And thanks so much for listening!

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See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Today Brooke chats with Justin Morrissey, the founder of Toolo, the Blue Mountains’ first tool library and co-op. As you probably know, a huge part of slow living is based in both community and environmental stewardship, and tool libraries are a big step in the right direction.

In this episode Justin and Brooke get really practical, as he explains how he began the library (and what drove him to do so in the first place) as well as his advice for people who may want to start a library in their own community. They also look at how the organisation is structured and the work that went in to it before launching, as well as the vital role that volunteers play in its ongoing success.

Brooke and Justin also talk about the issue of convenience, and why our mindset needs to shift from one of immediacy to one of preparation (we can’t expect these resources to operate in the same way as the local Bunnings or big box store) and how learning to let go of the ego of ownership is a big part in the change too.

If you listen to today’s episode and want to know more about starting or running a tool library yourself, head over to http://www.slowyourhome.com/185 and click the link to get in touch with the team at Toolo, as they’re a wealth of expertise and are happy to work with other communities looking to make the change. And if you live in the Blue Mountains, sign up and support Toolo! They need to make it to 150 members by 2018 in order to keep running and that means it’s on the community to support them.

Enjoy!

====

If you're enjoying the show and want to know how to best support it, leave a rating or a review in iTunes or head over to the Patreon page to help support the show financially.

And thanks so much for listening!

====

Join The Tortoise Community: https://brookemcalary.substack.com/

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

We’ve got something a little different lined up for the next four weeks, and while at first glance it might not seem to be too closely related to the practicalities of slow living, Brooke and Ben think that anyone currently struggling with certain areas of slow living is going to benefit from it a lot.

The next few weeks they're going to explore slow learning.

Why?  

One of the common obstacles people face in learning to slow down and simplify is the one-step-forward, two-steps-back dance that often accompanies it. There is so much information available for us as we try to establish what approach works, and often we simply immerse ourselves in as much of it as possible. The problems arise when either we don’t spend our time in the doing, or when we try to learn in a way that doesn’t work for us personally.

Today Ben explains the three different types of learner and how we can harness the strengths and limitations of them, and why it matters. The full blog post is over at http://www.slowyourhome.com/184

Enjoy!

====

If you're enjoying the show and want to know how to best support it, leave a rating or a review in iTunes or head over to the Patreon page to help support the show financially and join us for our live monthly calls. 

And thanks so much for listening!

====

Join The Tortoise Community: https://brookemcalary.substack.com/

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This will probably come as a surprise to exactly no-one, but Brooke used to really over-complicate things (and sometimes still does). She would over-engineer solutions and spend huge amounts of time trying to get right down deep in to the specific thoughts, behaviours or actions that were causing problems. And while she believes we sometimes need to ruminate on things for a while before clarity comes knocking, other times we just need to simplify.

In today’s poggie Brooke finds herself coming back to the same handful of answers time and time again. They’re ideas she refers to in her own quest to slow down and simplify life, and they apply to all of the questions in today’s hostful episode. As always, the questions are insightful and challenging, and Ben and Brooke try their best to answer them:

• How do you manage different personality types within a family (introvert v extrovert, the needs of solitude v constant companionship, etc)?
• How do you adjust to things being out of control / out of what you had planned? And how do you regain calm / slow when life takes over?
• What to do when one of your kids is a hoarder and leaves their many belongings all over the house?
• What do you grow in your garden and what are your best tips for a serial plant killer?
• What sorts of mindful exercise do you enjoy (aside from yoga and hiking?)
• What are you reading/listening to? And what do you enjoy reading aloud to your children?

The full blog post is over at http://www.slowyourhome.com/183 as well as links to pre-order Brooke’s books and to learn more about next month’s Patreon live call.

Enjoy!

====

If you're enjoying the show and want to know how to best support it, leave a rating or a review in iTunes or head over to the Patreon page to help support the show financially.

And thanks so much for listening!

====

Join The Tortoise Community: https://brookemcalary.substack.com/

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

When we first started this month’s Slow Home Experiment, the last thing Brooke and Ben expected were tears. And yet, late last week, on Day 18 of the experiment, Brooke found herself crying (yes, really) as she stood in her first ever tree pose.

She went on to bust out a fairly decent crow pose on Day 19 too and feels like this past week of the experiment has been a game-changer. She’s now seeing the massive benefits of yoga - beyond flexibility, or strength, or even striking an impressive pose and posting it on social media - and is excited to see what the rest of the experiment brings.

Ben, on the other hand, has had a kind of crappy week. He’s still determined to touch his toes by the end of the month and feels like a failure to do so will mean the experiment was a bust.

They’re also looking for your input on what the April experiment should be. Maybe ‘make time to play every day’? Or daily meditation? Head over to the blog post and leave a comment with your suggestions.

====

If you're enjoying the show and want to know how to best support it, leave a rating or a review in iTunes or head over to the Patreon page to help support the show financially.

And thanks so much for listening!

====

Join The Tortoise Community: https://brookemcalary.substack.com/

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.