slow your home

After last month’s not-so-great finish to the journalling experiment, Brooke and Ben are back with a new Slow Home Experiment - daily meditation.

This month they’ve decided not to put too many rules or stipulations on the experiment, but rather simply commit to the daily doing - no matter how that looks.

In this episode Brooke talks about why she’d like to meditate in the morning wherever possible, and Ben, with less predictable days, is more than happy to fit the meditation in wherever there is an opportunity.

Brooke and Ben are using the free app, Insight Timer to guide them through this month’s experiment, and Brooke has started a Slow Home Experiment group there, where you can connect with others doing the challenge, as well as follow along and see which meditations Brooke and Ben are doing each day.

Head over to http://www.slowyourhome.com/69 for links and resources, as well as the full blog post.

Don’t forget, you can play along by tagging your social media posts with #slowhomeexperiment and share your experiences. Hit us up on Facebook, Twitter or Instagram and let’s get experimenting!

Enjoy!

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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!

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As mad-keen travellers, Brooke and Ben now subscribe to the idea of slow travel, exploring more and getting to know places in a deeper, local kind of way.

In this hostful episode they answer three great listener questions about:

• the issue of over-planning
• how to balance getting things done and enjoying the down time
• keeping kids occupied on long-haul trips

Ben and Brooke also talk about their attempts to pack light for this trip, why they don’t get a local SIM card when they travel and the major benefits of setting up a home base and exploring from there, as opposed to being on the move constantly.

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.

In this episode Brooke and Ben look at week three of this month’s Slow Home Experiment, where they’ve committed to spend time each day writing in a family journal.

This past week it’s turned into somewhat of a travel journal, but today Ben talks about why he feels like it’s actually taking him out of living in the present moment while travelling, which isn’t at all what they expected when they took on this experiment. But it does bring to light the difference between being present IN the moment and looking back on a day and focusing ON a moment with clarity.

Don’t forget, you can play along with Brooke and Ben by tagging your social media posts with #slowhomeexperiment and share your experiences. Hit us up on Facebook, Twitter or Instagram and let’s get experimenting!

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.

Today’s guest is Joshua Fields Millburn - one half of The Minimalists and a delightful human - and he and Brooke look back at his life pre-minimalism. They talk about why he made the shift away from the American Dream (hint: it wasn’t his dream after all) and how he started the process of simplifying.

They look at some practical approaches for dealing with clutter and the “just in case” stuff that trips so many up, and also talk about the importance of understanding our reasons for wanting to change. Both Joshua and Brooke have found that it’s these reasons that keep them going when things get tricky, so spending the time to uncover why is super important as you create a simpler, slower life.

Joshua also talks about simplicity and living a creative life, as well as the upcoming release of Minimalism: A Film - the beautiful documentary he and Ryan Nicodemus have produced.

Head over to http://www.slowyourhome.com/64 for the full blog post, as well as links and show notes from today’s conversation.

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.

This is the first episode Ben and Brooke have recorded while travelling throughout April, so they talk a little about their first few days away, as well as the embarrassing moment Brooke realised she’d posted an unedited version of the podcast before flying out!

They also look back at the March experiment of daily yoga - what went well, what was challenging, and whether they think they’ll be adopting into their lives.

They also talk about this month’s experiment of journalling as a family every day - which is already proving more challenging than expected.

Rather than use a set of rules, they’re keeping it pretty fluid this month and are both really looking forward to seeing how we enjoy the experiment and how it impacts gratitude, contentment, happiness and feelings of being present.

Don’t forget, you can play along with Brooke and Ben by tagging your social media posts with #slowhomeexperiment and share your experiences. Hit us up on Facebook, Twitter or Instagram and let’s get experimenting!

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.

Brooke and Ben sat down to talk about Week 4 of the Yoga Slow Home Experiment, and specifically how they managed to keep it up over the past week, where work has been busy and mornings disrupted.

They essentially learned the importance of being flexible in a number of ways, and again the idea of reducing the scope and sticking to the schedule has been really helpful.

Brooke has spent a little more time off-script this week, doing what feels good as opposed to what is strictly in the videos, and is feeling more at ease in general.

They also talk about next month’s challenge, as by this time next week they’ll be a few days into it and wanted to give you a little heads-up in case you’d like to join in.

Don’t forget, you can play along with Brooke and Ben by tagging your social media posts with #slowhomeexperiment and share your experiences. Hit us up on Facebook, Twitter or Instagram and let’s get experimenting!

====

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.

Brooke is a long-time reader of Paul Jarvis’ Sunday Dispatches and long-time listener of his Invisible Office Hours podcast, so she was super delighted to sit and chat with him about simplicity, writing our wills, Netflix and priorities.

They also spend quite a bit of time talking about the importance of being our true self online, and the BIG difference between that and sharing things we haven’t actually processed yet. Paul has written a lot about comparison and the myth that everyone else is living more interesting, photogenic lives that us, so we dive in to that too.

Paul also talks about his lack of routine, why busy-ness is a crutch we lean on to avoid feeling our feelings, and what his most recent purchase was.

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.

This episode could not be any more perfect for Brooke (unless it was about the Walking Dead). In this show, Kelly and Brooke take a good look at clutter and their relationship to stuff.

Why do we accumulate stuff at such a rate? How can we learn to let go? Do we, in fact, want to let go?

It's a thoroughly modern problem to own too much stuff, but it's one so many of us face. Today Brooke and Kelly both talk about their thoughts on stuff and clutter, as well as some really practical suggestions for how to best start dealing with it, letting go and getting free.

Head over to http://www.letitbe.fm to learn more about Kelly and Brooke and subscribe to the show!

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This month’s Slow Home Experiment of 30 days of yoga is proving super fascinating. And while they’re only two weeks in, Brooke and Ben are starting to get a glimpse of everything that’s involved (both physically and emotionally) in a regular yoga practice.

Before they had actually practiced yoga, Ben and Brooke thought it was all about being zen and chill and effortlessly moving through poses. And while it might well be those things, this week they discover there’s a lot more to it, as they find themselves getting angry on the mat.

They also talk about how they’re feeling physically, as well as why they got so ridiculously mad during Day 9’s video!

Head over to http://www.slowyourhome.com/55 to see some more progress photos and for links to Adriene’s videos and her youtube channel.

Don’t forget, you can play along with Brooke and Ben by tagging your social media posts with #slowhomeexperiment and share your experiences. Hit us up on Facebook, Twitteror Instagram and let’s get experimenting!

====

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.