the tortoise & the hare

Latest Episodes:

Slow Book Tour Live - with Joel Zaslofsky Oct 11, 2018

Show notes

We're not gonna lie, after some 17,000 miles, 29 US states and more than 35 incredible, heart-warming events, the Slow book tour is all wrapped up, and we're a little tired.

But before we put a bow on what's been an incredible experience we want to share one final live recording with you, because it's a special one. The tour finished up in Minneapolis, where Brooke sat down for a conversation with her friend Joel Zaslofsky at ModernWell. Joel asks Brooke the big questions (he always has, it's one of his superpowers) and they dive deep in to topics we haven't covered before.

Enjoy! And another heartfelt thanks to everyone who came out to the book tour events over the past few months - words can't describe how grateful we are.

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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 join in on our live monthly video calls.

And thanks so much for listening!

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

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Slow Book Tour Live at Anderson's Bookshop Chicago Oct 04, 2018

Show notes

After a few technical hiccups Brooke and Ben were finally able to record one of their live podcast recordings while on the Slow book tour, and today's episode was recorded live at Anderson's Bookshop near Chicago.

The crowd was really engaged and Ben and Brooke had such a wonderful time talking about Slow, the practical realities of slow living and family life, their experience while travelling through the US and Canada for 8 months, and their plans for the future.

They also talk about privilege and slow living, and why Brooke firmly believes that slow living will change the world - by helping people create space and time to care more.

The live events have been such a highlight this year, and here's hoping 2019 brings more opportunity to get together with like-minded people!

Enjoy!

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Mindful Moments (Journalling) - A Slow Experiment Sep 26, 2018

Show notes

It’s the last Slow Experiment episode for September! For the final week of Mindful Moments, Brooke and Ben look at journaling as way to bring a pocket of slow and mindfulness to a busy day. It’s no secret that Ben is not the biggest journaler alive (see: the great journaling experiment of 2016), but by the end of the episode even he is convinced to give it another crack. Maybe.

Brooke is a big journaler, and has used it as a tool to manage anxiety, give shape to her mornings and help her find slow moments in everyday life for many years. She found during the book tour that the busier life got, and the more she had to strip back her morning rhythm and self-care, journaling was a thing that stuck, and kept helping. It gave her immediate relief on anxious days, was portable and easy, could be as big or small a task as she needed and she felt the effects throughout the day. If that’s not a testimonial, we don’t know what is.

The guys then share a few ideas for ways to bring journaling into your day, from Brooke’s ideal scenario (Julia Cameron-style, 3 A4, handwritten, stream-of-consciousness morning pages over a cup of coffee) to the reality of some days (a couple of bullet points quickly jotted down). They also share techniques floating around, including Gretchen Rubin’s one sentence a day and the movement that is Bullet Journaling (abbreviated to bujo, I believe). Whatever works for you is the way to go.

Brooke also talks about the research she found about the impacts of journaling on physical and mental health. Studies have shown that journaling can help strengthen your immune system, and that people who journal regularly heal more quickly and get fewer colds/flus and viruses. Journalling also reduces levels of stress, anxiety and depression, and influences our emotional intelligence, and ability to identify and solve problems in relationships.

Sounds good to us! Join us this week and experiment with a different kind of journaling. Feel free to share your efforts over on Instagram, using the hashtag #slowexperiment.

A big thanks to everyone who played along this month - we’ve loved seeing your mindful moments. Next month we’ll be sharing some live recordings, as well as a hostful reflecting on all things book tour. So stay tuned, and be sure to keep an eye on slowyourhome.com/events for all the Canadian mini-book tour stops as they get confirmed. To read more about the episode, head over to http://slowyourhome.com/257/ for all the links and resources mentioned, as well as the full blog post.

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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!

===

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

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Mindful Moments (Gratitude) - A Slow Experiment Sep 19, 2018

Show notes

It’s week three of the Mindful Moments Slow Experiment, and today’s episode is all about gratitude as a tool for mindfulness. For Ben, the importance of cultivating gratitude has been one of the biggest lessons he’s learned from slow living. For Brooke, gratitude is an invaluable way to prevent that shift into negative thinking that can happen when life is busy or stressful. It’s a practice that can take just a minute or two in your day, but have incredible benefits for your life. So let’s dive in!

First up, the guys break down exactly what gratitude is, and identify that it’s the specific kind of thankfulness that they’re focusing on, not the rose-coloured glasses approach to life. They then share some different examples of gratitude practices: a gratitude journal, having a chalkboard in the kitchen where everyone in the house writes one thing they’re grateful for everyday, writing a thank you note, using technology, loving-kindness meditation, sharing at the dinner table and more. These techniques help us to be mindful as they require us to shift out of autopilot and pay attention to and engage with what’s around us, and be thoughtful about what we have to be thankful for.

They then go on to look at the benefits of gratitude, which are vast. From developing love, compassion and empathy to helping us sleep better at night, there are so many benefits for our physical and mental health. Grateful people feel fewer aches and pains, feel healthier (and generally are healthier), and are more likely to exercise regularly, get regular checkups with a doctor and live longer (say whaaaat?!) It’s also the antidote to the build-up of toxic emotions, and helps to build resilience, perspective and self-esteem. Brooke shares that gratitude helps her to really savour the good moments, and allows them to be the bits of her day she remembers, rather than the less-amazing times.

So give it a try - connect on Facebook and Instagram by sharing one thing you’re grateful for this week, using the hashtag #slowexperiment. And go from there. To read more about the episode, head over to http://slowyourhome.com/256/ for all the links and resources mentioned, as well as the full blog post.

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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!

===

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

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Mindful Moment (Observation) - A Slow Experiment Sep 13, 2018

Show notes

In this week’s episode Brooke and Ben continue their month of Mindful Moments for the Slow Experiment, looking at the technique of mindful attention or observation. This is something that Brooke has been practicing for a few years now, and is an excellent example of just how simple mindfulness can be.

At its core, mindfulness is paying attention, and this technique takes that to a granular level. Try sitting in study of a tiny detail for a couple of minutes, noticing something you wouldn’t have otherwise, and then see how you feel afterwards. Another way to do this is a body scan, where you sit and rotate your awareness through each of your five senses for a couple of minutes in total - getting very specific about what you can see, hear, smell, touch and taste. Brooke still remembers the impact this had on her at the height of her overwhelm and depression years ago, and the way it would pull her into the present moment and out of resentment and anxiety.

For Ben, this mindful attention technique translates to the workplace as single-tasking. After years of being told multitasking is gold, he now breaks projects down into tasks and then works through those tasks one at a time, focusing on nothing else until the one at hand is complete.

There are so many benefits to these techniques of stripped-back mindfulness. Brooke shares a study she found that said even after one week of a short daily mindfulness practice, participants showed significant improvements in attention, energy and ability to cope with stress, as well as in processing, working memory and executive functioning.

We’d love to hear how you’re going if you’re playing along, and whether you’ve noticed any benefits like these. Let us know how you go - connect on Facebook and Instagram. To read more about the episode, head over to http://slowyourhome.com/255/ for all the links and resources mentioned, as well as the full blog post.

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And thanks so much for listening!

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

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Mindful Moments (Breath) - A Slow Experiment Sep 05, 2018

Show notes

It’s a new month, and a new Slow Experiment. Hooray! For September, Brooke and Ben are playing with Mindful Moments, and invite you to do the same. This is probably the most accessible experiment of all time, and in this episode they share their intentions for the month and explain how you can start to bring more mindfulness into your daily life.

For Brooke and Ben, mindfulness is all about paying attention without expectation or judgment. They’re stripping mindfulness back to its essence - it’s not a meditation experiment (although you can meditate if you like!) and doesn’t require any apps or colouring books, but is an exploration of four different mindfulness practices. They’re committing to 5 minutes of mindfulness a day, but you can choose your own adventure. 2 minutes is better than nothing at all - and the busier you are, the more likely you are to benefit from a mindful moment.

In this episode they kick off by looking at breathing as a mindfulness practice, specifically deep breathing (or square breathing) and lion’s breath. They break both techniques down, and you can also find links to tutorials in the blog post. The benefits of deep breathing have been proven: it relieves stress and anxiety by impacting the nervous system, as well as positively impacting stress hormones. Plus, stress reduction is the a win for our physical and mental wellbeing.

So have a play, see what works for you, and commit to deep breathing every day this week. Let us know how you go - connect on Facebook and Instagram, and be sure to download the Mindful Moments guide over on the website for more ideas and suggestions for the experiment. To read more about the episode, head over to http://slowyourhome.com/254/ for all the links and resources mentioned, as well as the full blog post.

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And thanks so much for listening!

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

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Slow Book Tour Live - with Jess Davis Aug 29, 2018

Show notes

The Slow book tour rolls on this week, and in this poggie Brooke sits down to chat with her irrerepressible and inspiring mate Jess Davis - a Brooklyn-dwelling tech ethicist, slow living advocate and founder of Folk Rebellion.

This episode was recorded at Greenlight Bookstore in Brooklyn in August, and during the conversation and Q&A session Brooke and Jess talk through the meaning of slow in a fast-paced city like Brooklyn.

Jess shares some of what inspired her to change from living a constantly connected, burnt out, stress-filled life to now helming an organisation who's main goal is to get people off their screens and out in to life, as well as how she manages her life in both a real and practical sense.

She and Brooke also answer a whole heap of audience questions and generally just have a hell of a time hanging out.

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Slow Book Tour Live - with Tsh Oxenreider Aug 15, 2018

Show notes

This week we’re coming to you live from Austin, where Brooke sat down with longtime friend of the show Tsh Oxenreider as part of the Slow Book Tour. It was their second ever IRL meeting, and they dive into all things slow, values, balance and more, as well as answering some thoughtful questions from the readers and listeners at BookPeople. Brooke and Tsh share similar views on how it’s the feeling that matters when it comes to living slowly, not the way it looks, as well as a real wanderlust and curiosity about the world, which made for a really special conversation.

Brooke kicks off by asking Tsh to describe what slow or simple living means to her. They talk about the idea of reverse-engineering your life based on your values (or your eulogy, like Brooke did) and how living intentionally is so much more than a checklist of items in your wardrobe. Tsh highlights her family’s mantra of ‘people and experiences over things’, and the way she can apply it to her life almost like a filter to help her make decisions.

They talk about the power of experimentation and baby steps when you first start to make changes in your life, and the value of creating space in your home and space in your day (and how it can lead to space in your mind). Then it’s on to how to stay slow when things get fast, and the prioritisation of the big picture view over the pressure of daily balance. Tsh shares her Think Day concept (which we are VERY here for) and how helpful she finds it to step back and zoom out from her life to see where things are at.

Then it’s onto listener questions! They’re a diverse bunch, on everything from decluttering anxiety and how to say no (hot tip: Let me get back to you) to what Brooke would have done differently in her journey to slow.

And it’s a wrap! A massive thanks to Tsh for showing up, jet lag and all, as well as all the folks in Austin for their support and brilliant questions. To read more about the episode, head over to http://slowyourhome.com/251/ for all the links and resources mentioned, as well as the full blog post. Also stay tuned for next month’s Slow Experiment, all about mindfulness! We can’t wait to dig deep into this practice and how it can help you to bring moments of slow to your days.

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And thanks so much for listening!

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

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Slow Book Tour Live - with Courtney Carver Aug 08, 2018

Show notes

It’s the first live episode from the Slow Book Tour! This week we’re listening to Brooke’s chat with the one and only Courtney Carver, from the King's English bookstore in Salt Lake City.

Brooke and Courtney have been working together for many years, and while they’ve exchanged countless emails and Skype chats, this was their first meeting IRL. Their conversation covers what motivated them to start to slow down, what slow looks like now and ideas for how to bring more intention into your life, no matter how fast your days might feel.

Courtney shares that her journey to simple began with a wake up call: her diagnosis of MS a few years ago. She decided to eliminate as much stress from her life as possible, and began making changes to her diet and then addressing her debt. It looked like minimalism to begin with, but it wasn’t long before it led to living a life of intention. She tells Brooke how exciting it felt to make these changes, but also how the step-by-step approach was so important. She and Brooke talk about the impact of decluttering, and how it’s about so much more than the stuff (and where it goes!)

All this decluttering forced both Brooke and Courtney to ask themselves: if I’m not my stuff, or my success, then who am I? For Courtney, this led to a real evaluation of her values and purpose, and the uncomfortable realisation that she was often distracted from what really mattered to her. Similarly, Brooke faced the same feelings when she sat down to write her eulogy four years ago. The life she was living wasn’t going to get her to the place she wanted to end up.

They go on to talk about the value of space and buffer in helping us be less reactive and more mindful, and some of the ways they’ve brought a little more slow to their everyday lives. They then answer some really thoughtful questions from the audience, all about anxiety around expectations of productivity and work, and how to tame the people-pleaser within us when trying to slow down and simplify.

Courtney brings such heart and soul into everything she does, and this chat is no exception. We can’t wait to hear what you think - be sure to share your thoughts with us over on Instagram and Facebook. To read more about the episode, head over to http://slowyourhome.com/250/ for all the links and resources mentioned, as well as the full blog post.

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And thanks so much for listening!

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

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

An update from the road Aug 01, 2018

Show notes

Welcome to this week’s fast’n’loose hostful episode. Brooke and Ben get through what must be a record number of your questions, on everything from slow living in fast cities to travelling on a budget. A big thank you to everyone who submitted their thoughtful questions - we’re looking forward to continuing the conversations with you all on social media after listening!

Ben kicks off with a question from a listener who lives in Mumbai, asking how they can preserve their energy while living in such a fast-paced place. Brooke talks about the power of mindful micro-moments throughout the day to help you step out of the chaos and into the tiny details, while Ben talks about the replenishing effects of spending time in green spaces in cities, harking back to the nature Slow Experiment of the year.

In a similar vein, the next question is about ways to get out of your head (especially when you’re an analytical person *cough Brooke cough*) other than meditation. Brooke shares two of her favourite strategies for this: brain dumping and the body scan. Later in the episode she also shares what she uses to meditate, for anyone searching for an app to use.

Then it’s on to a bunch of travel-related questions. Brooke and Ben talk about what they’re cooking and eating on the road (spoiler alert: their meals are “not setting the world on fire”, according to Ben), the oven foods they miss the most (strong contender for question of the episode), how the kids are going with school and being on the move so much and how to travel when you’re on a budget.

They finish off with an adorable throwback (how did Brooke and Ben meet?), and then a couple more cracking questions about waste and learning. It’s interesting to hear some of the challenges they’ve faced in their slow travels, as well as what’s firing them up and sparking their interest at the moment.

What about you? We’d love to hear your thoughts on the questions asked and answers answered - head over to Facebook and Instagram and give us your two cents’ worth.

To read more about the episode, head over to http://slowyourhome.com/249/ for all the links and resources mentioned, as well as the full blog post.

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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!

===

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

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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