the tortoise & the hare

Latest Episodes:

The biggest lesson Oct 01, 2017

Show notes

Happy 200th! The Slow Home Poggie is now 200 episodes old and in today’s show Brooke and Ben talk through some of the lessons they’ve learnt over the past two and a half years.

Interestingly, the biggest lesson has directly impacted today’s episode, which was going to be a big, spectacular, complex show. Brooke and Ben wanted to do something significant to celebrate and thought that needed to be different to the normal poggie, but the past couple of weeks travelling and the previous two months of book promotional touring has taught them the importance of flexibility and fluidity in their expectations.

And there-in lies the lesson. We need to let go of the self-imposed expectations and pressures. We need to simplify rather than complicate. And we need to understand that while there are things (many, many things) out of our control, there are also many other things we can control, to say no to, to let go of.

So instead of featuring voicemails and call-ins and loads of interesting insights from their wonderful community, this episode goes deep in to this big lesson.

Brooke and Ben also talk about their recent road trip and the unexpected pace of what they assumed would be a slow travel experience, as well as the pros and cons of camper van life.

It’s been a fun double century - here’s to another 200! Head over to http://www.slowyourhome.com/200 for the full post and links mentioned in today’s episode.
Enjoy!

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And thanks so much for listening!

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Rachael Kable talks kindness Sep 27, 2017

Show notes

Last episode Brooke and Ben went deep in to the idea of mindfulness - what it is, what it's not and how we can create opportunity for living more mindfully without having to add ever more tasks to our endless to-do lists.

It makes perfect sense then, that in this episode Brooke sits down to chat with the utterly delightful Rachael Kable, creator and host of one of the most uplifting mindfulness podcasts in the world, The Mindful Kind.

Brooke and Rachael chat about the meaning of mindfulness and the genesis of Rachael's personal discover of mindfulness. We also talk about mindful living and teenagers, a topic I'm asked a lot about, and Rach has some excellent tips on how to bring mindfulness in to the lives of a stressed out, highly connected teenager.

They also look at the intersection of mindfulness and kindness, which is evident as soon as you begin to listen to the way Rachael encourages not only self-compassion but also the multitude of ways she personally serves others. It's a really interesting part of the wider mindfulness conversation, because so often self-care is aligned with being selfish, but Rachael believes that it's vital to fill ourselves up with kindness and compassion in order to turn around and pass it down the line to others.

Head over to http://www.slowyourhome.com/199 for links to all the resources Brooke and Rachael discussed as well as Rachael's podcast and social media accounts.

Enjoy!

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And thanks so much for listening!

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Mind-full versus mind-less Sep 24, 2017

Show notes

Over the past few weeks Ben and Brooke have been looking at some of their favourite ideas from SLOW, and have left one of the biggest for last. Mindfulness.

Interestingly, mindfulness is facing a bit of an over-saturation backlash these days, as Brooke discovered in the writing of SLOW. And while she was at first surprised that an idea as gentle as mindfulness could ever be sneered at, she also hadn’t realised just how over complicated the idea of mindfulness had become and how the meaning of mindfulness has been diluted and lost in a sea of products, apps and programs.

Brooke, however, is a huge advocate for mindfulness, knowing that it has changed her life in a multitude of big and tiny ways. Not because of a specific app or a mindfulness colouring book, but because it has taught her to pay attention.

So how do we bring mindfulness to our daily lives without over-complicating it? What does that look like? And how do we find the time for it when life is already full and busy?

In this poggie Ben and Brooke talk through the ways they both add mindfulness to their days. For Brooke it includes both traditional practices such as meditation, yoga, deep breathing or body scans, as well as things that may not immediately strike you as mindful. Ben also talks about golf as mindfulness and why traditional practices like meditation haven’t worked for him.

Head over to http://www.slowyourhome.com/198 for the full blog post and excerpt from SLOW, and enjoy!

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And thanks so much for listening!

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The Mike Campbell Take-Over Sep 20, 2017

Show notes

Today’s episode is a little different. It’s hosted not by Brooke, and it’s not hosted by Ben either. It’s hosted by their mate Mike Campbell from Live Immediately, and in a strange turn of events, he actually interviews Brooke.

Mike and Brooke have a fantastic conversation about life at the moment, and how Brooke is dealing with the wobbly balance between the busy-ness of launching a book and the importance of maintaining a slower pace of life over all. They also talk about the messy and imperfect process of learning to be emotionally available, why it was so stunningly uncomfortable to do so, and the impact Brooke has felt on her relationships, self-worth and the direction her life has taken since.

They talk about softening in to the unknown, and the importance of allowing ourselves time to come to decisions. Mike also talks about some big possibilities he and Inga are weighing up at the moment as well as his (very sensible) approach to making those big decisions. That is, once a choice has been made, it’s made, but until then it’s OK to not know. It’s OK to revisit and marinate in the possibilities because that’s a necessary part of the process.

Brooke and Mike also chat about our upcoming Newcastle event on September 27 and Brooke is super excited to talk some more about their travel plans for 2018 (Mike and Inga were a huge influence on Brooke and Ben taking the plunge in 2018). They look at the logistics, the planning and the not planning!

Head over to http://www.slowyourhome.com/197 for the full blog post, plus links to Mike’s podcast, the Newcastle event details and all the links and resources mentioned in today’s episode.

Enjoy!

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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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Disconnect to reconnect Sep 17, 2017

Show notes

Technology is an inevitable part of even the slowest of modern lives. This podcast, news sites, social media, blogs, forums, videos… even if you’re being intentional it can (and will) be overwhelming at times.

This week Ben and Brooke talk about what we all stand to gain by disconnecting regularly and why it’s so important to reconnect with what matters, without the distracting blare of notifications and devices vying for our attention.

The biggest question we face though, is how? How do we learn to untether ourselves from our devices when the expectation is that we are always on call?

Brooke talks about the important first step of understanding what we stand to gain by having more in-person connection (things like time, humanity, action and peace) as well as the boundaries she and Ben have established at home.

Some of the simple boundaries they talk about include:

screen-free bedrooms
no screens at the table
pockets of screen-free time every day (the first and last hours of the day, for example)

Head over to http://www.slowyourhome.com/196 for the full blog post and excerpt from SLOW.

Enjoy!

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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 travel with the World Wanderers Sep 13, 2017

Show notes

A few weeks ago Ben and Brooke flew over to LA to speak at a podcasting event. And while they figured they’d probably meet some interesting podcasty folks, they had no idea that in a random session they’d sit down next to a slow travelling couple from Canmore, who’d turn out to be today’s guests.

Ryan and Amanda are the World Wanderers and they love slow travel. In today’s episode Ben chats with them about their travel philosophy, why they like to travel slowly and what drove them to give up their 9-5 jobs to live and work around the world.

They discuss managing the expectations of family, friends and colleagues as they continue to travel, and how to convince people that full-time travel is a valid lifestyle rather than just a “bug”. They also chat about when to pull the pin on a trip and how to make the re-entry less difficult, as well as some of the lessons they’ve learnt about themselves (and each other) over the past few years.

It’s a really fun, slow travel themed episode that leaves Brooke and Ben doubly inspired for their own year of adventure in 2018! Head over to http://www.slowyourhome.com/195 for the full blog post and links to everything mentioned in today’s episode.

Enjoy!

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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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De-own. Don't just declutter. Sep 10, 2017

Show notes

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

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The Check Up Sep 06, 2017

Show notes

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!

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And thanks so much for listening!

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Care more. And care less. Sep 03, 2017

Show notes

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!

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And thanks so much for listening!

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Make second hand normal with Guido Verbist of The Bower Aug 30, 2017

Show notes

Today’s guest is Guido Verbist from The Bower Reuse and Repair Centre, and he is on a mission to make buying second hand normal.

If you watched War on Waste, the recent series on the ABC, you may have met Guido already. He’s the Co-op Manager of The Bower, and he’s been doing a huge amount of work over the past few years to reframe the way we think about second hand stuff, as well as empowering each of us to take control of repairing the things we do own.

Brooke sat down to chat with Guido in the workshop room of The Bower’s new Reuse and Repair Centre in Parramatta, and they got to talking about convenience, the stigma of buying pre-owned things, and the lost art of repair.

The Bower aims to help minimise the amount of stuff going to landfill (and to date have stopped more than 1.3 million kilograms of stuff from ending up in the ground) and they do this by:

reselling unwanted goods to people who need them
fixing items and reselling them to people who need them
testing and tagging unwanted electrical items and reselling to people who need them
teaching people how to repair their own belongings at regular repair cafes and various workshops
working with local councils and encouraging residents to use their services
working with refugee and domestic violence services to help those in need establish a new home

This is an organisation making a huge difference across Sydney, and Guido talks openly and honestly about the benefits and challenges of being at the forefront of the reuse and repair movement in Australia, as well as his advice for people who want to set up similar services in their local community.

Head over to http://www.slowyourhome.com/191 for the full blog post and links to resources mentioned in today’s episode.

Enjoy!

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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.