Autumn Slow Living Update

How do you start writing again after a few months off? Just start! It’s some of the best and most cliché pieces of advice in the writing world. And I unashamedly love clichés. Especially when I can apply them to the neglect of my blog. But before I go on, no this isn’t going to be a promise to get back on the grind, write two blog posts a week and obsessively check my blog stats. Because that wouldn’t be very slow living of me now, would it?

In truth, I haven’t been the peak of slow living lately. Since I last penned my slow living ramblings to the internet, I’ve been on holiday a few times, read a few good books, revisited old series favourites and have been doing a heck of a lot of business travel for my day job. Whilst that all sounds great, I haven’t actually been doing as well as all that. Sometimes, despite trying to take things easy and avoid burnout - I go into autopilot. Living each day as it comes with no sense of direction, no motivation and no sense of self. For me, this is the downside to trying to live more slowly. I go too hard and end up moving through the motions and ultimately feeling down because I feel as if I have no purpose. When this happens, it can feel a bit existential. As I’m writing this, I realise I haven’t really shared much of the negatives of “slow-living”. But this is a biggy!

When I feel like this it’s very easy to go into a negative headspace, batter down my self-esteem and become someone who is not very nice to be around. I get disheartened, lack motivation and generally don’t look after myself the way I should. I talked about this a little bit when I discussed dealing with negative space and self-esteem issues. It’s hard because I want to be a relaxed, slow-living goddess however when I start to lack intention I get myself into a headspace that isn’t exactly the healthiest. This has been happening since I started my slow living journey back in 2020. And I’ve been riding this cycle since then.

So after a much needed pep talk and a little bit of a cry, it was decided that I need to change something in my life. I need to live with more intention. And this doesn’t necessarily mean doing a 180 and going back to where I was before and burning myself out by juggling too many things. I just need to really ask myself what do I want from life? What brings me joy and happiness whilst still feeling that I am not an auto-pilot zombie who goes to work, comes home and mindlessly re-watches my favourite series under the guise of “self-care” and “slow-living”. Because after a while that really brings my vibrations down.

Instead I am focusing on bringing my vibrations back up and leaning into some childhood hobbies again - mainly reading and playing computer games. I’ve also slipped in terms of my fitness regime so I plan to start that back up again and try to get a bit more movement in my day. By sprinkling some hobbies and physical activities into my day, I know I can start to get back to being a happier, healthier version of me.