"Slow Down"


AD | Hello my lovelies, happy Monday, I hope that you're all having a really wonderful start to your week! Other than my usual monthly update at the start of each month, I realised that it's been a while since I have actually sat down and written a proper deep personal post, so that's what I thought I would share with you all this week.

My about me on any website or social media page has always said "I haven't the slightest clue of who I am, what I'm doing or where I want to be. But I know I want more than the typical 9 to 5 job, 2.5 kids and flashy car." However, I did realise how much this fact hit home to me until the coronavirus lockdown. I saw a quote, which I've seen so many times on the internet before but until right now the words didn't really make me feel like it did when I read it a few weeks back.

"Some people want a big house, a fast car and lots of money. Some people want a tiny cabin in the wood away from those kinds of people."

The second sentence in that quote describes me, so much. I have realised these past few months that I adore silence, proper spooky ghost-like silence where there is no noise from anything in the world. Don't get me wrong I agree that silence isn't everyone's cup of tea and its easy to get swept away by your thoughts, but when it's pure life silence it's blissful to me. I've only recently known that this way of thinking and life is called "slow living". This doesn't mean I don't like my music loud or that I want to live in the 1700s or anything, it just means that I've never been someone who craved noise, drama or a heretic life.

I like having a very small circle of good-understanding, caring and loving people around me. I adore quotes, positive happy ones and depressive understanding ones. I adore sitting outside with the sun shining on my face whilst I hear wildlife around me. I completely adore the nights sky and I love waking up to the smell of coffee in the morning. I'd trade a cosy night-in with a wild night-out any day. I like things in my life, and in my home, to have meaning and they're not just there "for a show" or decoration and I like to find the comfort, love and happiness in the little moments of my life.

Then, I realised everything I'd wanted and hoped to achieve I'd already done. I was sat at my desk back in April, the 29th to be exact (I know because I went back and checked my diary), and I was staring blankly at the mirror in front of me on the wall thinking about my life.

I was thinking about sharing a post back then on my goals, and I realised that I couldn't think of any. I mean proper true goals you know the type you have when you're younger like get married, or have your dream job, or own your own home, proper big girl goals like that not things that are on your bucket list that you hope to achieve one day but know that you probably won't. Example: own a home in the Bahamas, jump out of a plane, etc. I'm going to sound really big-headed here and a total stuck-up bitch couldn't think of any.

What did I want out of my life? Then it all hit me like a ton of bricks because I didn't know. I'm married to the most amazing man, I have my dream job as a full-time blogger and I adore our beautiful home. I want nothing more than an easy, slow-living, peaceful, eco-friendly, vegan life, which again I have. So, what is it more I crave?

"I would like to spend the rest of my days in a place so silent, and working at a pace so slow, that I would be able to hear myself living."

This is when I realised that although I am very happy and content with my life, others aren't. Is this you? Are you so fast-paced that your life is now suddenly no-stop? Imagine if you had some spare time every day to slow down to do something you crave, something calming, slow and unproductive. Would you? What would it feel like to you? Sometimes we all need little reminders to not let things get on top of us and to just calm down.

"Instead of saying ‘I don’t have time’ try saying ‘it’s not a priority,’ and see how that feels... I have time to iron my sheets, I just don’t want to. But other things are harder. Try: ‘I’m not going to edit your résumé, sweetie, because it’s not a priority.’ ‘I don’t go to the doctor because my health is not a priority.’ If these phrases don’t sit well, that’s the point. Changing our language reminds us that time is a choice. If we don’t like how we’re spending an hour, we can choose differently." - Laura Vanderkam, Wall Street Journal.

My advice to everyone is to just simply slow down because everything that you are chasing will catch you and the things that don't catch up to you are the things (and people) that don't matter. If you're always racing to the next moment, what happens to the one you are in? Slow down, be grateful, enjoy the moment you’re in and live your life to the fullest.


I'd love to know your thoughts about ways your slow down and if you have a busy busy bee of a lifestyle or a really calm one so please leave me a little comment of love below? I'm sending you all so much love for a wonderful day x

With love, Alisha Valerie. x