It is a sunny Sunday afternoon and I have just finished reading a concise, simply-written and practical book given to me by a dear friend with whom I travelled many years ago.
The book is called Destination Simple and its aim is to provide ideas to help create a slower, simpler life.
Why would I want to?
Ms Macalary writes: “We know there’s more to life than constant rush, excess stuff, endless notifications, breakfast in the car and mindless TV at the end of the day.”
In my experience of discovering Minimalism and living a simple beautiful life, I have started saying no more and choosing the simple route more. Over time I have found that my priorities have become clear, and my choices are increasingly lead by these priorities. Excess in many things loses its appeal, and material goods lose their pull.
A slower, simpler life is a richer life, in that one can do more of what matters personally.
How do I start?
By changing the flow of our days to make them simpler, easier and lighter, we can create the space we need to clear clutter, start new beneficial habits, and create lives we love.
Brooke divides the book up into a section on rituals, and one on rhythms. By taking small steps to create these rituals and rhythms we can start to create an intentional flow in our days. And so create lives of more ease and less rush and excess and stress.
Five daily Rituals:
- single-tasking
- unplugging
- emptying your mind
- three things
- gratitude
Since I started my simple beautiful life, I have daily rituals which I usually incorporate into my days, but I really like Brooke’s take on this.
Single-tasking is the opposite of multitasking and instead of overwhelm and under-performance, offers instead a window of mindfulness.
Unplugging is time away from our devices, to be human and connect and be present. She suggests 15 minutes or so every day at some point when it is possible, and also before bed.
Emptying your mind can also be called journalling or stream of consciousness writing or free flow. It is the opportunity to clear all the clutter in our minds. By getting our problems, solutions, thoughts, worries, shopping lists, things to do, all onto paper, we can create space to think.
Three things refers to the idea of a short daily prioritised to-do list. Instead of having long to-do lists which we are less likely to get through, the idea of a short list is more likely to end in success and thus personal encouragement.
Gratitude is now a well-known and highly rated practice that brings goodwill and positivity and feelings of abundance to our days. Brooke suggests a list of five things for which we are grateful, and if we are struggling, then she suggests finding the bright side of a problem.
This to me is one of her gems as she uses an example to which I can relate: I don’t have any time to myself in the day – can be turned into – my children love me and want to be near me. Food for thought.
Two daily Rythmns
Brooke suggests creating a flexible Morning and Evening rhythm which I found interesting. Over the past few years, I have created and adapted and updated a morning rhythm, which has substantially improved the feel and cadence of our mornings, but I have not considered an evening rhythm, yet.
I loved this book. Simple, practical and to the point. You can find it on Amazon.
Brooke and Ben Macalary have a very long-running wellness podcast and can be found at slow your home.
Now that the book is read and the blog post is written, I shall take a leaf out of the book (ha) and have a slow, leisurely Sunday afternoon rest.
As always, thanks for reading.