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Mindful Living / Musings

The Joy Of Slowness

While lockdown has been difficult, I like everyone miss seeing my friends and family, thank god for technology, as well as the silly things – like Starbucks hot chocolate, fish and chips on the prom, and nachos at the cinema, but one thing I will forever be grateful for is discovering the joy of slowness – my only worry is how will I ever go back?

While everyone seems to be going crazy about productivity, apparently you didn’t do lockdown right if you didn’t learn a new language, write a book, or figure out how to solve world peace. But what I’ve taken away from these past few weeks is saying bye to this obsession with work over everything, you can’t succeed unless you’re manically busy, and most of all the ever-increasing need to multitask.

If anything, I’m hoping there is a rethink towards positivity about how slowness isn’t laziness, especially when it comes to working, how it isn’t important to be on our e-mails and phones 24-7, and how this unexpected slow time has given us all the chance to reflect on our lives, and what actually matters – I can tell you now, the mantra of “eat, sleep, work, repeat” will not be one taken up by me ever again.

I’ve realised during this mandatory slowness that I’ve been too consumed with numbers, from followers and visitors counts to the minutes in how long it took me to respond to queries, to how long it took me to write, upload and share that breaking news story on fashion, to how many unread emails are in my inbox.

While I’m still busy, in terms of work, I’m lucky I have most of my work still ongoing, I have been able to assess what is truly worth pursuing, especially when it comes to my life away from the computer. From pursuing my love of photography, creative writing, studying the history of fashion, dabbling at French, colouring, and you know what – sometimes doing nothing, absolutely nothing and not being hard on myself.

It sometimes is the hardest thing, doing nothing, I’m always super hard on myself, I get down about not being productive, I start to compare myself to others, and I can quickly spiral, whereas in this lockdown, the need to stay at home to save lives, has meant that if you have a duvet day, then actually you are doing something positive, because you are staying home.

I’ve also loved the time with my husband, granted his loud video chats are a little distracting, but I’ve loved our daily walks with Falcon, and the discovery of new walks which has made me feel more connected with our local area, our lunchtime TV sessions, we are currently rewatching Bones, getting outside in the garden – even if it is to just lounge in the chairs, cooking together for dinner, and our nightly movie date, I’m loving all the nostalgic viewing on Disney+.

While there is so much sadness, and my heart goes out to everyone suffering at the moment, I’m trying to be positive, a hard trait for an overly anxious person, and the joy of slowing down, taking the time to enjoy home has been an experience I won’t forget, and I’m not sure I can ever return to the business of pre-lockdown.

Five Joys Of Slowness In The Past Week

  • Spending all day, in the garden, snapping jewellery – not only was it creatively fun, but I also discovered some beauties in my jewellery box I haven’t worn in a while
  • Finding comfort in the new-norm, centred around daily walks, food and movies
  • The joy in rearranging flowers, from the dried variety to the blooms foraged from the garden or on our walks to the fake leaves – creating new displays and shooting them is a great way to spend a few hours
  • Getting inspired by baking, finding new recipes, reworking classics with the ingredients in my pantry and the best bit – eating them with a big cup of tea
  • Using teacups, teapots and crockery from the crazy big collection of beautiful bone china – the joy in finding a teapot I forgot I had hidden in my sideboard has been incredible