Gentleness: Cultivating Compassion for Yourself and Others with Courtney Carver | 282
Feb 19, 2025
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Courtney Carver, the creator of Be More with Less and Project 333, discusses the transformative power of gentleness in her life and work. She emphasizes that gentleness is not weakness but a path to deeper connections and resilience. They explore practical methods like rest, less, and rise to cultivate self-compassion amidst productivity pressures. With anecdotes and insights, Courtney encourages listeners to celebrate small wins and embrace a gentler approach to life, underscoring that true strength comes from compassion for ourselves and others.
Embracing gentleness instead of relentless toughness fosters resilience and deeper connections, promoting compassion for ourselves and others.
A structured approach to gentleness includes rest, simplification, and mindful action, helping individuals realign their lives with genuine desires.
Deep dives
The Importance of Gentleness
Being gentle with oneself and others is crucial in a world that often values toughness and resilience above all else. Many people push through life on autopilot, prioritizing productivity and accomplishments at the expense of their well-being. This approach frequently leads to exhaustion and burnout, as individuals ignore their own needs in favor of relentless striving. Embracing gentleness serves as an invitation to take a step back, assess personal goals, and realign actions with genuine desires, fostering a healthier and more inspirational way to navigate life.
Three Seasons of Change
A holistic approach to gentleness can be structured into three seasons: rest, less, and rise. The first stage is prioritizing rest, which is often neglected as individuals believe they must earn it or lack time for it. The second phase involves simplifying life to remove stressors, allowing for clearer decision-making and connection to what truly matters. Finally, the rise season encourages individuals to take action while remaining aware of their motivations and maintaining gentleness, creating a productive cycle that incorporates self-care and reflection throughout.
Tiny Steps Toward Gentleness
Adopting a gentle approach doesn't require monumental changes but rather a series of small, intentional steps. Taking tiny actions, such as drinking more water throughout the day or decluttering just a small area at a time, can have significant cumulative effects. These manageable modifications foster a deeper connection with oneself and promote a sense of accomplishment, eventually leading to larger transformations. Recognizing and celebrating even the smallest victories helps reinforce the practice of gentleness and encourages a more compassionate self-dialogue.
In our fast-paced world, we often equate success with relentless effort, sharpening our edges to navigate life's challenges. But what if embracing gentleness could lead to a different kind of strength—one that fosters rest, compassion, and grace? In this episode, we explore the transformative power of gentleness toward ourselves and others.
Our guest, Courtney Carver, is a renowned advocate for simplicity and minimalism. She is the creator of Be More with Less and the innovative Project 333, a minimalist fashion challenge that has inspired many to declutter their lives. Her latest book, Gentle: Rest More, Stress Less, and Live the Life You Actually Want, serves as a permission slip to stop pushing so hard and start embracing a gentler approach to life. Courtney has been featured in publications like O, The Oprah Magazine, Vogue, and The New York Times. She also co-hosts the Soul & Wit Podcast with her daughter, Bailey, highlighting that gentleness can indeed be a family affair.
In this conversation, Courtney shares insights on how softening our approach doesn't equate to weakness but rather leads to wisdom, resilience, and deeper connections with what truly matters. She discusses practical steps to incorporate gentleness into daily life, emphasizing that being tough may have gotten us here, but being gentle might be what leads us to where we truly want to go.