The Tortoise with Brooke McAlary

Welcome to the second episode of the Summer Series (/Winter Warmies!) For all of January, we’ll be bringing back the best of 2018, re-sharing some of our favourite episodes to keep you company on the beach (or the slopes!) Today we’re highlighting one of Brooke’s most inspiring picks of the year - her interview with Rob Greenfield. Rob is a self-described ‘dude making a difference’: an activist, environmentalist and all-around legend. We love that Rob shares his story so honestly and in a very relatable way - he was just an average guy who had a wake up call, and he talks about what his catalyst for change was, how he started to make changes, having the realisation that you can’t make enormous changes overnight and more.  We can’t wait to see how Rob goes with his current project - growing or foraging 100% of his food for a whole year. To read more about the episode and Rob, head over to http://slowyourhome.com/241/ for all the links and resources mentioned, as well as the full blog post. ==== If you're enjoying the show and want to know how to best support it, leave a rating or a review in iTunes or head over to the Patreon page to help support the show financially. And thanks so much for listening! ===Join The Tortoise Community: https://brookemcalary.substack.com/See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Happy New Year, and welcome to the first episode of the Summer Series (Winter Warmies!) For all of January, we’ll be bringing back the best of 2018, re-sharing some of our favourite episodes to keep you company on the beach (or the slopes!) We’re kicking off by harking back to Brooke and Ben’s favourite experiment of 2018, and an episode that came just after it: Brooke’s chat with Florence Williams, author of The Nature Fix. In this episode Florence shares why time in nature is so important, tips for how to make it happen and some of the benefits she’s found in her research. This conversation only further convinced Brooke of the importance of spending time in nature - let us know if it made you feel the same way! Head over to Instagram and share your thoughts. To read more, head over to http://slowyourhome.com/232/ for all the links and resources mentioned, as well as the full blog post.  ==== If you're enjoying the show and want to know how to best support it, leave a rating or a review in iTunes or head over to the Patreon page to help support the show financially. And thanks so much for listening! ===Join The Tortoise Community: https://brookemcalary.substack.com/See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Cue the jazzy Christmas tunes - it’s our final episode of the year! Welcome to the crowd-sourced holiday special, where we share your tips for staying slow in the silly season (and throw in some of our own). Thank you so much to everyone who got in touch - we loved reading through your responses, and hearing all the different ways you not only cope with, but enjoy what can be a stressful time of year. Brooke and Ben share more than 40 tips from listeners, all about how to bring a little more slow to your holiday traditions, gifts, finances, food, time with family and friends, decorations and environmental impact. There’s so much goodness in here, and definitely something for everyone to consider for either this year or next. Whether it’s sipping a candy cane martini every Friday night like Steve or getting organised with gifts, we hope you’ll find a nugget that resonates with you! When in doubt, if you come back to ask what your priorities for the season are, how you want it to feel and what you want to remember, that’s a pretty great place to act from. Annnnnd that’s a wrap (pun intended)! Thank you so much for your support for all of this year, it means so much and is why we do what we do every day. We wish you a safe and happy holiday season, and all the best for 2019. Looking forward to more slow times ahead! To read more about the episode, or to sign up for the 365 Days of Slow experiment, head over to http://slowyourhome.com/262/ for all the links and resources mentioned, as well as the full blog post.  ==== If you're enjoying the show and want to know how to best support it, leave a rating or a review in iTunes or head over to the Patreon page to help support the show financially. And thanks so much for listening! ===Join The Tortoise Community: https://brookemcalary.substack.com/See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

We’re back! Thanks for hanging tight with us over the final few weeks of the book tour. In today’s episode, Brooke and Ben check in and catch us up on how they’re feeling and what’s happening next, as well as sharing a reminder about A Simple Year and the special offer available until 14 Nov (more info at slowyourhome.com/simpleyear). The guys kick off by looking back at the tour (briefly - more on the tour in ep 260 if you missed it), and then sharing how they’re feeling now that it’s all over. It’s a mix of exhaustion and creative energy at Brooke’s end (an interesting combination!) and the joy of being able to finally relax for Ben. Which means a lot less doing for the whole family, and a lot more being and tilting into filling up their cups, including some dedicated creative time - both Brooke and Ben are doing NaNoWriMo! They’ve also had time to think about what’s next.  Wary of her tendency to announce things too soon, Brooke is shy on the details for some projects she’s currently working on (including the proposal for her next book!) but share that in the spirit of tilting into rest and working on 2019 things, there will be no more episodes for 2018, except for a Christmas Special (more info below). Then there will be the Summer Series as usual in January, and then we’ll be back in Feb, shifting to seasons of the podcast rather than weekly episodes. Brooke explains the reasons for this shift, and what she’s excited about with the new format. She also shares some other ideas in the works, like a revamp of our Patreon community, the return of the Slow Post and Live Life Simply online retreat and the demise of our Facebook page. Planning times abound! Speaking of that Christmas Special, it’s going to be a wrap up of listener contributions for ways to stay slow during the silly season. So share your hot tips with us! Please send us an email at hello@slowyourhome.com with your ideas so we can include them in a whizz-bang final episode for the year.  Be sure to hang out with us on Instagram, and use the #slowhomepod so we can see what you’re sharing. To read more about the episode, head over to http://slowyourhome.com/261/ for all the links and resources mentioned, as well as the full blog post.  ==== If you're enjoying the show and want to know how to best support it, leave a rating or a review in iTunes or head over to the Patreon page to help support the show financially and join in on our live monthly video calls. And thanks so much for listening! ===Join The Tortoise Community: https://brookemcalary.substack.com/See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Welcome to this week’s episode - a catch up on all things travel with Brooke and Ben after their US Slow book tour. They received so many questions about the logistics of their trip, so today they dive into them all, talking the how, where and why of their time away so far. First up they talk about how they managed to do the tour - the decisions they made and steps they took in order to pack up their lives in Australia and hit the road. Then they go into the nitty gritty of accommodation and planning, including a sweet hack for longer stays in Airbnbs or VRBOs and the benefits of spending more time in a home-like environment when travelling with kids. They talk about the difference between the first half of their trip and the book tour, and also why they decided (after a test run of the #vanlife in the Yukon) not to go down the campervan/caravan route. Then it’s onto how they came up with their itinerary, the decisions they made around food (i.e. not to stress about it) to make their lives easier and how they structured their days. They admire the resilience of their kids, and talk about the power of expectations and how they managed them throughout the trip: the highs, the lows, and the things they’d do differently next time. Ben finishes up by sharing some touching words about how proud he is of Brooke, and Brooke shares her advice for people wanting to travel with their families: just do it. We’d love to hear your thoughts, especially if you’ve travelled with kids or plan to in the future. Be sure to get involved in the conversation on Instagram, and use the #slowhomepod so we can see what you’re sharing. To read more about the episode, head over to http://slowyourhome.com/260/ for all the links and resources mentioned, as well as the full blog post.  ==== If you're enjoying the show and want to know how to best support it, leave a rating or a review in iTunes or head over to the Patreon page to help support the show financially. And thanks so much for listening! ===Join The Tortoise Community: https://brookemcalary.substack.com/See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

We're not gonna lie, after some 17,000 miles, 29 US states and more than 35 incredible, heart-warming events, the Slow book tour is all wrapped up, and we're a little tired. But before we put a bow on what's been an incredible experience we want to share one final live recording with you, because it's a special one. The tour finished up in Minneapolis, where Brooke sat down for a conversation with her friend Joel Zaslofsky at ModernWell. Joel asks Brooke the big questions (he always has, it's one of his superpowers) and they dive deep in to topics we haven't covered before.  Enjoy! And another heartfelt thanks to everyone who came out to the book tour events over the past few months - words can't describe how grateful we are.  ==== If you're enjoying the show and want to know how to best support it, leave a rating or a review in iTunes or head over to the Patreon page to help support the show financially and join in on our live monthly video calls. And thanks so much for listening! ===Join The Tortoise Community: https://brookemcalary.substack.com/See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

After a few technical hiccups Brooke and Ben were finally able to record one of their live podcast recordings while on the Slow book tour, and today's episode was recorded live at Anderson's Bookshop near Chicago.  The crowd was really engaged and Ben and Brooke had such a wonderful time talking about Slow, the practical realities of slow living and family life, their experience while travelling through the US and Canada for 8 months, and their plans for the future.  They also talk about privilege and slow living, and why Brooke firmly believes that slow living will change the world - by helping people create space and time to care more.  The live events have been such a highlight this year, and here's hoping 2019 brings more opportunity to get together with like-minded people!  Enjoy! Join The Tortoise Community: https://brookemcalary.substack.com/See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

It’s the last Slow Experiment episode for September! For the final week of Mindful Moments, Brooke and Ben look at journaling as way to bring a pocket of slow and mindfulness to a busy day. It’s no secret that Ben is not the biggest journaler alive (see: the great journaling experiment of 2016), but by the end of the episode even he is convinced to give it another crack. Maybe. Brooke is a big journaler, and has used it as a tool to manage anxiety, give shape to her mornings and help her find slow moments in everyday life for many years. She found during the book tour that the busier life got, and the more she had to strip back her morning rhythm and self-care, journaling was a thing that stuck, and kept helping. It gave her immediate relief on anxious days, was portable and easy, could be as big or small a task as she needed and she felt the effects throughout the day. If that’s not a testimonial, we don’t know what is. The guys then share a few ideas for ways to bring journaling into your day, from Brooke’s ideal scenario (Julia Cameron-style, 3 A4, handwritten, stream-of-consciousness morning pages over a cup of coffee) to the reality of some days (a couple of bullet points quickly jotted down). They also share techniques floating around, including Gretchen Rubin’s one sentence a day and the movement that is Bullet Journaling (abbreviated to bujo, I believe). Whatever works for you is the way to go. Brooke also talks about the research she found about the impacts of journaling on physical and mental health. Studies have shown that journaling can help strengthen your immune system, and that people who journal regularly heal more quickly and get fewer colds/flus and viruses. Journalling also reduces levels of stress, anxiety and depression, and influences our emotional intelligence, and ability to identify and solve problems in relationships. Sounds good to us! Join us this week and experiment with a different kind of journaling. Feel free to share your efforts over on Instagram, using the hashtag #slowexperiment. A big thanks to everyone who played along this month - we’ve loved seeing your mindful moments. Next month we’ll be sharing some live recordings, as well as a hostful reflecting on all things book tour. So stay tuned, and be sure to keep an eye on slowyourhome.com/events for all the Canadian mini-book tour stops as they get confirmed. To read more about the episode, head over to http://slowyourhome.com/257/ for all the links and resources mentioned, as well as the full blog post.  ==== If you're enjoying the show and want to know how to best support it, leave a rating or a review in iTunes or head over to the Patreon page to help support the show financially. And thanks so much for listening! ===Join The Tortoise Community: https://brookemcalary.substack.com/See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

It’s week three of the Mindful Moments Slow Experiment, and today’s episode is all about gratitude as a tool for mindfulness. For Ben, the importance of cultivating gratitude has been one of the biggest lessons he’s learned from slow living. For Brooke, gratitude is an invaluable way to prevent that shift into negative thinking that can happen when life is busy or stressful. It’s a practice that can take just a minute or two in your day, but have incredible benefits for your life. So let’s dive in! First up, the guys break down exactly what gratitude is, and identify that it’s the specific kind of thankfulness that they’re focusing on, not the rose-coloured glasses approach to life. They then share some different examples of gratitude practices: a gratitude journal, having a chalkboard in the kitchen where everyone in the house writes one thing they’re grateful for everyday, writing a thank you note, using technology, loving-kindness meditation, sharing at the dinner table and more. These techniques help us to be mindful as they require us to shift out of autopilot and pay attention to and engage with what’s around us, and be thoughtful about what we have to be thankful for. They then go on to look at the benefits of gratitude, which are vast. From developing love, compassion and empathy to helping us sleep better at night, there are so many benefits for our physical and mental health. Grateful people feel fewer aches and pains, feel healthier (and generally are healthier), and are more likely to exercise regularly, get regular checkups with a doctor and live longer (say whaaaat?!) It’s also the antidote to the build-up of toxic emotions, and helps to build resilience, perspective and self-esteem. Brooke shares that gratitude helps her to really savour the good moments, and allows them to be the bits of her day she remembers, rather than the less-amazing times. So give it a try - connect on Facebook and Instagram by sharing one thing you’re grateful for this week, using the hashtag #slowexperiment.  And go from there. To read more about the episode, head over to http://slowyourhome.com/256/ for all the links and resources mentioned, as well as the full blog post.  ==== If you're enjoying the show and want to know how to best support it, leave a rating or a review in iTunes or head over to the Patreon page to help support the show financially. And thanks so much for listening! ===Join The Tortoise Community: https://brookemcalary.substack.com/See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

In this week’s episode Brooke and Ben continue their month of Mindful Moments for the Slow Experiment, looking at the technique of mindful attention or observation. This is something that Brooke has been practicing for a few years now, and is an excellent example of just how simple mindfulness can be. At its core, mindfulness is paying attention, and this technique takes that to a granular level. Try sitting in study of a tiny detail for a couple of minutes, noticing something you wouldn’t have otherwise, and then see how you feel afterwards. Another way to do this is a body scan, where you sit and rotate your awareness through each of your five senses for a couple of minutes in total - getting very specific about what you can see, hear, smell, touch and taste. Brooke still remembers the impact this had on her at the height of her overwhelm and depression years ago, and the way it would pull her into the present moment and out of resentment and anxiety. For Ben, this mindful attention technique translates to the workplace as single-tasking. After years of being told multitasking is gold, he now breaks projects down into tasks and then works through those tasks one at a time, focusing on nothing else until the one at hand is complete. There are so many benefits to these techniques of stripped-back mindfulness. Brooke shares a study she found that said even after one week of a short daily mindfulness practice, participants showed significant improvements in attention, energy and ability to cope with stress, as well as in processing, working memory and executive functioning. We’d love to hear how you’re going if you’re playing along, and whether you’ve noticed any benefits like these. Let us know how you go - connect on Facebook and Instagram. To read more about the episode, head over to http://slowyourhome.com/255/ for all the links and resources mentioned, as well as the full blog post.  ==== If you're enjoying the show and want to know how to best support it, leave a rating or a review in iTunes or head over to the Patreon page to help support the show financially and join in on our live monthly video calls. And thanks so much for listening! ===Join The Tortoise Community: https://brookemcalary.substack.com/See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.