The Tortoise with Brooke McAlary

It’s been a while since Brooke has had a listener chat on the poggie and today’s episode is a gem. Brooke chats with Louisa from Western Australia about her personal journey from a hectic suburban existence to a life lived in a slow-paced coastal town. They talk about Lou’s experience of overwhelm and anxiety, as well as her post natal depression and eventual bipolar diagnosis, and how managing these issues and getting treatment for them has led her to a place of letting go. Not just letting go of stuff (that actually came later) but letting go of her plans, expectations, ideas and self-imposed obligations, and trusting that on the other side would be acceptance or peace or simplicity, or maybe even all three. In the end it was an unexpected job loss and a few months spent living in a camper trailer on the remote coast of Western Australia that delivered Lou to stillness, and she and Brooke explore what it looks like to pack up a big family house and go adventuring with no particular outcome in mind. They also talk about Lou’s life now, after her family made a sea-change late last year. It’s interesting to hear her experience of the sea-change expectations vs reality, and how moving to a slower-paced community doesn’t necessarily mean that life gets slower by itself. W’re sold the idea of sea-change (or tree-change or moving to a farm or insert your grass is greener solution here) as a one-size-fits-all fix for a busy modern life, and Lou’s honesty here as well as throughout the entire conversation is a breath of fresh air. Head over to http://www.slowyourhome.com/173 for the full post and a list of resources mentioned in today’s show. Enjoy! This poggie is sponsored by ettitude - makers of ethical, organic bamboo bed linen (and now pyjamas!). Head over to http://www.ettitude.com.au/slowhome and use the offer code "sleepbetter" to get 10% off your first order. ==== 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.

Ben and Brooke have spent the past few weeks discussing ways to reduce our plastics consumption. They've looked at doing away with single use plastics, talking to providers about non-plastic options and taking three for the sea every time we're out in nature. This week they round out this mini-series by encouraging you to re-think your purchases based on packaging.  Often we can find a similar product in non-plastic packaging, and the premise of this episode is very simple: buy the alternatives and avoid the plastic where possible.  They also encourage you to be vocal about your changes, letting brands know why you're no longer supporting them and what it would take for you to come back. Companies do pay attention to feedback from their customers - particularly if those customers begin to take their custom elsewhere - and it's by engaging in these conversations that we're going to see change not only at the grassroots level but also from the top levels of organisations.  Hopefully this series has been inspiring to you, and head over to http://www.slowyourhome.com/176 for the full blog post and to leave a comment, sharing the changes you've made this month.  Enjoy! ==== 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 plastics episode, Ben and Brooke take their inspiration directly from an organisation they're very very fond of: Take 3 for the Sea. Founded by surfing enthusiast, Amanda Marechal, marine ecologist, Roberta Dixon-Valk and environmentalist, Tim Silverwood, Take 3 is based on the very simple idea that small actions can have a big impact. And considering Plastic-Free July has begun, Ben and Brooke figured this would be a great time to talk about this very simple idea that lies at the heart of Take 3: Simply Take 3 pieces of rubbish with you when you leave the beach, waterway or… anywhere. Every time you go out in to nature - be it the beach, a bushwalk, the park or river - pick up three pieces of rubbish and put them in the bin. It’s that simple.   Head over to http://www.slowyourhome.com/174 for the full post and a list of resources mentioned in today’s show. Enjoy! ==== 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.

Last week Ben and Brooke introduced a new four-part Monday series dealing with plastics. Specifically, how to use less of them in day to day life. They covered the Big 4 - straws, drink bottles, takeaway coffee cups and plastic shopping bags - and offered a whole heap of solutions to help you live a Plastic Free July (and August, and September and so on…)  This week they’re encouraging you to get a little awkward. When Brooke and Ben first started to make a concerted effort to reduce their plastic use it became clear quite quickly that it wasn’t going to simply happen. Providers weren’t going to read their minds, they weren’t going to offer plastic-free alternatives without any prompting, and they certainly weren’t going to know alternatives were desired at all unless people started the conversation. What they’ve learnt over the past 12 months of cutting back is that in order to see change, people need to be willing to make change. And sometimes that means being the weird one, having the awkward conversation, bringing your own bag to the bakery, explaining that you’re doing an experiment - whatever needs doing to gently start the movement. Head over to http://www.slowyourhome.com/172 for the full blog post, resource list and this week’s action. Enjoy! ==== 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 today’s episode Brooke sits down to chat with Rebecca Sullivan - founder of the ‘granny skills’ movement, serial entrepreneur, food lover and sustainability advocate. In what can only be described as an utterly delightful conversation, Brooke and Rebecca talk about traditions, heritage and the importance of intergenerational connection, as well as how to make the perfect blush for less than $1. After coming to the realisation that she was completely removed from the process of creating and growing her own food (something to do with cheese and maggots in a small Italian town) Rebecca began the process of educating herself. From that realisation has grown a career of incredible depth and breadth, covering food, traditional skills, agriculture, creating natural homemade products and recently a pilot program that placed grandparents in local schools. This program saw older people teaching kids traditional skills around cooking and woodworking, which not only had an incredibly positive impact on the kids, but the older teachers as well. Brooke and Rebecca talk about the importance of failure, and the liberation that comes once we accept and even embrace our own screw-ups. As a keen balcony gardener, Rebecca also shares her hottest hits for container growing, including some native edibles that are the most likely to survive some light-to-moderate neglect. Head over to http://www.slowyourhome.com/171 for the full blog post as well as a list of links and resources mentioned in today’s episode. Enjoy! This poggie is sponsored by ettitude - makers of ethical, organic bamboo bed linen (and now pyjamas!). Head over to http://www.ettitude.com.au/slowhome and use the offer code "sleepbetter" to get 10% off your first order. ==== 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.

Last year Ben and Brooke tried their hand at Plastic Free July. They tried to cut their use of plastics to zero for a full month, alongside tens of thousands of other counter-cultural, environmentally-minded souls. And… it was a bit of a bust. The truth is that they were vastly unprepared. They hadn’t really thought through their daily needs or systems, and hadn’t gathered the required replacements for many of their plastics, which meant they were left high and dry when time came to go food shopping. Or buying takeaway. Or grabbing a coffee. Or living, really. Over the next four Mondays they’re going to take a deep dive in to the issue of excessive plastic use and what small changes you can make - starting today - to reduce plastic use over time. In part this series is timed to coincide with Plastic Free July, but also because there is an emerging desire for change that wasn’t apparent even this time last year. Mostly people are just overwhelmed and confused by where to begin, and that’s where this series comes in. Today Ben and Brooke offer you some simple ideas to stop using the Big 4 single use plastics altogether, with just a few easy swaps and a couple of habit changes. This includes saying no to: drinking straws takeaway coffee cups plastic water bottles plastic shopping bags In today’s show they offer reusable solutions to each of these products, as well as ideas on how to re-train your brain to remember to use them! There’s a great list of resources and links over at http://www.slowyourhome.com/170 as well as the full blog post so be sure to head over there. Enjoy! ==== 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.

Just so you know straight off the bat, today’s episode is BIG. It’s packed full of practical tips and it moves prettttty fast. But it’s valuable, practical and, even better, it’s going to help you have a positive impact on the planet and your bank balance. Big talk, eh? But this is a big show. In a little under an hour Ben and Brooke offer you 50 ways to reduce food waste in your own home, and it’s quite literally packed full of things you can do today. OK, probably not all of them today, but there is at least one idea in this episode for you to apply today. Guaranteed. And there’s no purchase of backyard chickens necessary. Ben’s got some astonishing stats to share in this episode, but needless to say, the level of food waste in Australia alone is eye-wateringly high. And given what we know about food security in the developing world, and even many communities in our own backyard, it’s truly devastating to think about. And while some of this waste is a result of systems put in place by massive supermarket chains both in Australia and globally, a lot of it is not. Much of the food we waste in Australia is wasted in our own homes, and it’s this waste that we want to focus on in this big ol’ pogpast episode. So dive in to the collective, crowdsourced wisdom of this episode, and head over to http://www.slowyourhome.com/169 for the full list of tips Ben and Brooke cover today, as well as a list of resources and links that might be helpful in your own experiments in cutting back on food waste. Enjoy! This poggie is sponsored by ettitude - makers of ethical, organic bamboo bed linen (and now pyjamas!). Head over to http://www.ettitude.com.au/slowhome and use the offer code "sleepbetter" to get 10% off your first order. ==== 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.

Today is the third and final episode in our meditation basics series and Kevin Janks is back for one final, insightful meditation mini-workshop. In today’s workshop Kevin talks us through the notion of present moment awareness. That is, what it looks like to practice living specifically and solely in the present moment, by training ourselves to pay attention to each of our senses, one at a time. He talks us through the following ideas and then leads you through a brief guided meditation where you’ll have the opportunity to practice what you’ve learnt: This practise is all about being in the moment, simply because our senses are only ever in the moment (you can't be touching something yesterday). By noticing what’s actually happening in our lives right now, we can liberate ourselves from the state of constant 'rehearse and replay' that at times dominates our lives. With practice, it quickly becomes quite easy to draw joy and love from even the most basic of events, like feeling the sun against your skin or observing a bird flying through the sky. Take time each day to simply observe your senses. Noticing sights and sounds are great to do whilst walking or commuting. Really observe the tastes of the food you are eating and begin exploring the depth of senses that surround us at any given time. Enjoy today’s final workshop from Kevin, and if you’d like to download the meditation-only playlist from the last three weeks you can head over to http://www.slowyourhome.com/168 and listen any time you’d like! ==== 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.

Helen Hayward, an author and psychotherapist known for 'A Slow Childhood,' discusses the beauty of slow living and thoughtful parenting. She shares insights on how the little things in life gain significance as children grow. The conversation touches on the challenges of engaging older kids in a simpler lifestyle and the unexpected benefits of boredom. Helen also questions the myth of work-life balance, highlighting the importance of mindful engagement and contentment over societal expectations. It's an honest dialogue about parenting and living intentionally.

Kevin Janks is back this week with the second mini-meditation workshop, and this week he’s helping you focusing on your emotions. In today’s mini workshop, Kevin he talks through the physical sensations of our emotions - where we feel things like love or anger or anxiety in our bodies - and how to begin to notice the thought commentary that comes along with those feelings, as being distinct from the sensations themselves. He also talks about the following ideas: Just like we are not our thoughts, we are also not our emotions Emotions (feelings) are made up of bodily sensations and usually accompanied by thought patterns/stories By distinguishing between the sensations (emotion) and thoughts, and observing 'us' as distinct from it all, our lives can change as we begin to take apart their power over us. No longer will we identify with "being an angry/sad/frustrated/etc person Rather, we can simply observe these emotions as they pass through us. In everyday life, begin to observe the emotions that pass through you. Start to identify the inevitable patterns that they follow, and again practice seeing them as transient. Take a listen to the episode below and I’d love to encourage you to practice this brief guided meditation every day this week before we move on to explore the idea of present moment awareness next Monday. Head over to http://www.slowyourhome.com/166 for the full blog post, and enjoy!   ==== 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.