The Tortoise with Brooke McAlary

We’re a little over a week into this month’s Slow Home Experiment of daily meditation, and in today’s episode Brooke talks about why she’s finding it increasingly difficult. Being complete novices in meditation, they have no idea if that’s normal or not but in this episode Ben and Brooke talk about their favourite guided meditations and Brooke looks at why one of the sessions left her in such a rage. They also list the seven meditations we’ll be following this week, if you wanted to join in and practice the same ones it might be fun to compare notes. Head over to http://www.slowyourhome.com/71 for the full list. And as they mentioned last week, Ben and Brooke also started the Slow Home Experiment group on the Insight Timer app if you wanted to join in. Enjoy! ==== If you're enjoying the show and want to know how to best support it, leave a rating or a review in iTunes: (https://itunes.apple.com/au/podcast/slow-home-podcast-brooke-mcalary/id985005895?mt=2) or head over to the Patreon page (www.patreon.com/slow) 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.

Bele Masterman is one of only a handful of repeat guests on the poggie, and this week she’s back for her third chat with Brooke. In a wide-ranging and super honest conversation, Bele and Brooke talk about making big life changes as they become more attuned to the Why in their lives, and why she and her family have decided to move from the inner city to an old orchard outside Sydney. They also talk about the decision-making process that goes in to big, life-changing decisions like this and how both Brooke and Bele have learnt to accept the discomfort that often goes along with them. Bele is always full of insights, and this episode is no different as she looks at the idea of seeing ‘signs’ in our lives, what it means when we go with our gut and how she and her husband worked through the process of refining their Why. They also get off-topic and start talking about the movie Everest, Amy Poehler’s amazing book, some Star Wars origin stories and why Bele thinks Thoreau was a pretty miserable guy. 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.

After last month’s not-so-great finish to the journalling experiment, Brooke and Ben are back with a new Slow Home Experiment - daily meditation. This month they’ve decided not to put too many rules or stipulations on the experiment, but rather simply commit to the daily doing - no matter how that looks. In this episode Brooke talks about why she’d like to meditate in the morning wherever possible, and Ben, with less predictable days, is more than happy to fit the meditation in wherever there is an opportunity. Brooke and Ben are using the free app, Insight Timer to guide them through this month’s experiment, and Brooke has started a Slow Home Experiment group there, where you can connect with others doing the challenge, as well as follow along and see which meditations Brooke and Ben are doing each day. Head over to http://www.slowyourhome.com/69 for links and resources, as well as the full blog post. Don’t forget, you can play along by tagging your social media posts with #slowhomeexperiment and share your experiences. Hit us up on Facebook, Twitter or Instagram and let’s get experimenting! 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.

As mad-keen travellers, Brooke and Ben now subscribe to the idea of slow travel, exploring more and getting to know places in a deeper, local kind of way. In this hostful episode they answer three great listener questions about: the issue of over-planning how to balance getting things done and enjoying the down time keeping kids occupied on long-haul trips Ben and Brooke also talk about their attempts to pack light for this trip, why they don’t get a local SIM card when they travel and the major benefits of setting up a home base and exploring from there, as opposed to being on the move constantly. 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.

We’re moving in to the last week of this month’s Slow Home Experiment and it turns out that Ben and Brooke’s journalling experience has been, shall we say, varied? In this episode Ben and Brooke talk about the mistakes they made and the reason Ben sees this month as a big fat fail. They also talk about next month’s experiment - daily meditation. Head over to http://www.slowyourhome.com/67 for a list of meditation apps for those of you who want to join us. Don’t forget, you can play along with Brooke and Ben by tagging your social media posts with #slowhomeexperiment and share your experiences. Hit us up on Facebook, Twitter or Instagram and let’s get experimenting! 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.

This week, we have a new Listener Chat with you, featuring librarian-teacher and all-round lovely person, Morgan. When Brooke put a call out on Facebook for Calgary-based listeners a couple of weeks ago, Morgan was the first to volunteer her time. A few days later they got to sit down at Brooke and Ben’s holiday apartment and chat for a couple of hours. There were two big themes that came out of this conversation - one being Morgan’s amazing literary brain. She has so many book suggestions and nuggets of wisdom drawn from her extensive reading, and you can find a list in the show notes. The second theme is that of living a values-based life, which has seen Morgan and her family make some massive changes over the past few years, all of which are aligned with their values and the kind of life they want to create for themselves. Head over to http://www.slowyourhome.com/66 for the full blog post, as well as links and show notes from today’s conversation. 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 episode Brooke and Ben look at week three of this month’s Slow Home Experiment, where they’ve committed to spend time each day writing in a family journal. This past week it’s turned into somewhat of a travel journal, but today Ben talks about why he feels like it’s actually taking him out of living in the present moment while travelling, which isn’t at all what they expected when they took on this experiment. But it does bring to light the difference between being present IN the moment and looking back on a day and focusing ON a moment with clarity. Don’t forget, you can play along with Brooke and Ben by tagging your social media posts with #slowhomeexperiment and share your experiences. Hit us up on Facebook, Twitter or Instagram and let’s get experimenting! 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.

Today’s guest is Joshua Fields Millburn - one half of The Minimalists and a delightful human - and he and Brooke look back at his life pre-minimalism. They talk about why he made the shift away from the American Dream (hint: it wasn’t his dream after all) and how he started the process of simplifying. They look at some practical approaches for dealing with clutter and the “just in case” stuff that trips so many up, and also talk about the importance of understanding our reasons for wanting to change. Both Joshua and Brooke have found that it’s these reasons that keep them going when things get tricky, so spending the time to uncover why is super important as you create a simpler, slower life. Joshua also talks about simplicity and living a creative life, as well as the upcoming release of Minimalism: A Film - the beautiful documentary he and Ryan Nicodemus have produced. Head over to http://www.slowyourhome.com/64 for the full blog post, as well as links and show notes from today’s conversation. 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.

After a very, ahem, relaxed lunch, Ben and Brooke sat down for a chat about the current Slow Home Experiment and the first couple of weeks of their Canadian holiday. The talk ranges from bears, to hiking, to the beauty of taking it slow on the road, before they get down to this month’s surprisingly challenging experiment of daily family journalling. Ben talks about the messiness factor, while Brooke has been surprised by the transformation her thoughts can take simply by making time to write about the day. Don’t forget, you can play along with Brooke and Ben by tagging your social media posts with #slowhomeexperiment and share your experiences. Hit us up on Facebook, Twitter or Instagram and let’s get experimenting! 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.

Can we incorporate the philosophy of ‘slow’ into modern medicine? Today’s guest, Dr Christine Walker believes so, and is increasingly seeing the benefits of slowing down, becoming more mindful and practicing the mind-body connection in her PT practice. In this episode, Brooke and Christine talk about her personal experience with stress, fatigue and illness and how a realisation that her frantic lifestyle was exacerbating these issues. They also talk about the wider issue of stress and its impact on our bodies, as well as Christine’s personal experiences with meditation and the impact it’s had on her physical and mental well-being. This conversation has some exceptional insights into modern medicine and the opportunity we have to combine the preventative benefits of mindfulness and overall health, with the incredible advances of traditional medicine over the past few decades. 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.