The Tortoise with Brooke McAlary

And just like that, we arrive at the final episode of 2019. It’s been quite the ride folks, and in the last hostful of the year, Brooke and Ben look back over what has undoubtedly been a massively transformative year for them both. They talk about the transition from travelling to putting down roots, end of year burnout and their thoughts on the future as a new year (and a new decade) peeks around the corner. The Top 10 Best Things List also makes a come back as Brooke and Ben explore the year that was through the lens of their favourite: TV show small detail movie new destination book discovery album new podcast meal experience Brooke also talks about her conflicted relationship with travel, book plans for 2020 and shares a little of what you can expect from the podcast next year too. If you’re worried about pogpast withdrawal symptoms over the January break, fear not! The annual Summer Series/Winter Warmies (where Brooke and Ben share some of their favourite past episodes) will be in your earholes all through the holidays, with the first episode dropping on Jan 2. Until then, have a wonderful, safe, peaceful holiday season and we’ll catch you next decade. Enjoy! Looking for more Slow? Find show notes, resources and links at slowyourhome.com/season4 Follow us on Instagram @slowhomepod Sign up for our love letters Or leave a rating or review in iTunes Join The Tortoise Community: https://brookemcalary.substack.com/See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Can you live slow if you’re someone who enjoys being busy? What if you’re a Type A, go-getter? Or someone who prides themselves on setting goals and kicking them every single time? In today’s episode (the second-last of the season!) Brooke speaks with Elisa, who has spent the past year shedding many layers of her life and self-beliefs, but now finds herself stuck on how to distil the myriad ideas she’s absorbed in to real, lasting change – without reverting to living fast. Elisa shares the catalyst for making changes in her life before she and Brooke dig in to the question of values and personal identity. As a mum who is emerging from the parenting very young children phase, Elisa also spends some time digging in to the underlying motivations that might be driving her desire to be constantly busy. Brooke talks about finding contentment in the now, no matter how imperfect, and why the word ‘slow’ might actually be giving Elisa more stress than peace. Jacki Carr, values coach extraordinaire, then joins Brooke for a juicy discussion on how to uncover our personal values and design our legacy. As a self-confessed go-getter and serial goal kicker, Jacki has some incredible suggestions for Elisa to find pockets of slow intention on even the busiest of days, as well as how to reclaim space for your self amidst the work of parenting. Enjoy! Looking for more Slow? Find show notes, resources and links at slowyourhome.com/season4 Follow us on Instagram @slowhomepod Sign up for our love letters Join the Slow Experiment Club over on Patreon Or leave a rating or review in iTunes Join The Tortoise Community: https://brookemcalary.substack.com/See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

If you’ve ever tried to reduce the amount of plastic or food waste going in to your bin, if you’ve ever tried to cut back on packaging or unnecessary products in your shopping trolley, or if you’ve ever tried your hand at Plastic Free July and found yourself overwhelmed and frustrated at the lack of realistic low-waste options in your home town – this episode is for you. Today we meet Amy, who lives in rural northern Maine, where recycling and low-waste resources are limited. Amy has been making progress in lots of different areas of slow living, but now finds herself at somewhat of a frustrating point where the lack of local services is making further progress tough. She and Brooke talk about the frustrations of living in a system that’s not set up for our success, and the importance of acknowledging when we’re doing the best we can. They chat about the progress Amy has made (which is a great way of reframing the journey so far) and Brooke offers some practical suggestions for a few of Amy’s specific issues – namely, compost. Brooke is then joined by Tammy Logan of Gippsland Unwrapped – an online community and activism platform that offers community-based and creative solutions to living a lower-waste life in rural areas. Tammy has some fantastic practical suggestions for how Amy could reduce the amount she needs to compost, as well as some solutions for those who might not have a typical compost set-up available, and she also offers some hard-earned insight in to the pros and cons of making green changes in a small town. This is an episode for anyone looking for realistic low-waste options, as well as inspiration to rethink what low-waste means. In a word, it’s encouraging. Enjoy! Looking for more Slow? Find show notes, resources and links at slowyourhome.com/season4 Follow us on Instagram @slowhomepod Sign up for our love letters Join the Slow Experiment Club over on Patreon Or leave a rating or review in iTunes Join The Tortoise Community: https://brookemcalary.substack.com/See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This week we meet another wonderful listener, Sara, who has found herself in a place many of us can relate to: she's gradually reduced the commitments in her life in order to do more of what lights her up but has found other requests and demands on her sneaking in and is finding it difficult to create boundaries and say no. Sara has been transitioning to retirement over the past couple of years but is struggling to actually retire. She values service in all areas of her life, and is struggling to calibrate what service looks like in a life that has always placed the service of others ahead of her own needs. She's finding it difficult to say no and similarly tough to create boundaries.  Brooke and Sara talk about the role of ego in constantly saying yes, as well as the feelings of guilt that arise when Sara chooses to create and honour the boundaries around her time, energy and other values. Brooke is then joined by Cark Honoré, who talks about our innate desire to feel relevant as we get older, and how to move through the fear of losing our identity when letting go of work, relationships or activities that used to define us. They also have an interesting discussion on the trajectory of slow living and how it’s come to reflect different things now that it’s more of a mainstream idea. Enjoy! Looking for more Slow? Find show notes, resources and links at slowyourhome.com/season4 Follow us on Instagram @slowhomepod Sign up for our love letters Join the Slow Experiment Club over on Patreon Or leave a rating or review in iTunes Join The Tortoise Community: https://brookemcalary.substack.com/See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Slow living has positive applications for everyone – no matter their age, life circumstance or work situation. All too often however, it’s presented from the perspective of people in their thirties and forties who are well-established in their careers, relationships, family and home situations, who are making changes in order to slow down (usually after burning out or reaching a crisis point).   In this week’s episode Brooke chats with Lauren, who is in her mid-twenties and wants to know whether slow living is something you need to ‘earn’ in your twenties by hustling and burning the candle at both ends, or whether there are things she can do now to help “build the right foundations for a slow life from the start of my career, rather than course-correcting later?” Lauren also wants to know what specific things she might want to prioritise now in order to set herself up for an intentional life. Brooke and Lauren talk about what success looks like, and why it’s important to develop your own definition of it, as well as how to reframe the sense of overwhelm that comes when faced with so many opportunities and options in your mid-twenties. Brooke offers Lauren some suggestions on how to better get to know herself and her values, and also offers some super practical suggestions on how to develop boundaries, how to cope with self-doubt and how to practice present-moment awareness when the world is so full of distractions. Brooke is then joined by Jocelyn Glei, host of the podcast Hurry Slowly and author of Unsubscribe: A modern guide to getting rid of email anxiety, who shares her own experiences of figuring out what living with intention actually means and how to view the mistakes and challenges of your twenties as essential learning experiences rather than failings or mis-steps. Enjoy! Looking for more Slow? Find show notes, resources and links at slowyourhome.com/season4 Follow us on Instagram @slowhomepod Sign up for our love letters Join the Slow Experiment Club over on Patreon Or leave a rating or review in iTunes Join The Tortoise Community: https://brookemcalary.substack.com/See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

When we look around and see the environmental crises facing the world it can be easy to slip in to despair, as we wonder, “What difference can I make? I’m only one person.” In today’s episode we meet Georgi, who has made massive strides in changing the way she lives as an individual but is now looking at the bigger picture and wants to know, “What are some bigger things I can do, outside my own home, to make a real impact? What are the best things we can do to make a real difference?” Georgi and Brooke have a really wide-ranging conversation that looks at both the highly practical changes each of us can make in our attempts to live a slower, more sustainable life, as well as the broader issue of how to work out what we have to offer our community and how to begin delivering it. Brooke is then joined by special guest, Sarah Wilson (author of First, We Make the Beast Beautiful) who talks about the importance of us coming together to make change, as opposed to buying in to the story that we as individuals need to fix every single problem the system has created. This is a really refreshing conversation that highlights the idea that making change is as simple as showing up in our own communities and as complicated as learning to let go of the guilt at not being able to do it all. Enjoy! Looking for more Slow? Find show notes, resources and links at slowyourhome.com/season4 Follow us on Instagram @slowhomepod Sign up for our love letters Join the Slow Experiment Club over on Patreon Or leave a rating or review in iTunes Join The Tortoise Community: https://brookemcalary.substack.com/See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

In today’s episode we meet Nancy, who has recently moved from the UK to Kuala Lumpur with her family, and is afraid that her introversion, combined with her desire to live a ‘slow life’ is holding her back from making friends. Brooke discovers that she and Nancy share a lot of the same concerns, and they dive head-first in to why they both struggle with connection and what relationship that struggle has to deeper issues of self-worth, guilt and shame.   Brooke also shares some of the practical techniques she’s used over the past six months of living in a new place that have helped her slowly find and connect with like-minded people, while also talking through why we might want to rethink what “like-minded people” means to us. Are we holding out for a perfect fit when there are dozens of great people surrounding us? And if so, how can we get to know whether we’re a good fit as friends or not? To bring another perspective in to the conversation, Brooke is joined by the wonderful friend of the show (and friend in general) Cait Flanders in the second half of the episode and they talk about making friends online, the importance of getting comfortable with awkwardness and letting go of expectations when meeting new people. It’s a really warm, practical and honest conversation about making friends as an adult, with some special attention given to those of us who are on the more introverted side of the spectrum. Enjoy! Looking for more Slow? Find show notes, resources and links at slowyourhome.com/season4 Follow us on Instagram @slowhomepod Sign up for our love letters Join the Slow Experiment Club over on Patreon Or leave a rating or review in iTunes Join The Tortoise Community: https://brookemcalary.substack.com/See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Surprise! We're popping in to your earholes on a Monday with a very special bonus episode featuring the utterly delightful Clare Bowditch - songwriter, actress, storyteller and author of one of the most powerful memoirs Brooke has ever read.  In this conversation Brooke and Clare talk about the stories we tell ourselves and why they matter, loss and grief, mental health and healing, learning to be patient and what happens when we show up scared.  It's deep, it's funny, it's bittersweet and we hope you enjoy it.  Looking for more Slow? Find show notes, resources and links at slowyourhome.com/season4 Follow us on Instagram @slowhomepod Sign up for our love letters Join the Slow Experiment Club over on Patreon Or leave a rating or review in iTunes Join The Tortoise Community: https://brookemcalary.substack.com/See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Welcome to Season 4! As Brooke and Ben mentioned in the sneak peek episode a couple of weeks ago, this season sees a pretty significant shake-up to the podcast format and they’re excited to dive in to it with you. The season starts with a question from Kate, who wants to know whether slow living and some of its adjacent elements – mindfulness, self-care, noticing, increased peace and patience – can actually rob us of ambition. Kate is an author and also has a passion for teaching and podcasting, and fears that if she slowed down enough to focus solely on her writing, she’d be robbing herself of the opportunity to not only do some of the things that fill her up, but also to live on the ‘edges of life’, where so much of the material for her books is gleaned. Brooke and Kate talk about fear, mental health, the importance of looking at our intentions when taking (or not taking) certain actions, and the stories we tell ourselves about pain and discomfort and creativity and just generally dig around in what role slow living plays and how to find more long-term alignment. The second half of the episode then features a chat with the delightful Tsh Oxenreider – who is also an author, teacher, podcaster and wearer of many and varied hats, just like Kate. Tsh and Brooke discuss Kate’s questions and the constant recalibration of life’s priorities and joys, and they also talk about the important process of getting to know oneself – why we do things, why we struggle with other things, what our strengths and weaknesses and preferences are. Enjoy! Looking for more Slow? Find show notes, resources and links at slowyourhome.com/season4 Follow us on Instagram @slowhomepod Sign up for our love letters Join the Slow Experiment Club over on Patreon Or leave a rating or review in iTunes Join The Tortoise Community: https://brookemcalary.substack.com/See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Season 4 is nearly here, and this week Brooke and Ben thought they'd drop a sneaky little preview of what's to come.  They talk about the totally new format for Season 4 episodes, why they decided to make a change and what you can expect from them this season (lots of super relatable conversations and practical takeaways).  Ben and Brooke also discuss what life's been like over the past couple of months as they settle in to their new home in the Southern Highlands, what they're struggling with and what the rest of the year holds. Ben peppers Brooke with some very random questions about negative reviews and the sustainability themes in The Handmaid's Tale (bear with us - it makes sense) and they also discuss the realities of finding new rhythms while holding space for exploring a new way of life.  It's fun, it's a little random, and it just might tide you over until Season 4 kicks off for real on October 24.  Enjoy!  Looking for more Slow? Follow us on Instagram @slowhomepod Sign up for our love letters Join the Slow Experiment Club over on Patreon Or leave a rating or review in iTunes As always, thank you for listening!Join The Tortoise Community: https://brookemcalary.substack.com/See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.