One Part Plant with Jessica Murnane

One Part Plant with Jessica Murnane - Episode 137 of The Slow Home PodcastIf you’ve been listening to the show for any length of time you’d know I’m not a big fan of labels. I don’t like putting people in to boxes (even when we do it to ourselves) because boxes don’t grow as we do. They’re inflexible and restrictive and we find ourselves changing course or choosing inaction simply so the box doesn’t become too uncomfortable.It’s why I’ve stopped using ‘minimalism’ as a label - I simply saw too many people (myself included) caught up in what it meant to be a minimalist that we stopped making beneficial changes and began making changes simply to fit in to what we thought minimalism should look like. We’d effectively traded one set of the Joneses for another and were struggling with the same paralysing comparisons we were trying to escape.Today I chat with the awesomely honest Jessica Murnane about making massive positive change and avoiding the labels that come with it, and how doing so has helped her keep things simple.A few years ago Jessica was on the verge of major surgery, a last resort to help manage her endometriosis. After a friend recommended her trying a plant-based diet to alleviate some of the pain, Jessica figured she had nothing to lose. Weeks later she was already feeling better than she’d felt for years and the surgery was put on the back burner.Over the past few years Jessica has taught herself how to cook (her diet previously consisted of “Sour Patch Kids, Diet Coke, and whatever Lean Cuisine had cheese”) and began to figure out how to navigate the massive changes to her lifestyle without alienating herself or her friends and family. In our chat we talk about the One Part philosophy and how small, incremental changes can lead to enormous shifts over time, but also the importance of being patient with ourselves as these changes settle in.We talk about the challenges she faced in changing her lifestyle, the benefits of those changes (she still hasn’t had that surgery) and also the recent move from Chicago to Charlston and how a slower paced city has impacted family life.We also have a really interesting chat about trends, and how to avoid becoming that annoying person when your lifestyle or passion has its 15 minutes of fame. It’s something I’ve found myself thinking about a lot lately, and Jessica has some brilliant points to make about basically ignoring the BS.I loved this conversation with Jessica so much and can’t wait to read her gorgeous book.

Enjoy!

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