Play #4
I just want to start by assuring you that no podcaster became distraught as a result of this recording. There are no tears in this poggie. I repeat, there are no tears in this poggie. It’s OK. I’m OK. I am grateful for all the beautiful messages of love and support over the past week, and want you to know it made me feel so uplifted, and I’m in a good place now. I promise!
I can’t quite believe how quickly this year has gone, and that our daily play experiment is winding up. As you know, this has been an unexpectedly challenging experiment for me, and while Ben and I originally chose the theme of ‘play’ as a respite from last month’s decluttering work, this one has proven to be much more taxing in ways I hadn’t expected.
Admittedly, I have been feeling the pinch of some big deadlines, and getting sick mid-month certainly didn’t help matters, but as I discuss in this week’s episode, having the idea of playfulness in the back of my mind over the past few weeks has seen some really simple, beautiful changes in my daily actions.
Things like giving a funny reply to the kids when it would otherwise have been neutral, dancing around the kitchen, listening to music in the car and having a ready laugh have all helped in small but significant ways.
Truth be told, this is a funny episode and I do believe the end of year shenanigans are starting to take their toll on us (in a good way!)Speaking of the end of year shenanigans though. Ben and I also talk about the final experiment of the year, and why we changed it at the last minute - given how overwhelmed we were feeling at the mere thought of another thing to do at what is one of the busiest times of the year.
So instead, we’re simply committing to making time for slow every day. These are some of the ideas we’re running with in the first few days of the experiment, starting December 1, and we’d love for you to join us:
-
- 2 minutes of deep, slow breathing. This can be done in bed, at our desk, sitting on the back deck or while waiting for a coffee. Just taking a moment to reconnect with our breath, calm the racing thoughts and slow right down.
-
- Phones off and out of sight while we’re eating alone. We have a no phones at the table rule when others are there, but both Ben and I tend to scroll through our phones if we’re eating by ourselves. So it’s time to just sit, enjoy the food we’re eating and let our thoughts simply be.
-
- Make time to sit and just listen to a favourite song or piece of music. If we’re on the train or bus, it’s a matter of pressing play, closing our eyes and immersing ourselves in something beautiful for no other reason than to experience it fully.
- Commit to more single-tasking every day. Even though this is related to being productive, the biggest benefit of single tasking is actually being productive while also being intentional. Focusing attention on just one thing and completing it is such a rewarding and rejuvenating thing to do and is perfect for this time of year where we can feel torn in too many opposing directions.
We’d love you to join us this month as we go against the grain and slow down in the holiday season. Feel free to use #slowhomeexperiment to share your play posts and your slow posts too.
Enjoy your week, my friends!
——
Head over to iTunes to subscribe to the show and play the episode.
Or you can listen to the show directly, simply by hitting the Play button above. Enjoy!
——