Setting the Intention to Slow Down

Oftentimes when people set intentions, make resolutions, or come up with goals, they focus on doing something – getting the job, losing the weight, making the team, and so on. But have you ever set an intention to stop doing so much? 

My New Adventure

Two months ago, I sold my home and embarked on a nomad adventure with my family. Our plan is to live around the country in places for a month or so at a time. We’ve been staying in my hometown spending the summer with family, and next week, we’ll travel to Asheville, North Carolina, to call it home for five weeks.

While the soul behind this nomad year is to go on lots of fun adventures and see new areas of America with my husband and daughter, during this journey I’m setting the intention to slow down. 

Between being a full-time mom, freelance content creator, healthy lifestyle lover, the creator of this blog, the person in my house who does all of the shopping, cooking, dog walking, and more, I’ve been feeling like I don’t give myself time to breathe. To relax. To soak up these fleeting moments of toddler mom life to my little girl.

Why I’m Setting the Intention to Slow Down

In Brene Brown’s book The Gifts of Imperfection, she says, “The universe is not short on wake-up calls. We’re just quick to hit the snooze button.”

My “wake-up calls” have not so much been big realizations, but have come in the form of noticing that I constantly feel exhausted, recently being under the weather with COVID for an entire month, and waking up feeling like my brain has not rested and instead has been running all night long.

Don’t get me wrong, I love my life. I adore being a mom and wife. I love my freelance business. And I have held on tightly to my hobbies, interests, and friendships as much as I can in the midst of becoming a mother (oh yeah, and a pandemic throwing life for a loop!). I’m realistic in knowing that all of this has kept me busy and will continue keeping me busy on a day-to-day basis. Quite honestly, as a multi-tasking, hardworking woman, I like being busy!

How I’m Slowing Down

But at the same time, I’m learning to not fill every moment of every day with productivity. For instance, I’ve been laying in bed reading almost daily. I usually listen to audio books while walking my dog, but I get more joy from reading a physical book. Some days it’s only for a couple minutes, but every time I read, I’m reminded how much I enjoy it.

Another way that I am implementing this “slow down” attitude is by being content with my workload and turning down new long-term freelance work that comes my way. Living in a hustle culture while being a self-motivated woman who sets my own hours and work pace, it’s easy to take on too much and say yes to everything. But honestly, I like where I’m at. I have a good balance of work/life going on that I don’t want to set off-kilter.

With this new intention, I may not get everything checked off of my to-do list every day, and that’s okay. In fact, I’m going to consciously try to put a few less things on my daily or weekly to-do list.

No More Sucking it Up & Soldiering On

Brene Brown sums up my sentiment perfectly – again, in The Gifts of Imperfection, the book I’ve been reading in bed – by saying, “…I had decided not to fix my dig-deep button. I made a promise to myself that when I felt emotionally, physically, and spiritually done, I’d try slowing down rather than relying on my old standbys: pushing through, soldiering on, and sucking it up.”

The idea of setting the intention to slow down at the same time that I am embarking on a year of travel may seem counterintuitive, but I happen to think it’s the perfect time to mindfully do a little bit less.

As we travel the country, I want to really take in the sights and sounds and practice mindfulness. Lay on a hammock in the backyard. Slowly sip on a glass of wine on the front porch of our rental home. Soak in nice weather and watch my daughter play in a stream. Enjoy the journey in the simplest of ways.

After all, I believe that life should be about enjoying the ride… not checking off massive to-do lists every day!

Thoughts? Ideas? Favorite book you’ve read this year? Share with me below!