Slow living.

If you know me from Instagram or in real life, it’s no surprise that I am drawn to slow living. It’s probably a combination of my natural disposition and a reaction to the pace of my day job, which is hustled and unpredictable.

I’m not sure if there’s a gold-stamped definition of the term, but I know what it means to me. Slow living is about being present in the moment. That’s about it. Sounds simple, right? It is. And yet, it isn’t. Our minds race forward and back through time to what we are doing later today, to our to do list, to a conversation we had last week, to an article we want to finish reading. In body, we are always here, but in mind and spirit, we are quite often busy time travellers.

For the past few years, I have been working to slow down and be present, especially when I am with my children and family, this means connecting with the moment, focusing my attention there, and enjoying exactly where I am. This has allowed me to put my whole heart and mind into what I’m living now. I think it has been a very good thing for my own sense of calm and for my connection with family and friends.

In the last few months I made an acquaintance with the lovely Melanie from Geoffrey & Grace. Melanie has a beautiful Instagram gallery of images featuring her young daughter, time in nature and at home. You can also find her writing about life over on her blog. I’m excited to be collaborating with Melanie on a year long hashtag project around the theme of slow living. The project officially launched last week, you can read Melanie’s post about it here. But since I was away on vacation I’m getting around to my post…slowly.

For the project, there will be a monthly hashtag focused on slow living. Over the course of the year we want to look at all the different ways we can bring a slow living approach to our lives, through the seasons and holidays, in the home and outdoors, with family and friends. For the month of August, we are focusing on the word ‘explore’ and what this might mean in terms of slow living.

What we are looking for is your participation in this hashtag by posting photographs to Instagram that fit this theme for you. We hope you will join us and share the project with friends too. At the end of each month we will choose our favourites moments to share. If you’d like to be considered for a selection please use the hashtag #slowliving_explore and tag Melanie @geoffreyandgrace and me @hippieindisguise. At the beginning of each month we will announce the next theme.

We hope this will help us all slow down a little more and enjoy the fleeting moments we live each day with a more open and full presence. If you’d like to see some of the photographs already posted you can click here. I’ve been blown away by all the beautiful moments shared already. This project is going to be pretty great!

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