Storytelling

Following on from my last post - now that I've introduced the concept of slow I will be sharing my journey in a series of posts. In doing that I felt I needed to introduce it in a way that may come across as apologetic, as the previous post was a big block of text... and in this fast past world I keep getting told that we have about 15 seconds to capture someone's attention before they get bored and move on to the next thing.

I thought I should be keeping it short (and I will try) but have decided not to impose those types of restrictions on myself because I am a storyteller and use words to convey my story and my thoughts. I figure that anyone that doesn't have time doesn't have time and I can't do anything to change that.

Before I start telling my story I have to add that listening to the Slow Your Home podcast, specifically its creator, Brooke McAlary, has inspired me to share my personal experience because she is so refreshingly honest about the tough stuff. Not that I'm going to delve too deep into the tough stuff because it's in the past... but it was the catalyst for my shift towards slowing down my life, for my desire to live a simple life, for my personal growth and for the awareness and mindfulness I have developed.

I know there is a general discussion about how social media doesn't portray life in reality but instead shows picture-perfect lives that we compare ourselves to but for me the reason I have never gone into too much personal stuff online is that it has always been my happy place. That place / space that I crave to be in because it is good for my soul. I have a platform for the reality off-line with friends and family, so I've never felt the need to get online and share more personal aspects of my life, but I am far from perfect and am constantly learning and wanting to be the best version of myself possible. I wanted to keep my online spaces as the place I go to that makes me feel good, where I can share the good stuff. That's just my approach and what works for me.

I feel comfortable sharing some of my own journey now because it is the back story to my Pinch River journey and also because, as Brooke does, by speaking about it we may bring about more awareness of the benefits of simplifying your life... and the world would be a much better place if we were all mindful and aware. Also, for creative people there are 'rewards for looking'... for getting to that level of awareness, this was a favourite saying of one of my uni lecturers and I wholeheartedly agree. Prior to being introduced to the podcast I had posted about this on the Pinch River Facebook page, in an effort to get people to look... to really look.

[Image by Ramdlon from Pixabay]