Surprise: I'm starting a podcast! Plus: a Reintroduction of My Aims, and Some Reminders for Slow Living

Slow living practices to help stay present and positive when you feel overwhelmed

Hello! Thank you so much for being a part of this community. In today’s post I’m going to re-share the aims of this page, announce the exciting news of my podcast endeavor, and provide some reminders and practices for slowing down.

Slowing down, being present, and recentering ourselves into the positive now.

In our lives it feels easy for busyness and hectic schedules to reaccumulate, even when you are actively focused on creating a slower pace of living.

So today I wanted to take a moment to gift every one of us the space to take a deep breath and just be calm. You deserve it. Remember, just be here. See everything in the now around you. And just focus on your breathing.

I hope you enjoy this week’s post and practices :)

Good morning wherever you are! I hope you’ll grab a nice drink and take this time for yourself.

Starting My Podcast: My Aims and What You Can Expect

Let’s get this section of the post in first! The plan and outline for the first episode was written over three days ago, so everything is ready - all I need to do is hit record and start talkin! I have set up on Spotify, and once it’s recorded, I will be immediately looking at how to make sure it is also available on apple podcasts and anywhere else necessary / typical.

For now my aim is to get started straight away on Spotify and hopefully, the same day of publishing the first episode it will be a matter of a few sign ups and link shares to get my podcast available on places like Apple podcasts and such.

The podcast will have the same name as my substack, so it will be called The Yogic Life. Also, I believe I should be able to link the episodes through here too - I’m just tidying up the logistics - I’m not the best at techy stuff!

So - what are my aims with the podcast?!

A reintroduction of what I do here and what the aims of my podcast are

The Yogic Life podcast will be expanding on the morals/lessons I explore here on Substack. Like my substack, the podcast is a space to learn and grow with calmness and humility. Every episode - like every post - provides you with real, practical applications of traditional wisdom, to help improve our daily life.

I explore the unity present in a variety of teachings (Taoist, Buddhist, Vedic, Qabbalistic, etc) to demonstrate the universal nature of these lessons and messages. My aim is then to help you (and I!) practically apply these lessons.

Let’s share with each other

So rather than theorizing or providing philosophical rhetoric, the point of what I do both here, and now on my podcast, is to present this traditional wisdom in an approachable way - and - make it compatible with our modern world.

Rather than remaining overly esoteric or cryptic, I have always aimed for clarity, practicality and real-world application. After all, to do the great work, we don’t sit around talking - we must be doing!

As Thich Nhat Hanh advocated: engaged Buddhism.

We must be engaged in our lives, to have an impact in the lives of those around us. Let us live with kindness, compassion, honesty, justice, fairness, and equanimity. And let us bring these gifts into the world around us.

And like my Substack, The Yogic Life is by no means a "yogi only" space. What I explore is for anyone at all who wants to inspire their personal growth, explore their development, and spark inspiration or self-reflection to improve their daily life.

I’m so looking forward to it and I hope you will enjoy listening. Remember that if you do like it, please do share it with anyone else who you think may find value in it. Thank you so much for being here and for coming along on the podcast journey.

Slow Living Practices to Help Stay Present and Positive When You Feel Overwhelmed

Alright - onto this week’s tips and practices. Lately, I have been feeling very overwhelmed. Being pregnant, my emotions are much harder to handle. Sometimes, something will seem like the most frustrating, difficult thing. Then hours later, I won’t really know why I felt so angry about it. It’s kind of like constantly being on the first few days of your period - except it’s all the time!

As a result, sometimes I feel like I’m not sure where all the hard work and practice I have done has gone! I work hard to reach a fairly balanced state of equanimity, with a variety of the practices I have been sharing on here for months. But sometimes, whether it’s our emotions, or our surroundings, or our circumstances, we just can’t seem to be as balanced and calm as we would like.

So if you are feeling overwhelmed, or you want some tips for whenever you may feel overwhelmed, hopefully this will help.

Think about slow living: Think about slowing down

To start, I have found that reminding myself about my values and beliefs has been paramount. When we are engrossed in difficult or hectic situations, it is easy to “lose” ourselves. We can lose track of what we value, who we are, and how we feel about things generally. We are so immersed in the “problems” of the now, or resolving the now, or the commitments, or the responsibilities, that we lose sight of the beauty of now.

First and foremost, remember that false positivity is not the answer. Instead, take a moment to take deep breaths.

As you breathe, think to yourself about all the things that you value about your life and your approach.

For example, if you are feeling rushed or overwhelmed, remind yourself of how important it is to you to slow down.

Do you remember why slowing down and slow living is so important to you?

Think of all the aspects of slow, conscious, and mindful living that inspire you.

As you breathe, focus on these positive images and reminders. Just feel yourself slowing down, and returning to that more balanced state.

If you haven’t done some of the things you usually do, because you have been busy, make a point of doing one right now. This doesn’t mean a big project - remember, this is as simple as putting on relaxing music. Or, putting on relaxing music and reading.

Perhaps you have instead been distracting yourself more often than before with things like TV shows, phones, etc, and you have forgotten about being in stillness, or slowing down.

Breathe in, and remember how nice it feels to just hear the birds. Breathe out, and recognize how important and simple it is to just be still.

I had a very difficult morning today. By 8am, my eyes were exhausted and blurry from having been on my computer writing a resignation letter since 5:30am. My mind was in such a troubled place that I don’t even want to write about it.

But I went outside, the sun was shining here and there, and there was so much peace and stillness around me. There were no noises at all, just the beautiful, beautiful sounds of the birds all around. I breathed in deeply and suddenly felt only happiness, peace, and gratitude for what was around me.

I was awakened out of my negative mental state by the beauty around me.

By consuming ourselves with negativity, by focusing more than we should on these incorrect places to dwell, we are missing the masterpiece of the world around us. The beauty, peace, and stillness of our natural world is there for us at all times. Teaching us to simply look up, and let go.

And remember, don’t ever feel like you are failing just because you are not perfect, or perfectly committed to your values, every day. We are all human - to try our best is the key, as I always say.

Some other practices to take away with you today if you are feeling rushed or overwhelmed are to:

• Think of the type of people and places that inspire you to do better.

• Put yourself in a frame of mind where you can see beyond the small picture and observe what you value, and

• See the larger reality.

We have such an important role in this world: we are stewards of the beauty around us and helpers and friends to those around us who value and love us.

You have a great purpose, and a lot to give the world. Thank you for being here and doing your best. Remember your true nature and do your best to all those you love who love you.

With so much love,