simple days with bonnie rae

“There is nothing noble about being superior to some other man. The true nobility is in being superior to your previous self.” Hindu Proverb

Speeding up in order to slow down. It sounds like an oxymoron “chasing slow,” but it’s what I find myself doing. Speeding up and complicating my life in order to slow down.

Slow doesn’t just happen. We don’t just wake up one day, decide to slow down and simplify our lives and then live in meditative bliss forever.

Slowing down can be messy. Slowing down comes after a breaking point. Slowing down is a necessity, it’s a solution to a problem. I slowed down because my dad died. Because I found myself surrounded by clutter. In  a room full of stuff with a broken heart. In a relationship that wasn’t right. Following someone else’s dreams. Being swallowed by graduate school.

Slow was not a beautiful, peaceful decision. It was tears, and yelling. It was headaches and panic attacks and crying myself to sleep. It was physically holding myself together and moving forward.

This blog, this life change and this beautiful journey was not easy. I hope that I haven’t made all this look easy.

Minimalism is not an end point. It is a becoming. 

There are not “10 steps to minimalism.” There are guidelines to help (declutter, say yes to what sparks joy, say no thank you to what does not, take just 10 minutes a day to breathe, let go of toxic relationships and spend more time in the good ones).  But there is not a magic formula that will simplify and fix your life.

Most often, we have to speed up to slow down. Sometimes we have to work harder so we can pay off our debt, so we can get to do what we are passionate about. The Minimalist’s delivered pizzas after their day time job to do just that because they wanted to be free from their debt, to quit the hectic job, to slow down.

We have to pack and clean and pay a lot of money to get out of a lease so we can move to the slow, simple town and house we’ve always dreamed of. My partner and I did just that, we paid all of our savings to get out of an apartment that was too loud, too crowded, surrounded by cigarette smoke and unhappy people.

Sometimes slowing down means speeding up first. Doing the hard work to get to the good stuff.

It’s not easy but it is worth it.

For a video home tour click here. 

I am not perfect. Minimalism is not perfection. I am becoming. I share my journey in hopes of inspiring and bringing people with me, I do not share to appear better than- I share to help others see that they can do this too.

Chase your slow, I promise it’s worth it. Not easy, worth it.

“There are hundreds of paths up the mountain, all leading to the same place, so it doesn’t matter which path you take. The only person wasting time is the one who runs around the mountain, telling everyone that his or her path is wrong.” Hindu Proverb

More soon,

Bonnie Rae xx