This voiceover is an audio version of my Slow Sunday Letter below. It is unedited, so may have some stutters, imperfections, and background noise. I hope you enjoy listening to it anyway!
Welcome to Generosity of Spirit, a gentle community for YOU. We find pockets of time for slow & gentle living, books, writing, journaling & life affirming work. You are so welcome here in our cosy space, grab a cuppa & stay a while... 🐢🙏📚☕💌
In this week’s Slow Sunday Letter 💌, I thought it would be fun to share a little summer edition of my own ‘in & out’ list! Summer has never been my favourite season, but I am on a mission to reclaim it and enjoy it my way! Rather than chasing the idea of a perfect summer, I’m trying to create one that feels peaceful, intentional and true to me.
So grab a cuppa, get cosy and let’s see what’s in and what’s out this summer ☀️ …
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This summer I am all about comfy clothes. I have spent years trying to decide what style works best for me, I have taken many a quiz promising to tell me exactly what I should be wearing, and I have lusted over many seemingly ‘perfect’ wardrobes of friends and family. After many years, I have finally decided that for me comfort is the main goal.
I therefore have created my own wardrobe aesthetic and called it ‘comfy cosy hygge’.
Think cosy jumpers and cardigans, oversized styles, cropped tops, simple T-shirts and comfy bottoms. I tend to choose plain colours over patterns, and earthy, neutral shades - green, brown, black and grey make up the majority of my wardrobe. I like skirts and dresses, but I prefer dungarees, a baggy pair of jeans or linen trousers.
I think I have learnt, perhaps a little later than I needed to, that it is less about what you wear and more about how you feel in your clothes. I always find that when I try too hard to emulate someone or something else, I end up feeling uncomfortable and awkward. When I simply choose comfort and cosy hygge-inspired clothes, I feel like myself and that’s the main thing.
My husband and I are new allotment holders this year. Allotment holders with absolutely zero experience, so we are learning as we go!!! There have already been plenty of mistakes, moments of confusion and far more googling than I expected, but there is something incredibly satisfying about growing even the smallest thing yourself. Every time we have a new harvest I get so excited! I love that gardening encourages you to get outside and slow down.
We have lots of hopes and dreams for the allotment as it evolves, and so far we are loving the slow process of transforming it.
Is there anything more perfect than an after-dinner or evening walk during the summer? Once the fierce heat of the sun has gone down a little, and the sunlight has begun to fade, everything seems to calm down.
This year I want to try and get out in the evenings as much as possible for even a small walk. There are lots of benefits of an after dinner walk, as it is helps you reduce glucose spikes and aids natural digestion. As the summer days have been getting hotter and hotter, these evening walks are something to really look forward to.
I am not a huge fan of the heat. As soon as England starts climbing beyond 27 degrees, I retreat indoors. One of the best places for me to be on a boiling, muggy summer’s day is the cinema.
I enjoy the cinema all year round (fast forward to me taking my hot water bottle with me during the winter!). But, perhaps controversially, on a hot sunny day the appeal of sitting in a cool, dark cinema becomes even greater. There are so many brilliant movies coming out over the summer, I should think I will be spoilt for choice!
I love creating seasonal playlists. I have playlists for Autumn, Winter, Spring and, now Summer. Each year I sit down and try to create a playlist inspired by the summer vibes… This year’s playlist features a lot of Olivia Dean (my new fav), country music, indie favourites, movie soundtracks and some nostalgic songs that transport me back to the 90s/00s!
I am not my most creatively productive in the summer - it is a mixture of the hot days, the old ‘summer vacation’ feelings leftover from school days, and being so far away from my favourite cosy seasons. I always feel my creativity winding down as the days heat up. But this year, I have big ambitions over the summer as I continue to write my book.
I have realised that procrastination features far more than I would like within my creative practice, and it reaches a peak over the summer. This summer I’m trying to embrace imperfect action instead, to keep taking small steps of progress with my book. Tiny steps still move us forwards.
This season I’m finding far more joy in using what I already have than constantly looking for something new. I’ve been circling the idea recently of rejecting excess. We often celebrate abundance, but I’ve realised it is the kind of abundance rooted in overconsumption that leaves me feeling uncomfortable. It reminds me of supermarkets before Christmas, with baskets and trolleys overflowing with food and drink just for a few days.
It is a mindset I want to move away from, and I’m exploring different ways of doing that. One of those is simply trying to limit excess spending. Borrowing books from the library, making the most of our allotment, packing picnics, going for walks and enjoying simple days out all remind me that the best parts of summer don’t need to be expensive.
Perhaps it is living in the UK, but when the sunshine comes out there is this strange sort of pressure to ‘get out and enjoy the weather’. Maybe it is because, traditionally at least, hot summers were relatively rare, fairly unpredictable and usually interrupted by a healthy dose of rain. But as climate change continues to reshape our seasons, periods of intense summer heat are becoming more common.
I’ve realised I need to let go of this strange sense of ‘summer guilt’ and stop pretending to enjoy the heat. If I’m honest, my ideal summer day is 22 degrees, a gentle breeze and a shady bench with a good book. If the temperature climbs, I’m allowing myself to enjoy summer in my own way, even if that means retreating indoors and reading a magazine, heading to the cinema or simply waiting until the cooler evening hours to venture outside.
This year I have made huge progress with using my phone less, and I am really proud of the changes I have made and the effects they have had. Having more time for hobbies and a more peaceful mind are right at the top of that list. Not picking up my phone first thing in the morning and immediately being bombarded with other people’s stories, news, images and videos has been genuinely transformative. My mornings feel calmer, more intentional and much more like my own.
This summer I want even more moments that happen away from a screen. My phone, television and laptop all have their place, but it’s so easy to spend an entire day looking at one screen after another. I work on a computer in my day job, and then I often come home and write on my laptop, so I have to be intentional about creating space away from them.
More books, more conversations, more time outside, more gardening, more notebooks and fewer hours spent endlessly scrolling.
I hope you are enjoying this Slow Sunday Letter 📚💌 It is my pleasure to bring these as a free offering to you each week.
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The first Sunday of every month, I publish Book Lovers Chat 📚 a cosy letter, all about books and reading. I share what I have read each month with book reviews and star ratings. I also share bookstack recommendations and so much more!
The following Sunday, I publish A Writer’s Life ✍️ where I share various insights into creative living, writing and mindful creativity.
The next two Sunday’s I publish Slow Sunday Letters 💌 where we explore slow and gentle living and how it can inspire and guide your life.
If you want even more…
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I hope you enjoyed this week’s Slow Sunday Letter. I found this post really helpful to write, as it encouraged me to reflect on summer and how I can enjoy it in a way that feels right for me, rather than how I think I should.
If you have a little time this week, why not grab a nice cool drink, find a quiet spot and write your own list? What is in for your summer? What are you ready to leave out? You might be surprised by what comes to mind.
Thank you for being here,
If you enjoyed this post, found it useful or want to help me spread the word about how enriching Slow & Gentle Living can be, please do like/leave a comment or share/restack to help others discover Generosity of Spirit. Thank you for reading!
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