Slow & Steady - August | Joy

This voiceover is an audio version of my Slow & Steady 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... 🐢🙏📚☕💌

A cosy and gentle space to gather together, learn from and inspire one another. Go deeper into Slow & Gentle Living and what it can mean for you. 🐢🙏☕

✨ A Year of Gentle Rhythm, Mindful Growth & Seasonal Living ✨

Hello you,

I am so happy you are here with me. Welcome to another year of Slow & Steady 🐢, a space to live gently, create intentionally, and move through the seasons with awareness, curiosity, and calm. This little corner of Substack, is where we follow the turning of the Wheel of the Year, embrace the beauty of slow living, and follow the natural ebb and flow of creative life.

Each season will carry its own theme and energy, inviting you to slow down, reflect, reconnect with yourself, and root more deeply into a life shaped by presence and intention. Month by month, we will go deeper and explore ideas that encourage peace, creativity, nature connection, and mindful living.

These letters will be filled with a mixture of reflections on our word of the month, journal prompts, mindful practices, slow and gentle living inspiration, seasonal guidance along with some soulful recommendations. Think of these letters as a companion and a moment of calm just for you.

And, as always, I’ll share glimpses into my creative life, writing and any new projects I embark on! I will make sure to take you along for the ride.

Slow & Steady 🐢 is a calm and quiet community, a gentle place to land each month. I’m so grateful we get to walk through this year together.

Are you sitting comfortably? I’ll pop the kettle on ☕️

Let’s begin 🙏

Emily ♡

Hello! Welcome back inside Slow & Steady, where we move through the year slowly and gently together. This year I wanted to link our slow living philosophy with the turning seasons of the year. Each season will have its own theme, and within this theme we will go deeper with our word of the month.

Winter is our time to rest and root ourselves in the present. In Spring we stretch and awaken in a period of renewal. Summer sees us seeking joy and expansion, and Autumn asks us to rekindle our creativity and place gratitude at the heart of how we live. Before the end of the year, we return to Winter in the lights of December.

We have so much to explore together, and I am so grateful to have your company.

A season to live brightly, embrace freedom and celebrate creativity.

I am so happy to meeting you back here. This month we are going to focus on joy and happiness, and I for one, cannot wait. I hope we can fill August with all the things that make us happy and bring us joy. I really hope this letter inspires you to make space for joy, not just in the coming month, but for the rest of the year too.

Below is my joyful August manifesto … by the end of this letter I hope you will be inspired to write your own…

✨ My joyful August manifesto ✨

I have a vision of belly laughs, unbridled excitement, and happiness that comes from deep within and shines out over everything. I want to allow gratitude and romanticising life to inspire my actions. I want to enjoy my family and friends, and reconnect with my childish joy and wonder.

‘Joy is more complex. It’s that warm, fuzzy feeling you get when you hear your child’s laughter, embrace your sweetheart, or cuddle a puppy... It’s a subconscious, almost visceral feeling that appears to stem from the brain’s limbic system, which is believed to control emotions, including pleasure. Unlike happiness, joy involves little cognitive awareness… you just feel good without thinking about it… but it’s more enduring.’ - Jessica Cerretani

I’ve been pondering the difference between happiness and joy. It would seem that the most common response to this, is that happiness is relatively short-lived, whereas joy is a more long lasting state of being. While there are slight nuances to this, one thing that is mostly agreed upon, is the fact that they are not the same…