Futuresteading - Ep 113 Brooke McAlary - going slow & the farce of multitasking Summer Days Throwback 2023

Ep 113 Brooke McAlary - going slow & the farce of multitasking Summer Days Throwback 2023

01/22/23 • 62 min

Brooke McAlary has built a life and brand around slow. She's the author of three books, the co-host of The Slow Home podcast and the voice of a movement that says, "Dear Joneses, I'm opting out of the rat race."
But hey, that doesn't mean she's exempt from overwhelm. This convo opens with Brooke and Jade swapping stories of exhaustion. File that under honesty.

So join us on the couch as we define our zone zero, get our inner turmoil sorted before facing the outer chaos, and discuss a potential inner care deficit.

We talk packaged up versions of “balance” “slow” and “simple” and why “tilting” may be more useful; leaning into the most pressing issue of the moment.

Why multi tasking is a farce but barefoot bushwalking creates a heady sense of lightness, wonder and awe that just might hold the answers.
Say no to fast and yes to slow living with Brooke McAlary.
SHOW NOTES

Why her books and pod are basically talking to herself to maintain a slower pace
Being diagnosed with severe postnatal depression
Googling in search of solutions
Letting go of the relentless ‘keep up’ approach to life
Stabilising mental health and finding a deeper sense of contentment
Living life with no buffer
Operating at 70% capacity to ensure there’s room for unplanned
Defining and protecting zone zero
Getting the inner turmoil sorted before facing the outer chaos
Avoiding an inner care deficit
The intrinsic link between inward care and capacity to give
Why the words 'balance', 'simple' and 'slow' are all fraught
The endless wrestle of living counter culturally
Learning to “tilt” rather than “balance”
The fraudulence of multi tasking
Experiencing a loss of connection, celebration and grieving as a result of covid
Facing into the need for ‘unlearning’ to build a brave new non-consumerist world
Building your tribe without preaching
Equating simple with ‘ease’ not ‘easy’
Why simplicity lives in the process of finding ease
Noticing = gratitude
Family rituals that offer hope
Barefoot bushwalking on a bliss wave
A designated slow room
Reconciling the footprint of travel by embracing her local area
Vision Quests
Why small actions of care, purpose and values are creating powerful ripples
Rebuilding rites of passage for our youth to test and expand resilience and tap into the wisdom from older generations
Writing a letter to your younger self
Jump starting our memory making function

LINKS YOU'LL LOVE

ZenHabits
Slow - Brooke McAlary
Destination Simple - Brooke McAlary
Care - Brooke McAlary
Rites of passage institute
Alone - SBS series
Vision Quest Challenges

Support the show

So join us on the couch as we define our zone zero, get our inner turmoil sorted before facing the outer chaos, and discuss a potential inner care deficit.

We talk packaged up versions of “balance” “slow” and “simple” and why “tilting” may be more useful; leaning into the most pressing issue of the moment.

Why her books and pod are basically talking to herself to maintain a slower pace
Being diagnosed with severe postnatal depression
Googling in search of solutions
Letting go of the relentless ‘keep up’ approach to life
Stabilising mental health and finding a deeper sense of contentment
Living life with no buffer
Operating at 70% capacity to ensure there’s room for unplanned
Defining and protecting zone zero
Getting the inner turmoil sorted before facing the outer chaos
Avoiding an inner care deficit
The intrinsic link between inward care and capacity to give
Why the words 'balance', 'simple' and 'slow' are all fraught
The endless wrestle of living counter culturally
Learning to “tilt” rather than “balance”
The fraudulence of multi tasking
Experiencing a loss of connection, celebration and grieving as a result of covid
Facing into the need for ‘unlearning’ to build a brave new non-consumerist world
Building your tribe without preaching
Equating simple with ‘ease’ not ‘easy’
Why simplicity lives in the process of finding ease
Noticing = gratitude
Family rituals that offer hope
Barefoot bushwalking on a bliss wave
A designated slow room
Reconciling the footprint of travel by embracing her local area
Vision Quests
Why small actions of care, purpose and values are creating powerful ripples
Rebuilding rites of passage for our youth to test and expand resilience and tap into the wisdom from older generations
Writing a letter to your younger self
Jump starting our memory making function

LINKS YOU'LL LOVE

ZenHabits
Slow - Brooke McAlary
Destination Simple - Brooke McAlary
Care - Brooke McAlary
Rites of passage institute
Alone - SBS series
Vision Quest Challenges

Support the show

Previous Episode

Ep 112 Damon Gameau - Are you part of the 'Re generation'. Summer days throwback 2023

Damon Gameau - A call to arms for storytellers!

It's time to shine the spotlight on our story tellers; the creatives, film makers, artists, poets, chefs, writers and musicians. "If our storytellers cannot find a way then the way cannot be found". Join Jade & Damon in this conversation about defying the attention economy, ways to avoid being numbed but the inertia of the system (which is not actually our friend - despite it being dressed up that way) and why rites of passage could be the answer to rebuilding our culture .
Finally, we ask the big question - how do you define ENOUGH.
If you've loved Damon's films 2040 & That Sugar Film you're in for one exceptionally powerful convo with this captivating & clever creative.

Episode Summary

People are seeking leadership that doesn’t use language without humanisation
So much of the story we are told now is dictated by extraction, competition, rivalry,
The shift from humans with animus beliefs to industrialised beliefs
Defining our collective stories through the feedback from our creative & soul stirring storytellers
Defying the attention economy by stepping away from the barraging information torrent to allow for conscious decisions
Finding your place in action
Choosing to understand rather than polarising
Slowing our judgement despite the push for pace - let a slowly defined opinion be yours Acknowledging we agree on a desire for community, healthy children, access to food....and we are not actually divided
Taking responsibility of our own individual actions and teach our children to listen & to understand
Why its NOT human nature to be greedy & selfish, because we've evolved through a deeply cooperative, symbiotic spirit.
Rewrite our culture away from competitive nature & highlight our dependency on each other Finding your path of individualism within the collective
Deradicalising the truth of what we need to do
Considering context when storytelling to shift the needle
Building a less fragile system
Why it’s not a nationalist sentiment if you want sovereignty of independence
Shifting from being a consumer to being a citizen
Building wings that will allow us to fly high and thrive with our culture providing the wind
Manifesting creativity and ingenuity by working with our kids
Shaping, creating and changing culture through coexistence, lateral thinking and practical skills - starting with the education of our children
The dance between peril and possibility
Turning emerging science into magical stories to captivate kids imaginations
Prison inmates in the States spend more time outdoors than our children
The ongoing process of unlearning as flawed humans
Deciding what’s enough. Do you keep working beyond your enough to go slower or do you keep going to give to others.
Rites of passage as a pathway to regeneration
Ayahuasca ceremonies, breath work
Taking a glimpse into the “other” to fill the gap left by a crises of meaning

References
“Surviving the future, culture, carnival and capital” - David Flemming
Rites of Passage Institute
Recapture the Rapture - rethinking god, sex and death in a world that's lost its mind - Jamie Wheal
2040 Film - Directed by Damon
That Sugar Film - Directed by Damon

Support the show

Next Episode

Ep 114 Tammi Jonas - Degrowth for perpetuity. Summer days throwback 2023.

Sharing her evolution from academic keyboard warrior to her current reality of being an agroecological pork and beef farmer who's pretty darned handy with the butchers knife and equally as sharp of mind in her contributions to the UN small scale farming policy initiatives.
Tammi Jonas is indeed a force of the natural world, never backwards in coming forwards but mellowing with every decade and sharing her successes and failures for the sake of thousands who are following in her footsteps towards a life of farming democracy.
Episode Summary

We dive right into how she fits it all in
Leadership - her style of leading from the front with doggedness and squared soldiers
Research and UN food systems mobilisation
Credibility that comes out of the dirt
Her commitment to food sovereignty across aaaalllllll the tiers of the movement
The brain breaking need to relate local practices to global policy
Linking good global initiatives to local practices
Applying food sovereignty thinking to general consumption issues
Taking power back one skill at a time
We can’t buy ourselves out of this mess - we literally need to joyfully work competently through the upskilling and sharing of
The illusion of choice when you see thousands of items for sale in a supermarket is not a place to genuinely begin
Why she considers herself an “agroecological” farmer (political, social, Agroecological theory of change is considered a science, social movement and practical - dedicated to circular bio economies rather than a purchasing of inputs. Agroecology rejects capitalism but values labour over yield.
‘Benefaction’ - enabling the farm to do their tasks joyfully
The rich reality of running internship programs - who are welcomed with the knowledge that they are becoming food sovereignty warriors
AFSA - first-peoples-first initiative
Solidarity - garnering unexplained wholeness but remembering we are all here for each other
Why there's value in building a new system rather than creating one from the ashes of the old one.
Why the rise and fall of farms and community orgs is part and parcel of the movement and should be encouraged
Being comfortable to share the successes AND the failures as a gift for the greater good
Building a de-growth mentality to avoid the ruthless capitalist system
Creating small scale farming businesses that are FUN rather than slaves to growth
Keeping her eye on the end game dilutes her need to be binary and rage filled
Why the States are not actually similar to the Australian culture - they are wedded to a growth mentality that we don't have so we have an opportunity to learn from their mistakes.
Why it’s ok to scale back from the initial vision
Framing ‘enough’ as being disentangled from the capitalist system - seeing the sky, feeding her community and others and being ok to go slow when needed.