Photo: Pixabay Note that this blog post is part of a series focusing on how to achieve better life balance through slower living. You can access all tips at Strategies for Better Life Balance and Slow Living. For most of May and June this year, I disappeared from the blog writing world and did not compose a single post. Why? I let other parts of life take over. When we talk about ultra busy time periods of the year, we typically think of the November and December holiday season. However, spring is just as crazy in our household, particularly the mid-April through June period when everything ..read more

Photo: Emily Seamone Note that this blog post is part of a series focusing on how to achieve better life balance through slower living. You can access all tips at Strategies for Better Life Balance and Slow Living. Around the Centennial of the U.S. National Park Service’s Birthday in 2016, my family and I experienced our first trip to one of the parks, Yellowstone, and we fell in love. Since then we have been to four parks over the past three summers. Our draw to these fascinating sanctuaries of heaven on earth surprised me. After all, we are more city folk than anything. My husband and I sp ..read more

Photo: Pixabay Note that this blog post is part of a series focusing on how to achieve better life balance through slower living. You can access all tips at Strategies for Better Life Balance and Slow Living. Can we live more slowly and authentically, enjoy life, and yet still be successful? As we embrace slower living, we may wonder if this also means giving up on success in life. After all, fast and busy = successful, right? These days it is common for us all to proudly wear our busyness badges, boasting to others how crazed (and thus important) we are. So what happens if we are no longer ..read more

Photo: Pixabay Note that this blog post is part of a series focusing on how to achieve better life balance through slower living. You can access all tips at Strategies for Better Life Balance and Slow Living. This weekend is both my birthday and Mother’s Day, which often gives me the fortitude to claim that I deserve to celebrate all weekend long. And as part of this celebration and in honor of slower living, I’ve decided this also means I get a true break. No cooking or even meal planning (delegated all to husband and will eat out one evening), no grocery shopping (will have to do on Monday ..read more

Photo: Pixabay The job interview is the ultimate chance to talk one-on-one with a potential employer and colleagues and learn as much as you can about the organization and position. If you are seeking a flexible work role, you especially want to get a feel for the office culture and attitudes toward flexible work arrangements and work-life balance. But how can you gain these important clues without making it sound like you only care about your hours and schedule? Some cultural indicators may arise organically as the employer talks about the open position and company during an interview. For ..read more

Photo: Pixabay Note that this blog post is part of a series focusing on how to achieve better life balance through slower living. You can access all tips at Strategies for Better Life Balance and Slow Living. What in your life feels too fast? When we embark on the journey of slowing down our lives for better life balance, it is difficult to figure out where to start. One good place is to begin is to ask this simple question: What in my life feels too fast or busy? What feels too overwhelming? Fast is Sometimes Good To practice slow living and realize its benefits, not everything in our lives ..read more

Photo: Pixabay Note that this blog post is part of a series focusing on how to achieve better life balance through slower living. You can access all tips at Strategies for Better Life Balance and Slow Living. How can we create more time in our lives to live more slowly? Who wouldn’t love to have more time in each day? We certainly all could use it. Experts say this has led to a societal obsession with time management, productivity, and efficiency strategies. Indeed, there is no shortage of blog posts, books, podcasts, and other forms of information on this topic, sprouting ways to essentiall ..read more

Photo: Pixabay Note that this blog post is part of a series focusing on how to achieve better life balance through slower living. You can access all tips at Strategies for Better Life Balance and Slow Living. Here in Northern NJ, we are all snuggled at home with our fifth snow day of the year. This one is a big deal, as New York City even closed their schools (very rare), and the university I work for in the city also shut down (even rarer). This also means we have what I like to call “unexpected time.” Unexpected Time Unexpected time is glorious. It is like discovering a hidden holiday gift ..read more

Photo: Pixabay Note that this blog post is part of a series focusing on how to achieve better life balance through slower living. You can access all tips at Strategies for Better Life Balance and Slow Living. What would it be like if we were able to carry over our slow, relaxed vacation mindsets into everyday life? My family and I recently returned from a week of visiting with extended family members, and although it had its ups and downs (as traveling with family naturally does), it was wonderful and slow. We basked in nature, spending several hours a day outside in the beautiful mountains ..read more

Photo: Pixabay Note that this blog post is part of a series focusing on how to achieve better life balance through slower living. You can access all tips at Strategies for Better Life Balance and Slow Living. This strategy is a continuation of Tip 6, which reviews how to track your time, or record what you do every 30 minutes for a week or longer. This type of detailed data is extremely helpful when figuring out how to improve your schedule. Once you have tracked your time, the next step is analyzing the results and determining how you can use this information to help you live more slowly an ..read more