slowing down, heating up, & taking the pressure off

I clearly am slowing down, because these photos were shot weeks ago, before my *accidentally dying my hair black and faffing around to make it fade* fiasco.  Throwback to (slighty) lighter hair days it is, and a jumpsuit that I’m wearing every time it’s hot hot hot but my legs are pale pale pale.  No longer on the website because I’m slow, sorry, but it’s from New Look and has proven itself beer garden perfect on several occasions already.

Whilst I probably should sharpen my act up and post about items whilst they’re still available, I’m not berating myself generally for taking it slow.  In a most un-Lily-like fashion, I’m not stressing or berating myself for not being productive enough, but am chilling the F out and loving it.

I half suspected that finishing exams might be a bit of a flop and not the OMG Exciting Time I’d built it up to be.  Sure, I’ve had several busy days (some extremely so) but there have also been a few of those days where it gets to lunchtime and I’ve done my morning gym sesh and had a shower, but couldn’t actually tell you what I did with the other 3 hours.  Time just seems to slip through my fingers and before I know it, it’s time to go pick my mum up from work, or Saturday morning has been and gone in approximately 2.3 minutes.  However, what has changed after exams, is the lack of guilt.  I can read a novel on a train without feeling like it should be a textbook!  Or… I can just sit!  Doing nothing!  What a novelty.  Sounds ridiculous, but bloody hell it makes a difference.

Obviously the sunshine is helping matters, and I maybe wouldn’t be so happy to chill out indoors hiding from drizzle. For my non-British readers – Britain is having a heatwave, it’s *actual* bikini weather, (not just bikini weather for stubborn seaside goers), the BBC Weather app is showing nothing but sunshine emojis, and we can’t stop talking about it.  Ahem.  Right now I’m sitting in the garden, bikini clad, mini magnum in hand, thinking if there ever was a time to kick back and take it slower for a few weeks, this is it.  Might be our last heatwave for a decade, after all.  Possibly my favourite thing about summer is that ‘sitting in the garden’ is pretty much an activity in itself (especially with wine in hand), so for now I’m just embracing the chill.  Can’t be laziness when I’m still going to the gym at 7am, can it?

Last weekend whilst mid supermarket snack run I noticed just how many magazines are centred around slowing down, mindfulness, and reflection these days, which I think says quite a lot about the state of modern life tbh?  Granted this was Waitrose so maybe not representative of every supermarket, but still.  Clearly as a nation we need to take a chill pill every now and then.   Yes, life can sometimes feel like a race and many of us thrive on running it as fast as we can, but sometimes it’s better to just slow down and forget about the pressure to be achieving something.  If ever there was a time to do so, it’s now!

Lily Kate x

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