Become a Member for as little as $4/mo and enjoy unlimited reading of TSLL blog.
The month of July announces the second half of the year’s beginning, and yet, it doesn’t rush ahead. It is as if time stands still for about four weeks before picking up pace with August’s arrival, and then September rapidly moves time along at the pace we seem to follow for ten months of the year.
Because of this sensation of time slowing down, I find myself physically permitting myself to slow down as well. To linger, to rest, and then, as a result, having the space to ponder all that leaps into the forefront of my mind, asking me to entertain in some way, figure out how to bring it into my life to add to the symphony that already is. After all, any instrument that is frequently used and appreciated needs to be maintained. So, while this will involve new ideas, it will also be reminders of what is already contributing to the life we love living, so we are deepening our awareness and thus reminded to appreciate what already is going well. How we do that is by slowing down, shifting into a lower, toodling-along gear for more than a day or a weekend.
Whenever you are able to begin shifting down into a slower pace, today’s post/episode is an invitation to sink into your being, rest your mind and then observe where it wishes to go, what tickles the curiosity.
Let July be the month that reminds you that you can refuse to live the life that the world says you should want and instead build a life that makes you infinitely content and joyously happy. Let July provide the time and space to ponder what that life consists of.
“It’s July and I have hope in who I am becoming.” —Charlotte Eriksson
1. Let your body sleep as long as it needs
When possible, let your body wake when it naturally wants to. Whenever you take your holiday during the summer months, keep your schedule loose, and liberate your morning so that you awake when your body is ready.
With summer providing shorter nights, being able to wake up after the sun rises tells me my body is getting what it needs. Because I am usually an early bird, turning in at night fairly early, I know that if I do wake up after the sun has risen that my body needed more time to rest and I am thankful it received it. My mind is clearer, my mood brighter and no matter what the day might bring, I meet it well-rested.
2. Use the hottest hours in the day to slow down and just be with your thoughts and curiosities
Whether choosing to journal out your thoughts or let them dance about, or pulling out reading material to inspire your thoughts, give free rein to where your thoughts wish to go and to let them show you ideas, yearnings and possibilities that may not have had the space to introduce themselves during your busy schedule throughout the rest of the year.
3. Ponder where you feel at peace
In what environments, which schedules, which people, pace of life, do you feel at peace? Author Cory Allen reminds that “A peaceful life is often the result of a thousand quiet boundaries.” Where can you lovingly, but with unwavering certainty, put boundaries to build a life of peace?
A peaceful life is also cultivated by investing in what brings you peace: loving, respectful relationships; a verdant garden full of successional blooms; good health established by daily habits of nourishment for the mind and body; a sanctuary that is our home that provides welcome, rejuvenation, and calm; wisely navigating all that swirls around us so as not to feel overwhelmed or overstimulated.
The Quiet Age: Creating a Calm Life in a Chaotic World by Cory Allen
to be released on October 6, 2026
4. Remind yourself of your growth
So often we are in perpetual motion to do more that we forget what we’ve done and what we’ve learned in the process. Whether you set goals, resolutions, intentions or nothing at all when January 2026 rolled around, taking a moment to reflect back over the past six months to remember what you’ve done, overcome and as a result learned is beneficial for a handful of reasons.
Make a list for each of the following:
- Stresses or challenges that have been resolved or improved
- Positive or desired outcomes that have materialized
- What each of these taught you or helped you realize
If we unconsciously move forward in our lives, we bypass a helpful boost to our confidence: the realization that we are growing, that we are learning, and that we have new skills, better honed than before, that are with us should we need to reach for them again.
5. Make a list of all that is going well right now
This is not just a gratitude list, but rather a concrete assessment of the routines, rituals, habits, and approaches to your daily life that are working well for you, what you are enjoying, what nourishes you, and what is supporting the direction you are intentionally pointing your life.
This is something I do every six months as a way of reminding myself that I can tweak what isn’t working as well as to appreciate the new or long-standing habits, routines and rituals that have been consciously added and are working well and elevating my life.
6. What do you want to change?
“And so with the sunshine and the great bursts of leaves growing on the trees, just as things grow in fast movies, I had that familiar conviction that life was beginning over again with the summer.” —F. Scott Fitzgerald
Who says that January 1st has to be the beginning of the new year? I have shared more than a few times over the years that my birthday is considered the start of a new year, as is September, and I also let January be a fresh start. This may sound contradictory to have so many new starts within one calendar year, but the more chances we give ourselves to shift, change, and tweak, the less likely we are to get far off track because we catch ourselves. At the same time, we are able to reaffirm what is working and strengthen our foundation of knowing – knowing what is working and protecting those sources, habits, routines, rituals, etc.
Now, with July letting us take our foot off the gas of our schedule, so to speak, what would you like to change? It can literally be anything. Maybe something observed or experienced on your travels made you realize that you don’t have to go about life in a particular way, that there are different ways to live life well. Maybe you are recognizing that fresh, seasonal food really does give you more energy, boosts your mood, and makes you feel better in your body, so you decide to change your approach to eating (let TSLL teach you how to eat and cook seasonally in the Intro to French Cooking: Everyday Deliciousness video course), or maybe you recognize that now is the best time to start stepping ever closer to realizing that big dream you’ve been putting off.
Let July become your cheerleader to help you believe in yourself and your chosen life journey. The changes you make today won’t immediately materialize into the dream that comes true, but the dream will eventually come true if you keep exercising the habits, making the investment, and maintaining the focus required to make it so.
7. Make a date approximately 6-months ahead for your next self check-in
This may be during the ‘Week Between the Years‘ as is the case for me, or maybe you prefer a date in January to make it through the middle of winter, providing a boost, or assurance of your direction. Whichever date you set, know that it can wiggle, but that it also is a habit to support your life journey of fulfillment, nourishment and enjoyment of your everydays.
There are quite a few posts out there that offer guidance on a mid-year check-in, and most revolve around goals, the progress being made, and how to have an even better second half of the year. TSLL’s approach is different in that we are focused on ensuring your everydays are a joy to live. Not that everyday will be wonderful because we will always encounter at some point unwanted moments, but rather to ensure that how we are living is in alignment with our self-defined values.
Having read Jen Tota McGivney’s Finding Your Walden, she reminds us that Henry David Thoreau didn’t have goals he was trying to achieve but rather values he wanted to adhere to – respecting Mother Nature and all humans, enjoying his days, not worshipping money. When we put our values ahead of the goals, we ensure that whatever goals or desired outcomes we may step toward don’t let us fall foul of what our personal ethos of living well and contentedly is.
When we live in such a way, it becomes easier to enjoy the present moment because, conversely, when we prioritize goals, by design, we are pulled to the future and see the present as a means to that end.
Living well, living a life of contentment, is all about today, right now, the present moment. If we remember that, if we build a life around enriching our todays, then our tomorrows will be sweeter than we can imagine. We don’t demand that they have to be something in particular. Instead, we live our values, we set our sail in the direction aligned with those values, we invest along the way, exercising discipline by turning down invitations to live in ways not supportive of such a life that we know brings us to life. This is how we live a simply luxurious life.
July arrives auspiciously at the middle of the calendar year, encouraging us to slow down and check-in with ourselves. How do we feel about how we are traveling so far? When we go to bed at night is our mind able to rest easy? Have we taken on challenges that excite us while at the same time offer the opportunity to grow in ways that bring forth our best selves? Only you can know the truthful answers to each of these questions.
By quieting our life and our being, we begin to tune in to our voice, our needs, and our dreams. As I sit and type, having just spent my morning pottering in the garden, and now watching the French countryside on the television as Le Tour rolls on, I find myself living in one dream and pondering another. With the noise of the world silenced, I know what brings me to life. Now I just have to steadily keep investing while savoring the life that surrounds me, having been built with conscious effort, patience exercised as I let go of a precise timeline, applying skills learned to navigate challenges that appeared, and always remembering to regularly appreciate all that has been given. Your life undoubtedly exhibits dreams realized, too. We can keep dreaming while also savoring what we have brought to fruition. Let the life you live now be a reminder of what you are capable of experiencing when you live on purpose.
Merci Juillet for the respite.
SIMILAR POSTS/EPISODES YOU MIGHT ENJOY
Petit Plaisir
Gardening
~Adding Japanese Anemones, Honorine Jobert, to the garden (plus, tune in to the episode, as I share other favorite garden items, plants, shows and tools I love)
~Shop Bluestone Perennials (I misspoke in the episode and called them Blue Perennials)
