September 23, 2025
10 Prompts to Help You Embrace a Slower Life
There is something about the arrival of fall that makes me want to slow down and savor life a little more than usual. I want to embrace long nights and quiet days, but with how busy life can get, it sometimes feels impossible. When I feel that way, I find it helpful to turn to this list of prompts to help get into a slower mindset.
1. Think of a sound that instantly makes you pause (wind through leaves, the kettle’s whistle, your dog’s sigh). How can you invite that sound into your day more often?
2. Write about a time you were so absorbed in something gentle — folding laundry, stirring a pot, watching the sky — that you forgot the clock entirely.
3. What is one change you could make to your daily routine to make life feel calmer?
4. If you could press “pause” on one tiny moment today — a sip of tea, sunlight on the wall, the hush before sleep — which would you choose?
5. What is something you love to do by hand rather than getting help from technology or an appliance?
6. What is a smell that never fails to make you close your eyes and inhale deeply? How can you add more of this to your home?
7. Go on a long walk, and rather than listen to music or an audiobook, let your mind wander. Where does it land?
8. What is a task you tend to rush through that you could take more time and do it intentionally?
9.How would you most like to spend a day with no obligations and the only goal being to slow time down as much as possible?
10. How has embracing a slower pace changed your life for the better?
Find more soul-stirring prompts in Field Guide to Everyday Magic Issue 16.
Janette Mitchell
September 26, 2025 at 8:40 am
I love walking in to a store and smelling the bags of cinnamon scented pinecones placed directly to the side as you enter to capture your senses to purchase one, but rather for me, inhale deeply the cinnamon goodness and think of fall while I shop.
Christine Jarmuz
October 9, 2025 at 6:32 pm
This is the kind of article I can send to 3 female cousins. We had a reunion 3 yrs ago after absences with them of 2,4 and 36 yrs. This is the kind of writing that unites souls and greets the upcoming season. This is what we open our hearts to, so we can exchange memories that will last longer still.
Carlene Calmes
November 11, 2025 at 3:59 am
When I see so many problems that pop up all around me I think of my Lord Jesus Christ and my time in my Bible study. On thing i do in the fall when walking listening to the crinkling of the leaves under my feet I look up into the sky and think oh yes! God made the heavens and the earth! He also had the leaves fall so we could see how bare our life would be without Him! How we needed a Savior to save us from death by dying on the cross for my sins being buried and rose again. But wait then I can see him at the right hand of the Father praying for me. To see the Solution not the problem of what Jesus Christ did. He conquered death. Now all we have to do is believe in Him He gave His life for all of us so that when we believe in Him we’re promised when we die we will live eternally in heavenwith Him! Where the beauty of Gods love is shown everywhere!
Yes I love fall for the reminder of being cleansed and blessed beyond measure!
Christine Kurman
October 10, 2025 at 7:03 am
Living in Florida it seems like there is never a slow down time specifically. No change of Seasons, no color change in the foliage to stimulate the mind, no cold to keep you inside by a warm fire, no counting down days for Holidays. It’s not the same living here by the Ocean. It’s just different. The Ocean has its own change of colors, the tide changes, the waves are all different. Stronger winds bring bigger waves and more Kite Surfers out with their colorful kites, these are my color changs I get to see! I have embraced a nature focused lifestyle to help me slow down.
Melissa
October 13, 2025 at 1:20 pm
I love the smell of banana bread cooking in my oven. I love all the fall flowers like black eyed Susan’s, sunflowers and dahlias!! I love the deep red leaves on the dogwood tree in my yard. I love the sound of leaves crunching under my feet when out hiking a trail in the woods. I love the smell and sound of a crackling fire outside in the fire pit.
I love cozy sweaters, a warm cup of coffee , chili with all the toppings & cornbread out on the picnic table with a plaid table cloth. I really just love everything about Fall. 🍂🌾🍁🌻☀️
Barbara
October 13, 2025 at 12:53 pm
Thank you! Love this!
Judy M Gildersleeve
October 13, 2025 at 2:07 pm
These are great prompts! It reminds me of something my oldest son(he’s 43 and an amazing writer) and I are using a word or phrase to write each day of October. We are writing for 3-5 minutes, just letting our ideas and thoughts flow. At the end of the month we are putting it all together. I write but had gone through a dry spell after my brother died after I had been taking care of him for the 5 months after his wife died. The prompts we are using have been so cathartic and now I see my writing coming through once again.
Lori J
October 25, 2025 at 6:51 am
Love this 🩷
Becky
October 13, 2025 at 3:06 pm
Claire Burke Apple Jack and Peel. It gets harder and harder to find every year. Theres nothing like it in the Fall and Christmas Seasons.
Kathleen.
October 25, 2025 at 8:53 am
oh my! it’s been about 3 years since I had bought some. Thanks for the reminder, it’s the BEST.
Donna
October 13, 2025 at 3:27 pm
I love this! Sometimes the sun on my face does it for me. I pause and think. Walking to the park seeing all the leaves
Janet
October 26, 2025 at 5:18 am
I love the beauty of the autumn leaves as they begin to change. The colors start to turn to beautiful golden reds and yellows.
Sunni Rudd*
November 20, 2025 at 7:05 pm
That’s beautiful. And reminds me of this, if i may.
I love walking down a sidewalk after the leaves from the trees that line each side have fallen on it. After a long rainy, windy few days have gone by and the sun comes out. The air cold, crisp and just enough breeze to blow those rain battered fallen leaves off the sidewalk. Revealing the most beautiful collage of the fossil-like leaf designs that stained the walk from the moisture on the leaves during the storm. The sidewalk now bare of fallen leaves, gives those who travel along it the joy and often breathtaking glimpse into Mother Nature’s artwork.
Delphine Adams
October 30, 2025 at 1:11 pm
This is our first fall in the mountains of northeast Georgia. Seeing the leaves changing color on our 1.75 acres, watching the leaves fall creating a carpet of reds, greens, golds and oranges on the earth, and feeling the chill in the air, are reminders that just as nature is going dormant, so too should we settle back and take a break from the must dos and want to dos. After living hectic lives in California and then Southwest Florida, the Georgia mountains are truly a respite in these waning but still adventure filled days and years.
Sunny D
December 26, 2025 at 11:39 am
1. Running water. I would rather find it in nature, but the small fountain on my desk or bedside table calms me.
2. Boiling water. I love to see it, hear it, and feel the vibrations of it.
3. Starting mornings with a walk outside, especially barefooted in the grass.
4. Porch o’clock. Seeing clouds move by, hearing birdsong, feeling a light breeze, smelling pine, tasting coffee or tea.
5. Studying a book. Highlighting and annotating.
6. Salty sea air and cotton on the close line.
7. Memories.
8. Really listening to and enjoying being with the one talking.
9. A day with nowhere to be.
10. Slowing down helps me notice what matters. It reminds me that God made me and all I really have to do is breathe.
Olivia
January 6, 2026 at 12:32 pm
I love the idea of slowing down and really savoring the little moments. Life moves so fast that we often forget the value of quiet reflection and mindful pauses. For anyone finding it hard to truly rest, learning how does inspire work for sleep apnea can make a real difference, helping improve sleep quality and making it easier to embrace a slower, more intentional lifestyle without feeling constantly drained.