SMART Living 365

Ideas to create a more happy, peaceful and rewarding life--365!

Nature Does More Than Heal—It Actually Makes People More Kind

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Filed under: Aware, Meaningful, Sustainable

“I would feel more optimistic about a bright future for man if he spent less time proving that he can outwit Nature and more time tasting her sweetness and respecting her seniority.”  ~E.B. White

A few weeks ago I posted about how it was “SMART to Spend Time in Nature.”  That’s because there are dozens of scientific studies that now prove that not only is it healing for the body, it is also extremely good for our mental health to experience time in the great outdoors.  Since writing that blog, I have since discovered that not only is it good for us physically and mentally—spending time in nature also makes us nicer and more generous people.

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The Simple Benefits of Spending Time In Nature

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Filed under: Aware, Meaningful, Sustainable, Thankful

“Research has shown that people with a greater sense of vitality don’t just have more energy for things they want to do, they are also more resilient to physical illnesses. One of the pathways to health may be to spend more time in natural settings,”  Richard Ryan.

Trees are alive too!

 

As some of our friends and family know, Thom and I have been renting a house for a month every summer up in Idyllwild for around 17 years. Idyllwild is a very small mountain town, (less than 2,000 permanent residents) about an hour from our home in the desert. Back in 1993 we did it for the first time because, quite frankly, we couldn’t afford any other type of vacation. It seemed like a good way to escape the desert heat and was a great bargain as well. Little did we know back then that the experience would be so rewarding, that we would still be doing it 17 years later. Now, not only do we consider it still an amazing vacation value, we are living examples of the restorative power of spending time in nature. [Read more…]

Using CalmNsense for a Happier and More Peaceful Life

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Filed under: Aware, Rightsized

“It took some good calm thinking in order to get myself to calm down and stop throwing myself against the boulder.”  –Aron Ralston, mountain climber and author

Yesterday Thom came across an interesting article on Huffington Post about the lack of common sense in the world today.  The article by Dr. Jim Taylor said, “common sense is neither common, nor sense. There’s not a whole lot of sound judgment going on these days… so it’s not common.”  We both agreed with his suggestions on how to bring more open and rigorous thinking to our decisions, but there was something else missing.  Maybe that final ingredient to all common sense should be some “calmNsense.” [Read more…]

How Open Minded Are you About Closed-Minded People?

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Filed under: Aware, Rightsized

Several years ago Thom and I attended a workshop where the speaker asked us the question, “How open-minded are you about closed- minded people?”  It was asked in the context that here we all were, thinking we had the right and perfect solution to the world’s problems, and yet this simple question asked us, “so what makes you think you are so smart/spiritual/aware that you have the right/ true/correct answer to whatever is going on?”  Huh?

SMART living requires that we are to take full responsibility for our lives if we want to live happy, and rewarding lives.  But in order to be fully responsible for what’s going on, then we have to first be aware, and then second, realize that even when we think we know, there can always be a different or bigger perspective that we are clueless about.  Even when we try to be as opened-minded as possible, we always have a blind spot here and there.  And often, the more we fight something the more it “backfires.” [Read more…]

Seeking Art and Beauty Everywhere—the “A” in SMART Living

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Filed under: Aware

Happy SMART Day Everyone!

When most people search for happiness, they seldom think of beauty or being artful unless they claim to be an artist.  I certainly used to think that way.  When focused on creating a happy and successful life, I seldom realized that unless I was also creating something artful or beautiful, that dream often eluded me.  I think that is because there is something inside each of us that finds peace, harmony, awe and connection whenever we see and recognize beauty.  And if we don’t see beauty, then no matter how close we are to achieving any goal, something seems to be missing.   That’s why I believe it is critical to create beauty when living SMART 365.

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