Meaningful Archives — Page 27 of 41

Oaxaca and Final Thoughts—Travels With Thom & Kathy Part 4

By Kathy Gottberg
Filed under: Aware, Meaningful, Rightsized, Sustainable, Thankful

Our first night out in Oaxaca at Los Danzantes.

We woke up early on our final morning in Oaxaca MX and came up with five remaining SMART Tips we can all use for both travel and the journey of life. Overall our vacation in Mexico has introduced us to captivating and interesting sites and experiences. Everywhere we’ve gone we’ve met friendly, kind and generous people. The variety, quality and presentation of the food and beverages have been asombroso (amazing). And like the very best of travel, we have learned more about ourselves and discovered that people everywhere mainly strive for the same things—love, meaning, peace and a sense of purpose. How SMART is that? [Read more…]

Travels With Thom & Kathy; An Introduction

By Kathy Gottberg
Filed under: Aware, Meaningful, Thankful

So many places…so little time!

Back when I first began writing I dreamed of becoming a travel writer. In those days travel writers wrote mainly for newspapers, magazines or occasionally a book. Then 10 years ago when I started hearing about the potential of blogging, Thom and I toyed with the idea of a travel blog for middle-aged motorcycle riders. Yes, really! That idea crashed and burned when I dumped my motorcycle at 40 mph, broke my arm and shoulder, and Thom sold my bike. Instead I spent over three years writing about the environment and everything green and sustainable before eventually focusing on what I call SMART Living. But even though writing about things I consider SMART is deeply satisfying, I’ve never forgotten that pull to write about my second love—travel. So with a three-week adventure planned in the days ahead, I decided to give it a shot—with a dose of SMART on the side! [Read more…]

Why We Mourn The Death Of Celebrities

By Kathy Gottberg
Filed under: Aware, Meaningful

Valentino–The very first movie star our nation collectively mourned.

As we all know by now, actor Robin Williams died by suicide earlier this week. Sadly, his passing comes on the heels of other departures by famous people like Maya Angelou, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Shirley Temple and Paul Walker to name just a few. And while death always catches our attention, sometimes it also causes us to catch our breath—especially when it strikes those we consider too young. Yet the truth is, we don’t know these people. Our only connection to them comes from highly filtered stories from the media. So what is it that triggers the widespread mourning that so many feel when tragedy hits our celebrities? Here are nine reasons I found that might help to explain the phenomenon.

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How To Reimagine A Right-Sized Life

By Kathy Gottberg
Filed under: Aware, Meaningful, Rightsized

Recently I was invited to join my first online book club through Facebook. The book to be discussed was Life Reimagined—Discovering Your New Life Possibilities. And while I was a bit skeptical about how a book club discussion through Facebook could be that helpful, this upbeat and practical book appeared to cover ideas I often read and write about—so I said yes. Now four weeks later I consider the book club experiment to be a relative success. But best of all, I discovered along the way some helpful ideas for us all to “reimagine” what I call a right-sized life. [Read more…]

15 Seriously Happy Songs for the Summer

By Kathy Gottberg
Filed under: Aware, Meaningful

Click on the photo to hear Happy!

If you only know me from my blog posts you might think I’m a very serious person who thinks way too much. Actually, I am one of the most upbeat, optimistic and happy people I know. While I do enjoy digging deep into subjects that catch my interest, I also love to laugh, dance and have fun as much as possible. Some of the best ways to do that is to listen to uplifting and happy music. With that in mind, I went through my itunes playlist and came up with fifteen songs that I believe make it impossible not to want to smile and offer the potential to lift your spirit this summer. [Read more…]

Alternative Medicine—How Far Will You Go To Be Healed?

By Kathy Gottberg
Filed under: Aware, Meaningful, Rightsized

My husband Thom and I just returned for a month long stay just south of Rosarito Mexico on the Baja coast. Our rental condo offered us lovely cool temperatures without the need for air conditioning, outstanding views, great food and wine, a regular routine of beach walks, and something completely unexpected—lots of conversation about local alternative health therapies. After hearing a couple of amazing stories about people who experienced dramatic healings, we discovered what many who live or visit south of the border already know, medicine in other countries has advantages. What caught my interest most of all was the fact that even though people are flying in from around the world to take advantage of certain cutting-edge techniques, the vast majority of Americans will never even get a second opinion when faced with a medical crisis. What makes a few willing to make the trip while most of us stay home? [Read more…]

Finding Grace Giveaway and Blog Hop

By Kathy Gottberg
Filed under: Aware, Meaningful

I wish I knew someone like Grace Martin, the main character in my novel Finding Grace—A Transformational Journey. In some ways maybe I do, because Grace is the combination of several women I have met in my life that I admire, respect and love. Does she have all the answers—no. Does she always do the right or best thing—not hardly. But Grace continues to keep going in spite of what she comes up against. She does it by questioning and learning from every experience she faces, and strives to be authentically true to herself. Like her, I consider my life to be a quest to discover my true nature, and seek to follow her example. Not only is that a big reason why I wrote this novel, but more importantly, it is exactly the kind of story that I like to read myself. For that reason, I would like to offer one of you a free print copy of my book to see if you too are interested in finding Grace. [Read more…]

3 Steps To Right-Sizing Your Work For A Happy Life

By Kathy Gottberg
Filed under: Aware, Meaningful, Rightsized, Sustainable

Working–the rightsized way!

According to the online publication Business Insider, the average person works over 1,800 hours per year and almost 90,000 total hours during their lifetime. That might be low because if you figure 40 hours per week for 50 weeks, it comes to 2,000 hours without even counting commuting time. An even more depressing bit of information is that nearly 80% of people are dissatisfied with their jobs. So if we spend over a third of our life working and another third of our life sleeping, that leaves only one third to do everything else. Is that enough for a happy, purposeful and rewarding life? Maybe. If not, perhaps there is a better way to live by right-sizing your work in ways that help to create a SMART life 365. [Read more…]

7 Reasons Why Play Needs To Be A Part Of A Happy & SMART Life

By Kathy Gottberg
Filed under: Aware, Meaningful

During the last couple of weeks Thom and I have been staying in Baja Mexico at an oceanfront condo. We came here to escape the excessive heat of summer in our hometown of La Quinta. We found a reasonable rental where we can enjoy the cooler weather, get outdoors and still accomplish our daily work schedule.But even better than a more temperate climate is the enjoyment we are having by changing our routine, getting outdoors, and hanging out with new and old friends. It’s fun—pure and simple. And while playing and having fun might seem to be frivolous and extravagant in times of climate crisis, a struggling economy and political and social unrest around the world, play is much more than that. In fact, playing just might be the antidote to all those problems, plus much, much more. [Read more…]

From Blog To Book—The Launch of Simple-SMART & Happy!

By Kathy Gottberg
Filed under: Aware, Meaningful

My latest book, Simple*SMART & Happy!

In January of this year I decided the time had arrived for me to consider publishing a series of blog posts into a book. I had read of several other bloggers who compiled some of their posts and successfully published them in book form in order to sell them on both their websites and Amazon. So in honor of SMART Living 365’s Third Anniversary this month, and with over 250 blog posts, I thought, “Why not?” Today, I am officially announcing the launch of my first “blog-to-book” print and ebook, Simple-SMART & Happy, A SMART Living 365 Guide to a Sustainable & Meaningful Lifestyle on Amazon.com. If you’ve ever considered writing your own book, and especially if you are a blogger, here are five reasons I feel it is a valuable and worthwhile thing to do. [Read more…]