SMART Living 365

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

  • Sustainable
  • Meaningful
  • Aware
  • Rightsized
  • Thankful

Letting Go Of The Clutter In Your Mind

By Kathy Gottberg
Filed under: Aware, Meaningful

SMART Living 365.comA common theme on this blog is simple living and minimalism. Those topics are all about letting go of stuff and clutter in our lives so that we can all better focus on what really matters. If you do a Google search you’ll see tons of books and blog posts around the idea, including a recent best seller called, The Life Changing Magic of Tidying Up. And while all of that focus on cleaning up your space is important, most of it ignores how cleaning up your thinking and what goes on in your mind is even more vital. Call it magic or merely life changing, once we learn to empty and let go of the chatter and mind clutter, chances are good that the exterior space around us will be equally free of distraction. [Read more…]

36 Comments

My Top 10 Favorite Quotes From Abraham-Hicks

By Kathy Gottberg
Filed under: Aware, Meaningful

SMART Living 365.com

What do you see reflected in the world around you?

For the last couple of years one of my favorite speakers to listen to when taking my morning walk is Abraham-Hicks.   Regardless of whether the source of their inspiration comes from one woman’s mind or channeled spirits from a higher realm, I find much of it to be an empowering way to look at life. With a big emphasis on finding happiness and feeling good about life in general, what I hear during my morning walk is both healthy for my body and good for my soul. This week I heard Esther Hicks say something that made me stop, pause and make a note to myself as a reminder. That’s when I realized it might be good for me to share other favorites that prove beneficial to me on a regular basis. [Read more…]

31 Comments

Do My Hearing Aids Make Me Look Fat?

By Kathy Gottberg
Filed under: Aware, Rightsized

SMART Living 365

Kathy modeling her new hearing aids.

I don’t know any woman who doesn’t care, at least a little bit, about how they look to others. Maybe it exists in our DNA or the way we are raised. Hopefully though, by the time we get to my age we care far less how others judge us, especially our looks.   And equally important, hopefully by my age we stop letting the opinions of others make critical life decisions for us.   That of course leads to my recent decision to purchase and wear hearing aids. [Read more…]

56 Comments

Who Are We Without The Stimulation And The Noise?

By Kathy Gottberg
Filed under: Aware, Meaningful

SMART Living 365.comSomething Thom and I always wanted to do was to try a float tank*.   A couple of weeks ago in honor of my birthday we literally took the plunge. One of the more interesting things about it was the reaction others gave us when we attempted to explain the experience. Most offered a perplexed look on their face while some reacted in barely disguised repulsion. Questions like, “It’s completely dark? You’re floating in water? Do they lock you in?” were common, including the surprise, “You’re in there for a whole hour?”   Like so many situations, how a person reacts says more about them than the experience itself. So when I later read an article that reported many people prefer electric shocks to being alone with their own thoughts, I wasn’t at all surprised. But what’s really going on here? Are we so addicted to stimulation that we can’t stand the silence, or could it be that we are more afraid of who we might be and what we might find if we stop all the noise? [Read more…]

36 Comments

10 Awesome Things At 60 I Never Had At 30

By Kathy Gottberg
Filed under: Aware, Meaningful

SMART Living 365.comA week ago I turned 60. And while the number sounds much older than I feel, I am also extremely aware of how great my life is at the same time. In fact, thinking back I am hyperaware of how much my life has improved during the last 30 years.   But how can that be? In a culture obsessed with youth, is it possible that we’ve all been mislead about what happens as we age? Or maybe those of us who have lived to midlife and beyond stay too silent about the benefits? Either way, now is a good time to let those who follow know that not only can we get better as we age, but life itself can be more sweet, meaningful and SMART as it goes along.

[Read more…]

66 Comments

7 Pitfalls To Avoid When Rightsizing Your Home

By Kathy Gottberg
Filed under: Aware, Rightsized, Sustainable

SMART Living 365.com

A friend of mine is currently in the midst of selling her long-time family home and moving. Yet while I believe she “gets” the many benefits of rightsizing, I can tell after talking with her that several issues keep popping up that make her hesitant. That’s completely normal, because in many ways, rightsizing is contrary to what most of us have been taught. The good news is that once you know what to keep in mind, rightsizing not only becomes the easiest choice, it is also the one that leads to the greatest benefits.

What do we need to remember when it’s time to make a move? [Read more…]

30 Comments

Is Life Supposed to Be Fair?

By Kathy Gottberg
Filed under: Aware, Rightsized, Thankful

SMART Living 365.comDo you feel life is fair? How we answer that question says more about us personally than we usually realize. Several weeks ago when I was researching the qualities of good relationships, I discovered a line of thinking that suggests that unless our relationships feel fair, they are headed for trouble. And if that’s true, does any time we feel that we’ve been treated unfairly ultimately mean we are headed down a  troublesome path? Chances are, yes. [Read more…]

43 Comments

17 Ways To Deal With The Blahs

By Kathy Gottberg
Filed under: Aware, Rightsized

SMART Living 365.com

Kloe with the blahs…

My dog Kloe is normally one of the happiest and perkiest dogs alive. Most of the time if just mention the “w” word (as in walk) she starts spinning and doing her happy dance. I’m sort of the same way. Most days I wake up and am convinced that something wonderful is about to happen and I am incredibly fortunate just to be alive. But to be honest, there are days for both Kloe and I when one or the other of us wakes in a funk. We aren’t feeling necessarily bad, just blah. What I’ve gradually learned is that the blahs aren’t usually something to fear, fix or fight. Instead, the SMART thing to do is remember we always have more options than we know and sometimes relaxing into the moment is the best antidote. [Read more…]

37 Comments

How Is Your Hearing? 5 Reasons It Matters!

By Kathy Gottberg
Filed under: Aware, Rightsized

SMART Living 365.comDuring the last several years I knew that my hearing wasn’t as good as it used to be. But like millions of other baby boomers I told myself I was far too young to worry about it. But because I prefer preventative medicine to reactionary medicine, I decided to get a hearing test just to check things out. Even then I was somewhat shocked and dismayed to learn just how bad my hearing really was. After digging around on the Internet I was equally shocked to find out how common impaired hearing is for millions of Americans. Even more important is why the denial of it can become such a huge problem if left untreated.  [Read more…]

45 Comments

Is Your Bucket Full & Fully Charged?

By Kathy Gottberg
Filed under: Aware, Meaningful, SMART Book Reviews

SMART Living 365.com

 

Several years ago I read the book How Full Is Your Bucket? by author Tom Rath. Although the message was simple, I clearly remember its advice for creating a happy and fulfilled life. So when I was offered a review copy of Rath’s newest book Are You Fully Charged? I jumped at the chance. After all, who couldn’t benefit from a book with a subtitle like “The three keys to energizing your work and life”?   And if you’re anything like me, it doesn’t matter how many times I am reminded of positive and life affirming messages, I’m always open to hearing them again in a new way and different way. [Read more…]

20 Comments

  • « Previous Page
  • 1
  • …
  • 38
  • 39
  • 40
  • 41
  • 42
  • …
  • 65
  • Next Page »

Search

Stay SMART!

About

Kathy Gottberg is an author with seven published books and hundreds of articles covering dozens of topics in the last 35 years. Along with her books, her passion today is SMART Living 365 where she explores ideas and experiences that help to create a meaningful, sustainable, compassionate and rewarding life for herself and others. Beyond that, she lives with Thom, her best friend and soul mate in Tucson, AZ.

To contact Kathy: click here

More SMART Ideas!

  • Who are we? And why SMART?
  • Welcome to SMART Living!
  • Other SMART & Favorite Blogs I Read
  • Our List Of Best Websites for Positive Aging and Retirement
  • Privacy Policy
  • Opt-out preferences

SMART Books 2020

SMART Books 2020

All SMART Book Reviews!

  • Recommended Books By Review

Categories

Archives

Key Words & Common Themes

Abraham-Hicks appreciation awareness choosing to be happy consciousness contendedness creating happiness debt free finding happiness freedom ful-filled gratitude greater awareness happiness happy happy life interconnected interconnection journey Kathy Gottberg law of attraction learning to be grateful less is more LOA meaning minimalism Optimism peace positive aging Practicing gratitude retirement rewarding rewarding life rightsizing seeking happiness simple living Smart Living staying conscious staying healthy sustainability sustainable thankful travel well-being you get to make it up

Copyright © 2026 · SMARTLiving365 On Genesis Framework · Webmaster: T.O. Weller

Manage Consent
To provide the best experiences, we use technologies like cookies to store and/or access device information. Consenting to these technologies will allow us to process data such as browsing behavior or unique IDs on this site. Not consenting or withdrawing consent, may adversely affect certain features and functions.
Functional Always active
The technical storage or access is strictly necessary for the legitimate purpose of enabling the use of a specific service explicitly requested by the subscriber or user, or for the sole purpose of carrying out the transmission of a communication over an electronic communications network.
Preferences
The technical storage or access is necessary for the legitimate purpose of storing preferences that are not requested by the subscriber or user.
Statistics
The technical storage or access that is used exclusively for statistical purposes. The technical storage or access that is used exclusively for anonymous statistical purposes. Without a subpoena, voluntary compliance on the part of your Internet Service Provider, or additional records from a third party, information stored or retrieved for this purpose alone cannot usually be used to identify you.
Marketing
The technical storage or access is required to create user profiles to send advertising, or to track the user on a website or across several websites for similar marketing purposes.
  • Manage options
  • Manage services
  • Manage {vendor_count} vendors
  • Read more about these purposes
View preferences
  • {title}
  • {title}
  • {title}