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
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
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…]
Simple Living–A Cure For FOMO (Fear Of Missing Out)
A few days ago while having dinner with friends I asked about their plans for the weekend. In an ever-perpetual dancing mood, I mentioned that I had noticed on Facebook that a new band was scheduled to play at a local hangout. But I was torn because I had also read in the local paper that a new exciting restaurant had just opened offering incredible free tapas for any who came by. Even then, I was curious if my friends had heard of something else that might be more fun or interesting. That’s when they all looked at me and simultaneously shouted, “STOP!” Then my dear friend Larry turned to me, put his hand on mine, and said with concern, “It sounds like you’ve got a bad case of FOMO—Fear of Missing Out!” Immediately, I knew that the best, and maybe the only cure, was to return to the mindful practice of simple living.
7 Reasons Why Play Needs To Be A Part Of A Happy & SMART Life
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…]
Payment Doesn’t Always Look Like Money
Lately I’ve read a number of blog posts that discourage writers from giving any of their work away without payment—in other words, writing for free. These other writers feel that if a writer writes something without being paid for it, they diminish the value of the work for all other writers. And while I agree that every type of artist is wise to honor and value their gifts and contributions, that doesn’t mean that the only means of payment comes in the form of money. In fact, looking back over my own experiences, many of the payments I’ve received for my work came in a variety of forms and fashion. As creative artists of any type, let’s never forget that value means something different to each of us, and compensation doesn’t have to look like money. [Read more…]
From Blog To Book—The Launch of Simple-SMART & Happy!
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…]
Nine Simple & SMART Ways To Say No
Using humor is always one way to say “no!”
When I sat down today to make up my to-do list it occurred to me that this was going to be a very busy week. And to make matters worse, I had no one to blame except myself. For much of my life I’ve had trouble saying no to people, especially when it comes in areas I think are important. But as I’ve mentioned before, I recently read Essentialism—The Disciplined Pursuit of Less by Greg McKeown. Not only does the book focus on eliminating everything that is unessential in our lives so we can focus on what really matters, McKeown suggests that learning to say “No” is a critical and courageous step required to do just that. So for those of us on the path to simplifying our lives or those of us who want to live by design rather than default, it is very SMART to learn ways to say No from here on out. [Read more…]
What Are You Nexting? The Power of Positive Anticipation
One of the best words I came across this last year during my reading was the word “nexting.” Used by author and research scientist Shane Lopez in his book Making Hope Happen, it describes the act of planning things in the future to look forward to, in a positive way. I’ve also been doing a lot of listening to Abraham-Hicks and the Law of Attraction where I’ve been continually reminded that what we think about and focus on is “attracted” automatically into our lives. In addition, as a long-time student of New Thought, I know that what I dwell upon often becomes my day-to-day reality. So with summer upon us, I think it might be SMART for each of us to spend some time nexting the positive events we hope to experience during the coming months. [Read more…]
Essentialism—A Better Way To Describe Minimalism?
Making the messy and complicated simple.
I’ve been writing about the value of sustainability, simplicity and minimalism for over six years. Because it’s a big part of living SMART, I’m always on the lookout for ways to introduce new people to the idea and explain the value and incredible advantages that such a perspective offers. Maybe that is why I synchronistically stumbled across the word “essentialism” during a recent Internet surf about how to create more meaning and purpose in a person’s life. Author Greg McKeown uses it frequently in his best selling book, Essentialism—The Disciplined Pursuit of Less. And after reading the book, it’s possible that Essentialism just might be a new and better way of describing what so many of us seek when pursuing minimalism or a simple life. [Read more…]
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