contendedness Archives — Page 3 of 4

Retreating to Mindfulness and Timeless Awareness With Lama Surya Das

By Kathy Gottberg
Filed under: Meaningful, Rightsized

This weekend Thom and I attended our first Dzogchen Buddhist Retreat. As seminar junkies, we’ve taken tons of spiritual classes and workshops of an hour or two here or there that focused on Buddhism or meditation. But this was our first official “retreat.” And while an evening and one day may not appear to be much of a retreat, it certainly served to get us out and away from our usual lives. More importantly, it pulled the focus of our attention away from our usual thoughts and concerns, and placed it instead on the experience of “mindfulness” or inner awareness and spiritual compassion. That switch of focus is a SMART thing to do every now and then, regardless of who you are or what you call it. [Read more…]

SMART Living Takes Smart Buildings and Smart Cities To the Highest Level

By Kathy Gottberg
Filed under: Rightsized, Sustainable, What is SMART Living?

Happy SMART Day Everyone!

In case you didn’t know, Thom and I have been real estate brokers for over 25 years. Never a good “salesperson,” I soon began writing about real estate rather than selling it. On the other hand, Thom specializes in investment and commercial properties with a big emphasis on properties that are “green” and sustainable. A recent aspect to the energy-efficient real estate industry is “smart technology” for buildings and now even cities. But even though there may be an advantage to such technology and focus—it leaves out a critical ingredient. In order for anything to be truly SMART—people and their motivations must be included in the equation. [Read more…]

Do Know Your Well-Being Score? It’s Our Recommended Site for 12/5/11

By Kathy Gottberg
Filed under: Meaningful, Rightsized, Sustainable

Happy SMART Day Everyone!

Photo by Robo Android

An enormous part of the SMART Living lifestyle is the daily awareness of our overall well-being. Do you know how you rate? Conveniently you can now go to a website named “Twitter Well-Being Tracker” and take a short and simple online test that will give you a score. Why is it called the “Twitter Well-Being Tracker”? Probably because you have the option of posting your score on the Twitter website or not. (Not sure why anyone would want to—but that is your choice.) A big reason that we think this website deserves attention is that as the busy holiday season kicks in during the next few weeks, it will benefit everyone to stay mindful and aware about what truly makes us happy and content—and the Well-Being Tracker is great for just that! [Read more…]

Three Simple Ways to Practice Thanksgiving 365

By Kathy Gottberg
Filed under: Aware, Meaningful, Thankful

One of the shortest and sweetest paths to a happy and fulfilled life is the daily practice of giving thanks. From one perspective, no other single spiritual practice is more universally accepted than the idea of being consistently grateful. Not only is gratitude a fundamental element in most spiritual traditions, it is also an ongoing, reoccurring theme in most self-help, inspirational and motivationally focused books on the market. Even science is jumping on the bandwagon and has begun to study the practice of gratitude as a way to increase the health and quality of a person’s life on many levels. Simply put, being thankful 365 is the most important activity anyone can practice, at any stage of life, to create a happy, healthy and contented life.

[Read more…]

The New KISS—Keepin’ It Simple & Sustainable!

By Kathy Gottberg
Filed under: Sustainable

A big part of living a SMART Life 365 is practicing simplicity and sustainability every single day. While the old KISS acronym is considered derogatory, let’s create a new KISS that is a daily reminder to arrange our life and circumstances in a positive way, make sustainable ongoing choices and habits, and develop a consciousness based on the SMART Living model. How do we do that? Let’s begin with the idea that is it fairly easy and that the payoff can be extraordinary. And guess what? The idea has been around for centuries. [Read more…]

Defining Happiness—Is it Bling, A Journey or Something Else?

By Kathy Gottberg
Filed under: Meaningful, Rightsized, Thankful

An important part of SMART Living 365 is creating happiness. But what do I mean by happiness? Unfortunately, many people in America seem to be working to either buy happiness or make happiness happen, and that can actually lead to more stress and dissatisfaction than anything else. So, before we go further, let’s explore what happiness is, and isn’t—how we can experience it—and why should we want it in the first place. [Read more…]

A Simple Prescription For Happiness–Get a Dog!

By Kathy Gottberg
Filed under: Meaningful, Rightsized, Thankful

Kathy, Kloe & Thom

Just over six months ago Thom and I added a new family member to our household—a puppy we named Kloe. To be sure, a puppy ads havoc, lots more work and a great deal of responsibility to anyone who cares for them. However, the increased value and joy Kloe brings to our lives more than compensates for any inconvenience. Not only does Kloe make us laugh on a daily basis, there is plenty of proof that she is also good for our health.

[Read more…]

The Simple Benefits of Spending Time In Nature

By Kathy Gottberg
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…]

Permission to Slow Down–Ending the Addiction of Busy-ness

By Kathy Gottberg
Filed under: Meaningful, Sustainable

“There’s more to life than increasing its speed.” – Mohandas Gandhi

Thom & Kloe showing us one way to slow down.

It’s summertime here in the Coachella Valley where I live, and because it is the desert southwest, it is expectedly hot outside. While we locals have certain tricks and techniques to stay cool, most of the time the heat of the season makes me lethargic and under-motivated. While none of us like to think of ourselves as lazy, me included, maybe the season is both an invitation and permission to slow down, relax and enjoy life. After all, pushing yourself when it’s extremely warm (or cold) outside isn’t SMART no matter how you look at it. [Read more…]

A Journey of Right-Sizing, or How Big Is Big Enough?

By Kathy Gottberg
Filed under: Rightsized, Sustainable

Just over three years ago, Thom and I bought a new home in the “village area” of La Quinta, CA. We called it an experiment because we weren’t sure if we could live in a house that was nearly a 1,000 sq. feet less than the one we had before. Never mind that the new house had 1,400 square feet with three bedrooms, two bathrooms and was plenty large enough based on comparables around the world. But with huge changes happening in the economy, and our personal growing awareness in the “green” movement, Thom and I felt it was time to discover if the American obsession with size was just a habit we’d adopted or a true necessity. What we’ve come to know during the last two years is that smaller is plenty big enough, especially when it fits perfectly within your needs. [Read more…]