SMART Living 365

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

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A Tale of Two Colonoscopies

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Filed under: Meaningful, Rightsized, Thankful

Happy SMART Day Everyone!

“It was the best of times, it was the worst of times…” so begins Charles Dickens classic novel, “A Tale of Two Cities.”  But that statement and the major themes of the story apply to most of the experiences of every person on the planet on a regular basis.   Do we allow the tragedy, inequity and oppression of life’s circumstances to beat us down—or like some characters in the book, do we reach for resurrection and transformation?  Even situations as routine or pedestrian as a colonoscopy offer us each of us a similar choice.  It’s SMART to always remember that decision is up to us. [Read more…]

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In Defense of “Happy Holidays” for One & All!

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Filed under: Aware, Meaningful, Thankful

       Happy Holidays everyone!  For those of us who are aware of the abundance of holiday celebrations that occur during December around the world, it’s easy and SMART to admit how appropriate that greeting is for us all.  It means no disrespect to anyone, and instead acknowledges that different people experience different ways to find meaning in their world.  In fact, even if you have a favorite way to celebrate, acknowledging with love, kindness and compassion the diversity among us, just might be the most spiritual and enlightened way to celebrate and enjoy the season. [Read more…]

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SMART Living 365 Recommends You Stay Grateful By Visiting Gratefulness.org

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Filed under: Thankful

Happy SMART Day Everyone!

One of the core elements of living SMART 365 is practicing a thankful awareness on a daily basis.  That’s why this week we are recommending Gratefulness.org.  This website offers several touching and free ways to practice gratitude as well as education and support for anyone who wants to use gratitude as a regular spiritual practice.    Just one of the goals of the website and organization is “to promote public awareness of gratefulness as a power for change in areas such as ecology, religious tolerance and intergenerational respect.”   Surely, such a focus on gratitude can benefit each and every one of us every single day. [Read more…]

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Three Simple Ways to Practice Thanksgiving 365

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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.

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SMART Living 365 Recommends Your Local Public Library—For Free!

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Filed under: Meaningful, Sustainable, Thankful

Happy SMART Day Everyone!

During the last couple of months SMART Living 365 has made it a habit to recommend a website or resource that brings richness to our lives.  Most of our recommendations have been online businesses or charities—but today’s recommendation is something many people (at least those that live in the US) take for granted.  And while some of our readers are international, and not every US citizen lives in an area with a large library system, we still want to point out the amazing benefits many of us can regularly use to increase the quality of our lives—and it’s mostly free!  That resource is your local public library.

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Who/What Are You Listening To Today?

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Filed under: Aware, Sustainable, Thankful

SMART Living 365How many times have you seen a movie or listened to a story where a person has an angel on one shoulder and a little devil on the other?  This example is classic because it’s universal to us all.  At any given time, on any given day, we have either the voice of our higher more compassionate self who is whispering in our ear—or we have that part of us that is most selfish, small-minded and paranoid sitting on the other.  The image of two little selves fighting for our attention is one that is graphically easy to remember.  Which do you listen to the most?

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Freecycle.org—The SMART Living 365 Recommended Website for 11/7/11

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Filed under: Sustainable, Thankful

Happy SMART Day Everyone!

This week is “National Recycling Week” in Australia and in honor of that we thought that it would be great to recommend a website named Freecycle.org.  After all, it is good to know that other parts of the planet are encouraging SMART Living just like us, and Freecycle is a excellent way to turn your junk into someone else’s treasure.  Instead of throwing it in the trash, Freecycle allows you to post your items, and anyone who wants or needs it can come and pick it up for free.  Not only does it keep trash out of our landfills, you get the added benefit of being both giving and generous with your neighbors—and that is very SMART indeed.

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SMART Website for 10/24/11–Be Selfish, Be Generous–See Charity Focus.org

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Filed under: Meaningful, Sustainable, Thankful

Happy SMART Day Everyone!

This week SMART Living 365 recommends two websites connected to each other.  The first is CharityFocus.org—which encourages us to be “selfish” by being generous and kind to one another.  The second sister-site is KarmaTube.org, which is a collection of inspiring videos accompanied by simple actions that everyone can take.  These two sites run fully by volunteers, each attempt to put the statement made by Gandhi into practice when he said, “Be the change you want to see in the world.”

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Monday’s Website of The Week 10/3/11—Thanks to Gary for Thx,thx,thx!

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Filed under: Thankful

Happy SMART Day Everyone!

A great big “thank you” to our friend and SMART Living 365 reader Gary for his recommendation of the thxthxthx.com website.   I’d read about it before but until Gary sent me the link, I never took the time actually check it out.  In case you don’t recall, each week we want to reach out across the web and share good and inspiring websites with one another and thanks to Gary this is a short, but very sweet website that helps keep things in perspective.  That’s right—thxthxthx is all about gratitude—and remembering how everything works together for good.

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