The Simple Sophisticate - Intelligent Living Paired with Signature Style

My niece is graduating from high school this year, and as an aunt, it is a practice in letting go and trusting the amazing person that she is that she will find her way in life. If I were her parent, it would be different, as there is more direct support involved. This has been a great practice in exemplifying what is talked about here on TSLL: Living with intention, having clarity, being loving and kind while honoring our integrity in all interactions, but not clinging, controlling or manipulating. Our life is our own, and every other person has their own life journey to travel.

Often, when a younger generation is reaching a milestone we too have passed through, we project our experience onto them, errantly making assumptions that we know what they are going through, what they will want and need. But the truth is, while the fundamentals may largely be the same, just as the fundamentals for surviving as a human being are the same for each of us – fresh air, water, sleep, food, shelter, etc., the details of how life will be lived to be fulfilling and enriching for each individual will be unique to them.

Now, let's flip the script and examine the journey as the journeyperson trying to figure out their path forward. How do we find ease with where we are going and how we are living? It often can be easier to tell others how to live their life than to examine whether or not we are living well our own. So the question then becomes, How do we know, without knowing, that we are heading in the best direction for our life journey?

Let's explore the four approaches to incorporate into our daily life to ensure we are living in sync with our inner compass.

Find the detailed Show Notes on The Simply Luxurious Life blog https://thesimplyluxuriouslife.com/podcast423

Find the text for this mini-episode on The Simply Luxurious Life - https://thesimplyluxuriouslife.com/moment13

Find the text for this mini-episode on The Simply Luxurious Life - https://thesimplyluxuriouslife.com/moment12

"We might think that security is everything. But to secure something is to bind it. To keep it still. In contrast, in embracing uncertainty, we discover an ever-changing freedom and flow." —Andy Puddicombe

An unexpected event. From startling good news that seems to come out of the blue or devastating loss, these events and anything in between that occur outside of what we imagine or have forgotten could happen or believed wouldn't happen for some time, provide a powerful medicine to bring out a deeply fulfilling life.

These events that shake us awake to the reality that we cannot know how life will unfold from day to day are what American psychiatrist Irvin Yalom describes as 'awakening experiences'. And this awakening is an awesome opportunity, should we choose to see it as such.

"Uncertainty has so much to teach us." —Anne-Laure Le Cunff, author of Tiny Experiments: How to Live Freely in a Goal-Obsessed World

As a neuroscientist, entrepreneur, and now author, Anne-Laure Le Cunff shares how embracing uncertainty is ironically the "antidote to burnout and boredom alike—a counterforce to the fear, overwhelm, confusion, and loneliness", many people she knows and observes "try to apply old notions of success to the world we're living in today."

Paired with befriending our curiosity, practicing mindfulness in our work around our approach to productivity, and keeping an open mind, when we welcome all four into our daily approach to live, that is when our life begins to sing – in the daily rhythm that deepens our contentment and in the outcome of wherever we have set our intentions to extend towards.

"When you lean into your curiosity, uncertainty can be a state of expanded possibility, a space for metamorphosis. It's a way to turn challenges into triggers for self-discovery and doubt into a source of opportunity." —Anne-Laure Le Cunff

Tune in to the episode to listen to the full episode and find the Show Notes on The Simply Luxurious Life blog - https://thesimplyluxuriouslife.com/podcast422

Find the text for this mini-episode on The Simply Luxurious Life - https://thesimplyluxuriouslife.com/moment11

Find the text for this mini-episode on The Simply Luxurious Life - https://thesimplyluxuriouslife.com/moment10

"Art—alongside diet, sleep, exercise, and nature, is the forgotten fifth pillar of health." —Daisy Fancourt, author Art Cure: How the Arts Save Lives

Pleasure reading – mandatory. Listening to your favorite music – a have-to, not a want. Dancing – required participation. Viewing something of beauty – a daily must-stop and do.

Each of these and so many more examples of the various forms of art that we may enjoy, often are presented as discretionary, or if we have time, or if we have money. But the truth is, just as professor of psychobiology and epidemiology at University College London Daisy Fancourt writes, we would be best advised to view them as necessities for living well.

In Art Cure, Fancourt writes to underscore how important the arts are, and reveals how varied and different forms of art can be. We're talking about how they improve our health, something we seem to be obsessed with as a culture, but as a culture often overlook the most enjoyable forms of becoming and maintaining good health.

In today's episode, we'll explore what the arts consist of so you can find your choice of art, the many health and life benefits, and explore in detail how you can incorporate art daily into your life.

Let's get started.

Find the Show Notes for today's episode on The Simply Luxurious Life blog - https://thesimplyluxuriouslife.com/podcast421

Find the text for this mini-episode on The Simply Luxurious Life - https://thesimplyluxuriouslife.com/moment9

Find the text for this mini-episode on The Simply Luxurious Life - https://thesimplyluxuriouslife.com/moment8

"The goal, here, is options—the power to choose the life you want. And this life is not going to happen without investing."—Amanda Holden, author of How to Be a Rich Old Lady

The key to learning anything we don't know is to choose to learn. Then, we need to find people who not only know what we want to acquire as knowledge, but also know how to teach it. Not only do they know how to teach it, but they sincerely want us to learn.

As this episode/post finds you, we are all at different points along our life journey regarding our age, but we also, regardless of age, are at different points regarding our knowledge of investing. Wherever you are is exactly where you need to be to begin deepening your knowledge of what will set you free once you apply the skills and language of investing that Amanda Holden teaches in her book.

Holden founded Invested Development after beginning her career in investment management. With degrees from UCLA in economics and communications, which make her a helpful guide as a teacher for the economics we want to learn, she transitioned into becoming one of the leading voices on women and money. Teaching in-person and online classes on money, her primary objective is to equip us with the tools and know-how so that finances don't prompt fear, but instead eradicate it and give us freedom.

"To be a Rich Old Lady is to be rich in life, options, experiences, and especially love." —Amanda Holden

In today's episode, I'm going to share with you seven guiding truths as a way to lay the foundation of where to begin and how to maintain steady progress to becoming rich. So that you aren't looking into your older years and fearing or wondering how you will survive, but instead are eager (but not rushing) for them to arrive because you know you will be thriving.

~Find the Show Notes for this episode on The Simply Luxurious Life blog - https://thesimplyluxuriouslife.com/podcast420