Beyond2020, 9/17/09 - The Good Life: Living Well, Doing Good and Using Less

Session by Beth Meredith, Living Spaces Design

There are certain universal characteristics of what most people find to be the good life, though how they apply are specific to an individual and are part of an lifelong process of evaluation and exploration.

Living Well -Sufficiency—enough of life’s necessities such as food, water, shelter, work, health, and security. -Connection—fulfilling relationships with people and to place. -Balance—energy for different aspects of life that leads to psychological and physical health. -Freedom—making decisions and acting in line with values, beliefs, and desires. Doing Good -Meaning—engaging with things and in ways that is important. -Integrity—aligning thoughts, values and actions. -Equity—maintaining or increasing fairness. -Betterment—improving what is. Key to having the time and resources to pursue the good life for most of us in the U.S. today is using and doing less which is often the greener, more sustainable strategy.

Using Less leads to more… -Creativity—satisfying needs with thought and ingenuity instead of money and stuff. -Experience—focusing on the quality of time spent doing something instead of getting more. -Learning—expanding the world through knowing instead of consuming. -Time—having the space and the energy to do what is important, meaningful and satisfying.

Similar movements that touch upon similar themes including the following: - Voluntary Simplicity -Small footprint/low carbon living -Slow Life -Integral Life Practice

Resources Happiness Studies Authentic Happiness by Martin Seligman Happiness: Lessons from a New Science by Richard Layard The How of Happiness by Sonja Lyubomirsky Behavioral Economics Nudge by Richard Thaler and Cass Sunstein The Paradox of Choice by Barry Schwartz Predictably Irrational by Don Ariely

Creating the Good Life by James O’TooleHappy Planet Index