About You

If you measure riches not by the balance in your portfolio, but in the serenity at home, meaningful relationships, your kids’ contentment, happiness in your work, and your own well-being, then you are “one of us.”

Does this sound like you?
Kristen is 44 years old, married, with three school-aged children. She is highly committed to her career as an interior designer, and runs her own business from home. Her husband, an attorney, is involved with the kids but rarely able to contribute much more to the household responsibilities. Kristen is successful financially, but finds it challenging to balance family and her job; her social life comes in snatches of time through her book club and friends she meets through her work. She never watches television. She and John make sure they keep weekly "date nights," going to dinner and a movie. She is active in her professional society and her church.

Kristen has a strong commitment to her spirituality, and incorporates an influence of Eastern philosophies into her Christian religious practice. She works with design clients who are interested in incorporating feng shui in the interior design of their homes. She explores alternative health practices for herself, and insists on feeding her family organic foods. Environmental concerns are important to her as well.

Do you think like this?
You are keenly interested in discovering new things about yourself and about how life “works.” You walk your talk and do something about what you feel. You would like your work to make a contribution to society. You favor more equality for women at work. You believe society should do more for seniors and children. You care about the environment and want to know more about a sustainable way of living. You can’t easily identify with either political party. You are concerned about what big corporations are doing in the name of money.

Sometimes you may feel like you care too much. You may think no one else thinks like you do. You may feel like you don’t fit in.

You’re Not Alone!
You’re one of perhaps 50 million Americans, or one of twice that many in the European Union. Paul Ray and Sherry Ruth Anderson call us “Cultural Creatives.” Richard Florida calls us the "Creative Class." American Demographics calls us “self-navigators.” Businesses call us the “Lifestyle of Health and Sustainability” market, or LOHAS.

You can’t be categorized. Not by age, by sex, by color, by income, by religion, by where you live. You may be 25 to 70. You probably aren’t rich and you likely are not poor. You may be an accountant, a teacher, a social worker, a lawyer, a mom, a photographer, a truck driver. Perhaps you are a Christian, a Jew, a Muslim. Or you may be a Buddhist, a Religious Scientist, or an agnostic. It doesn’t matter.

What matters is that you are here. We’re glad. Please make yourself at home.

Welcome to the Authentic Living community!