Connected and Committed

20+ more mind-blowing social media statistics

Copied and pasted this because it rocks, this data:

~*~*~

Posted 17 August 2009 10:50am by Jake Hird with 10 comments

The social media statistics I posted a few weeks ago seemed to strike a chord amongst the digital community, especially in highlighting just how big an issue this particular area of online currently is. So I’m happy to say that I’ve trawled around the internet to bring you some more snippets of useful data and awesome figures. 

As before, all this information is likely to be out of date in six months or so – but until then, they’re reasonably recent facts and once again I feel they demonstrate the meteoric rise and importance of this rapidly evolving area of online. 

In no particular order: 

• Social networks and blogs are the 4th most popular online activities online, including beating personal email. 67% of global users visit member communities and 10% of all time spent on the internet is on social media sites. 
• If Facebook were a country, it would be the fourth most populated place in the world. This means it easily beats the likes of Brazil, Russia and Japan in terms of size.* 
• 80% of companies use, (or are planning to use), LinkedIn as their primary tool to find employees during the course of this year. The site has just celebrated reaching its 45-millionth membership.
• Around 64% of marketers are using social media for 5 hours or more each week during campaigns, with 39% using it for 10 or more hours per week.
• It took radio 38 years to reach 50 million listeners. Terrestrial TV took 13 years to reach 50 million users. The internet took four years to reach 50 million people... In less than nine months, Facebook added 100 million users. 
• Wikipedia currently has more than 13 million articles in more than 260 different languages. The site attracts over 60 million unique users a month and it’s often hotly debated that the information it contains is more reliable than any printed Encyclopaedia.
• The most recent figure of blogs being indexed by Technorati currently stands at 133 million. The same report into the Blogosphere also revealed that on average, 900,000 blog posts are created within a single 24-hour period. 
• It’s been suggested that YouTube is likely to serve over 75 billion video streams to around 375 million unique visitors during this year.
• The top three people on Twitter (Ashton Kutcher, Ellen DeGeneres and Britney Spears) have more combined followers than the entire population of Austria.*
• According to Socialnomics, if you were paid $1 for every time an article was posted on Wikipedia, you would earn $156.23 per hour.
• The online bookmarking service, Delicious, has more than five million users and over 150 million unique bookmarked URLs. 
• Since April this year, Twitter has been receiving around 20 million unique visitors to the site each month, according to some analytical sources. 
• Formed in 2004, Flickr now hosts more than 3.6 billion user images. 
• Universal McCann reports that 77% of all active internet users regularly read blogs. 

Although these statistics look impressive, it needs to be remembered that no single piece of data can be used to base strategy or objectives upon, let alone be used as a forecast for future growth of a specific area of social media. To really drill down into a sector of interest, you need to fully aggregate and analyse all available data before making an informed decision or conclusion.

when it gets right down to it

when it gets right down to it, the individuals that are really doing interesting things and changing the world don't seem to be paying much attention to the cutting edge technologies. they're too busy conducting experiments, spending time alone, making mistakes, dreaming up new ideas, sitting in the midst of uncertainty... embracing mystery.

--keri smith

words to build a life by

What would make you want to get up in the morning and go to work? What would make you want to come home?

     -- Alan Cohen

doors in the wall

That humanity will never be able to dispense with Artificial Paradises seems very unlikely. Most men and women lead lives at the worst so painful, at the best so monotonous, poor and limited that the urge to escape, the longing to transcend themselves if only for a few moments, is and has always been one of the principal appetites of the soul. Art and religion, carnivals and saturnalia, dancing and listening to oratory—all these have served, in H. G. Wells's phrase, as Doors in the Wall.

The universal and ever-present urge to self-transcendence is not to be abolished by slamming the currently popular Doors in the Wall. The only reasonable policy is to open other, better doors in hope of the inducing men and women to exchange their old bad habits for new and less harmful ones.

--Aldous Huxley

what else is there to do

There was a time when my aggravation with the system focused on Casper Weinberger, secretary of defense. I'm sure he was no worse than many others, but there was something about his cold arrogance and apparent lack of wisdom that infuriated me. So I got a picture of Caspar and placed it on my puja (prayer) table with all my spiritual heroes. Then, each morning when I lit my incense and honored the beings represented on the puja table, I'd feel waves of love and appreciation toward my guru, Buddha, Christ, Anandamayi Ma, Ramana Maharshi, and Hanuman. I'd wish them each a good morning and with such tenderness. Then I'd come to Caspar's picture, and I'd feel my heart constrict, and I'd hear the coldness in my voice as I said, "Good morning, Caspar." Each morning I'd see what a long way I still had to go.

But wasn't Caspar just another face of God? Couldn't I oppose his actions and still keep my heart open to him? Wouldn't it be harder for him to become free from the role he was obviously trapped in if I, with my mind, just kept reinforcing the traps by identifying him with his acts?...

The Indian poet Kabir said..."Do what you do to another person, but never put them out of your heart." It's a tall order. But what else is there to do?

Ram Dass - Compassion in Action

oh yeah

Wiser words were never spoken.

Thank you, Beth.

Just thought you'd want to know

Everyone can have it all.

-- Alan Cohen

***********

There is more than enough for everyone.

Everyone's dreams can be accomodated.

There are enough resources to go around.

My receiving what I want does not preclude anyone else from receiving what it is they say they want.

And vice versa.

My playing it small does not in any way assist anyone else in getting what they want. It gums up the works, throws a monkey wrench in all the pertinent casting directors' efforts.

In fact, it just makes it more difficult for everything to come together the way it's supposed to.

So I'm knocking it off.

Just thought you'd want to know.

How to Start Over

1.
resist the temptation to wipe the slate clean entirely.
you cannot do this.
you are where you are.
but you can dust. you can mop. you can cleanse your belly
of all the heavy cheeses you ate at last month's holiday parties.
you can initiate the day with decaf.
you can rake four batches of leaves from the lawn.
you can sing, loudly, in the car to no one
but the man on the radio who is singing with you.
you can decide that the apple pie you are craving
will not come from your hands, your oven, your kitchen,
but from the bakery aisle at your neighborhood grocery.

2.
ignore the titles from the self-help shelves and glossy
women's magazines, with their sound bytes of colorful insight.
you do not need a makeover, a diet, a religious conversion.
you do not need to get more in touch with your feelings.
you do not need potassium, or St. John's Wort, or a colonic.
you need a walk, communion with shore birds, a rainstorm,
a glass of wine in front of a fire, lip gloss, a whole evening
of the novel you read only incrementally, at night, before bed.

3.
ignore the calendar, the clock, the larger itineraries
ticking their niggling bits of time.
you will sleep when you need to.
you will know when it is time for water, for a shower,
for a phone call, for a kiss, for solitude, for Indian food,
whatever nourishment you need for your throat, your ears,
the palms of your hands, the hunger just under your skin.

4.
imagine, despite your unbearable faults and fissures,
you are still a thing of beauty, a rare creature, a snowflake,
a singular, spectacular atom circumnavigating the tangled astronomy
of your life the only way you know how.

Maya Stein

Maya6

recipe

Mining the moment for something that feels good, something to appreciate, something to savor, something to take in, that's what your moments are about.

They're not about justifying your existence.
It's justified. You exist.

It's not about proving your worthiness.
It's done. You're worthy.

It's not about achieving success.
You never get it done.

It's about "How much can this moment deliver to me?" And some of you like them fast, some of you like them slow.

No one's taking score.

You get to choose.

The only measurement is between my desire and my allowing. And your emotions tell you everything about that.

-- Abraham

************

This is a recipe worth passing down from generation to generation. I can picture the cookbook it resides in, spattered with flour and oil, perhaps a singe mark or two from the coils on the stovetop, well worn pages and cracked spine.

All the indications of active usage and participation.

make more plans

Be easy about it. Don't rush into things. Savor them more. Make more plans and be more deliberate and specific about the plans that you are making, and in all that you do, let your dominant intent be to find that which pleasures you as you imagine it.

-- Abraham

*********

This message is coming at me from all directions lately, and I'm paying attention. Really, I am.

As I'm typing this, a really bright light is shining (lol!! I just got the irony of that) to my right in the form of a light therapy box. I bought it last week after reading about how it can help reset your circadian rhythms, of which mine are apparently are all out of whack. After four days of exposure to this light, I think I am seeing a difference in how I feel, especially in the late afternoons. So I'm going to keep it up, and see what happens.

This tidbit from history has grabbed my delight bone and won't let go:

Brock began bombarding the Americans inside the fort and fooled the Americans into believing there were more British than there actually were. For instance, soldiers were told to light individual fires, instead of one fire per unit, thereby creating the illusion of a much larger army. The British troops were marched in plain sight of the American side, then quickly marched off and ducked behind entrenchments, where they would join the front of the line again. The same was done for meals, where the line would dump their beans into a hidden pot, then walk to the front to pick them up again where they could be seen. To the observing U.S. forces, it looked like long lines of troops were waiting just out of their sight. He also gave his militia uniforms of regular army soldiers to make Hull believe most of the British force were regulars. Tecumseh's warriors did likewise, and made loud war cries.

Brock sent a message to Hull that included a threat: "The force at my disposal authorizes me to require of you the immediate surrender of Fort Detroit. It is far from my intention to join in a war of extermination, but you must be aware, that the numerous body of Indians who have attached themselves to my troops, will be beyond control the moment the contest commences…"

Brock's plan worked better than he thought it would. Hull didn’t think that his troops could hold out against a force of what he thought were thousands of British regulars, and, hearing the Indian war cries, began to fear the worst. Women and children, including his own daughter and grandchild, still lived inside the Fort. Against the advice of his soldiers, Hull flew a white flag of surrender. He sent messengers to Brock asking 3 days to agree on terms of surrender. Brock replied he would allow him 3 hours. Hull was relieved from his governorship, and although he was court-martialed and sentenced to be shot, he was pardoned by President Madison. He retired to Newton, Massachusetts and published two books in the hopes of clearing his name.

Hull surrendered his entire force along with 39 cannon and 2,500 muskets. Two large detachments in the area were even surrendered.

**********

I love the slight-of-hand on the part of the British. I love how this perspective of the event wasn't mentioned in any of the other recountings I came across on the internet while researching Mr. Hull for my son's social studies presentation. I love how even back then, and probably back to the beginning of written history, someone was attempting to clear his name after a truly wacked out circumstance.

Do not mess with what belongs to other people and not expect the law of reciprocity to kick in, dude.

it's all good

Whenever in doubt, Debra, claim it all: the good, the bad, and the ugly, and your power will be restored.

The Universe

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Thoughts become things... choose the good ones! ®
© www.tut.com ®

Responsibility, Debra, is power. Never had anything to do with Keds or Cheerios.

Story People

I don't mind being a temp, she told me. It reminds me of my priorities.

time travel

Quantum Physics 101

The present is defined by a confluence of your thoughts, Debra, otherwise known as your beliefs. The future is what you experience when your beliefs change. Time measures how much energy or effort you require to change your thoughts, or, the degree of conflict between old and new thinking. And space shows exactly what you're now thinking about.

And the one, universal, immovable, unifying equation that sums up all things physical and metaphysical, is.... Thoughts Become Things. Which is all you really need to know.

TBT,
The Universe
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Thoughts become things... choose the good ones! ®
© www.tut.com ®

Yes, time travel is very possible, Debra, you're doing it now.

red flags and sirens going off

Perception is a mirror, not a fact.

-- A Course in Miracles

provoking

The courage to wonder about other life-perspectives than presently held, Debra, unprovoked by people and circumstances, especially when they may contradict lifelong convictions, takes not only a spiritual giant with a child's curiosity, but a blazing desire for more of everything life has to offer.

Yeah, you have it nailed.

The Universe

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Thoughts become things... choose the good ones! ®
© www.tut.com ®

You can have more, Debra, you can even have it all, when you begin seeing perspectives you have never seen before.

***********

Oh, yeah, baby.

willingness

The more willing you are to receive, the more willing the universe is to give.

-- Alan Cohen

**********

Actually, I think this should be amended to say "the more the universe is then able to release what it's got in store for you." It's always willing to give. Heck, it's always giving.

nothing whisperer

Psssssst... Not that you ever would, Debra, but when someone tells their best friend about their difficult day, or how tricky relationships have been, or that they have a jolly good life in most regards except financially, not only do they relive the unpleasantness, but they commission all the elements to project into their future whatever they've been claiming. Besides, you'd never say, "jolly."

Better to whisper sweet nothings -
The Universe
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Thoughts become things... choose the good ones! ®
© www.tut.com ®

Happily, Debra, it works even faster in reverse. Tell them about all that now serves you, however meager your portions, and it shall promptly multiply.

institutional living

Marriage is a great institution, if you don’t mind living in an institution.

-- Source unknown

***********

This often occurs to me when getting married again crosses my mind.

Needles, to say, living in an institution is not my idea of fun.

I think it's possible to have the best aspects of a marriage relationship outside of the confining, restricting, impeding nature of what our culture views to be a "normal" day-to-day existence.

Confining, restricting, and impeding just don't cut it.

it was simply there

At the moment when I met my therapist--which happened "accidentally," I wasn't looking for a therapist--at that moment, I knew I was going to sober up. I had no doubts. It was totally clear to me. I've tried since then to reproduce or manufacture this kind of doubtless certainty, and it can't be manufactured. It emerged out of life itself. It was simply there. In fact, it almost seems like in that moment, my sobering up had already happened. Would I have stayed sober without my therapist? No way to know. But I can't really explain why I stopped. Or why the person sitting next to me in the bar never did.

Is wanting to know also an addiction?

************

Hi, my name is Deb, and I'm a reason-aholic.

more Joan

An addictive habit is an old familiar pattern that we have learned. It happens automatically. Some feeling or thought arises, and suddenly we want a drink, a cigarette, a sexual encounter, or our favorite train of thought (maybe dreaming about what we will someday become, or thinking compulsively about all the ways we've been mistreated and victimized).

And this isn't just a vague take-it-or-leave-it kind of desire. It feels like an irresistible, compelling force. It seems like something we must have or do, like our very survival is at stake. And is some cases, as the addiction progresses, we will do amazing things to satisfy it. We will drive for miles in the middle of the might to buy cigarettes, and we will keep smoking even though we are dying of emphysema. We have to do it. Or so we think and feel.

***********

The same thing happens with so-called awakening. There are moments of clear seeing, and then the old view comes back and seems to overwhelm us again. Empty, spacious awareness appears to contract back down to the tight little reactive capsule of "me," the character in the story. How does that happen? How does it shift? Is there any choice involved?

This is a question to live with. Watch and see, moment to moment, how these shifts occur, between clarity and mind smog, between freedom and compulsion. Taking the smog personally, or viewing it as an obstacle, is just more smog. Simply be curious about the whole movement--the flip back and forth--see it, observe and investigate it. Don't settle for anyone else's answers. Look for yourself.

To whom do these apparent flips occur? Is there some individual who owns these experiences, who has them? Or is that merely an idea, a mental image, a sensation?

**********

I was struck with these passages while reading yesterday. They seem to have some keys to unlocking self-limiting beliefs, and instituting self-enhancing ones in their place. And this is a very good thing. Obviously they can come and go, and there is little that I have to do with it other than hanging on to a story about them. The story is much easier to drop from this vantage point.

ol' time religion

Every religion on the planet, and there are so many more than you are even aware of, has the potential of absolute thriving. But when you think that you must prove that you have the only one that is right—and you use your condemnation to push against the others—your condemnation separates you from your own Connection that, before your condemnation, you were finding in your own religion.

-- Abraham

The greatest gift… the ultimate relationship

Do you know the relationship that you are all looking for? Do you know what it really is?

You want the relationship between you and you.

And when you meet a person who looks fondly at you, or who is appreciative of you, or someone you look fondly upon, or someone you appreciate, it just hooks you up to your Inner Being, which is what you want all along.

So the relationship you are all looking for is the relationship between you and you. And everything else is just helpful in that, really.

Don’t you find that interesting? That what you really want is a reason to vibrationally connect with who you really are.

And so, you ask so much of people because you say to them, "You need to be the one who causes me to feel good." And what we want to say to all of you is:

If any of you are without the relationship of your dreams right now, that’s a wonderful thing. Because now you have an opportunity to work on the relationship that really matters first and foremost. And then, in that connection, the relationship of your dreams will come.

But you are going to discover the relationship of your dreams is really your own Inner Being. It’s that infusion of clarity and confidence and wellness, that’s what you are reaching for.

And it is nice to have a human friend who holds you as their object of attention and adores you right into your connection. But we want you experience greater independence than that. We want you to say to your lovers, "I love you, but I don’t live for you. Because Source Energy flows through me. You are a catalyst to my well-being, but you are not essential to my well-being. Because I’ve got that figured out on my own. I have reached for thoughts that give me relief. And I have relieved myself all the way into my full connection of who I really am. And now we can just dance and play together."

Can you feel how you take them off the hook? In other words, do you know how many men would flock to you? (ALL OF THEM!) if they knew that you would allow them to be as they are and you would not hold them responsible for your happiness.

That’s what everyone wants. How much bondage is there in believing that your happiness depends on me, so I’ve got to figure out what you want, and stand on my head in all those different ways, and it’s not even possible!

The greatest gift you can give anyone is to be happy. And we will take that further. The greatest gift you can give to any partner, past, present or future is to be so connected with who you truly are that they are irrelevant to your connection. And when they are irrelevant to your connection, then you are going to have a really good time together.

**************

Amen, sistah!

I think it's interesting that they include "past, present and future partners" in this greatest gift thing. But it makes so much sense, seeing as we are all one, and our thoughts affect the rivers of energy out there, adding to what's flowing already. Adding to forgiveness and freedom seems like the ultimate fun thing to do, picturing in my mind what that stream of energy will do once it's out there, how it will affect the people involved, which I guess is everyone, but in particular allowing the past, and the future, and the present, to release from the bondage of disconnection--that's just freakin' cool.

truer words were never spoken

Kindness is the highest form of intelligence.

-- Wayne Teasdale

great and commanding moments

FREE WILL ASTROLOGY
Week beginning January 24
Copyright 2008 by Rob Brezsny

ARIES (March 21-April 19): "Write it on your heart that every day is the best day in the year," said essayist Ralph Waldo Emerson. That's my first suggestion for you this week, Aries. Now, while you're at the energetic peak of your astrological cycle, is a good time to cultivate a knack for identifying the specific gift that each day has to offer you. You will also resonate well with the cosmic rhythms if you make use of another
Emersonian gem: "Every great and commanding moment in the annals of the world is the triumph of some enthusiasm." Where does your purest enthusiasm lie? And how will you use it to fuel your ascent to a series of great and commanding moments?

***************

Oh, this is a most excellent question - where does your purest enthusiasm lie? It serves me well at this moment of focusing with laser-like precision on the slippery critters that are limiting self-beliefs. My enthusiasm definitely does not lie in perpetuating these beliefs any longer; rather, it lies in retiring them from their illustrious careers and putting them out to pasture.

And that great and commanding moments thing? Already this morning I've been marinating in several such sustained moments, glowing with the flow of doing exactly what it is that I should be doing--liasoning among groups of people who need some sort of connection that does't occur organically.

The magic is making a comeback.....

No mysteries

There are no mysteries, ever — once you understand these points:

*Well-being abounds.
*You are the natural recipient of Well-being.
*You get to ask — and Source Energy is answering — and all you need to do is be in the place of allowing.

Once you get those things lined up and you’ve had an opportunity to practice them, here and there, everything makes sense to you.

Everything makes sense in your life, and everything makes sense in the lives of those that you are watching. Because as you know their moods and attitudes, you understand exactly why things are turning out for them the way they are.

--Abraham

***************

So true, this wisdom. And thank the universe for setting it up so there are others around to help us see the truth in ourselves. Those logs in our own eyes get in the way, you know?

I'm chewing on the notion of regulating the flow of chemicals in my body, the ones that get released depending on whether or not I feel fight-or-flight, or something new coming down the pike that spikes my energy way over the normal level. Those chemicals flooding my system mess with my sleep and my well-being, and I've had enough of that. Give or take 10% above or below stasis seems like a reasonable state to maintain. Sugar highs and despairing lows aren't necessary to feel alive.

Well-being is.

Hugeness

Everything that is today could not be
if it were not for that
which was before.

-- Abraham

***********

This is chewable, for many moons, it's that deep.

Projection: The Enemy of Peace and Justice

Environmental destruction, racism, violence, injustice, war derive from a single source -- the human psyche. An activist who is not interested in psychological underpinnings is analogous to a botanist who is not
interested in biology.

--Jonathon Zap

************

Hold up, dude.

This is huge.

Thank you, Rob Breszny, for including this in your latest free will astrology email.

This is huge.

there he goes again, that Universe

A master's awareness of spiritual laws, Debra, directs him or her to manifest major life changes by working with their thoughts, not by working harder.

Which isn't to say they don't sometimes work very long hours, because they do; they just don't think of it as work. Which also isn't to say that they all have cool jobs that anyone would love, because they don't; they just see every task before them, no matter where they work, as a gift to unwrap.

Hmmmmm...
The Universe

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Thoughts become things... choose the good ones! ®
© www.tut.com ®

As I was saying, Debra, to manifest major life changes think on how things will be after your life is transformed, while today busying yourself with unwrapping presents, doing something you no longer call work.

***********

I wonder what the heck has prompted this shift in voice in the ol' Universe. It's intriguing as all get out, especially to someone like me whose curiosity seems togo looking for this kind of thing.

Ya think?

three fingers pointing back at you

If you know something is true, you don't need to convince anyone of it. If you are trying to convince anyone, it is probably yourself.

-- Alan Cohen

**********

If no one is asking for your point of view, that's probably an indication that you're trying to convince someone too.

But then, if you're in a place where you are trying to convince, you're probably not noticing that no one is asking.

One of those eternal conundrums that is just more evidence that the universe has a wacked out sense of humor..

Story People

If there is any secret to this life I live, this is it: the sound of what cannot be seen sings within everything that can. & there is nothing more to it than that.

***********

'Nuff said.

the quicker the better

What do you think is there that you cannot find here?

-- Alan Cohen

*********

Yeah - what exactly have you convinced yourself is available outside of yourself that could possibly guide you as well as your emotions? I know, I know. We're brainwashed with that hoohaw from day 1. The quicker you can get over it, the better.

every bit

Every bit of looking you do ultimately contributes to finding.

-- Alan Cohen

****************

Every single bit. Even the parts that feel like wandering through the desert for 40 years.

Because when you want to be found badly enough, the wandering stops.

Of course, there are a ton of old ineffective behaviors you need to lose, and stories that need to be dropped, and perhaps a few people in your life that may not be there when all is said and done.

But I'm here to testify that it's all worth every point of perceived misery.

It's the kind that never stops that will kill ya.

presidential material

I have found the best advice to your children is to find out what they want and then advise them to do it.

-- Harry S. Truman

***********

Dang - THIS guy should be president.

Oh wait, he already did that.

you decide what kind of love

How about I share a little secret with you, Debra, in exchange for an even wider smile than you're now wearing??

OK? Deal! Here goes... There's someone in the world today, right now in time and space, who you've yet to even meet, who will, before long, fall very, very in love with you.

You decide what kind of love -
The Universe

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Thoughts become things... choose the good ones! ®
© www.tut.com ®

And I'm not talking about Jesus, Debra.

***********

Seems to be a definite shift in the way the Universe is processing information. He/she/it is on to a new wave of thought here lately.

And I like it.

Mmmmmm...what kind of love. Well, how about so into me that it takes my breath away. How about so happy to support me in what makes me happy that I have to adjust my comfort zone around that. How about so self-aware that he knows what he did before I have to tell him?

And I'm not talkin' Jesus either. Flawed human is way preferable.

Just so you know.

giant life snooze button

Debra, a goal or a dream that doesn't challenge the dreamer to become more than they've ever been, to go where they've never gone, or to feel things they've never felt, is actually like wishing for a giant "life snooze button."

Tacky.

To the hills,
The Universe

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Thoughts become things... choose the good ones! ®
© www.tut.com ®

Wanting abundance without an exchange of services, or love without loving, Debra, is a little bit like wanting an aquarium without fish, a leash without a dog, a frame without a picture...

**************

Oh, this is good.

The thing about self-awareness and discovery and transformation is that you don't get to choose how it all ends up.

It always takes you to places you had no idea existed, and would never in a million years have envisioned on your own.

Thank goodness.

And that abundance without an exchange of services thing, that's huge. We've got so much more at our disposal than we are willing to acknowledge, and wanting to get something for nothing just clogs up the universe's arteries.

Spread the wealth. Appreciate your worth, and those around you, with the flow of dollars.

There's more than enough to go around for everyone, except when it gets stuck.

epiphanies

We women have rich fantasy lives. When we are with the wrong man and he is clearly lacking the qualities we want in a partner, we gladly supply them for him. We fill in the blanks instead of realizing he's wrong to begin with.

The most important quality a man must have, first and foremost, is that he is interested in us. We forget this; we hang on with hope and denial. And when that man, who is wrong for us anyway, loses interest, our egos kick in and all the weepy, bad behavior spirals into self-destruction and humiliation.

Sp how did I finally get over the bloody bastard? My epiphany occured in a astrologer's hovel. A preternatual sprite, she is the person who saved me life. Surrounded by dusty crystals and a yapping Yorkie, she leaned over the table, snapped off the recorder, and said, "Why are you doing this to yourself?"

--Be Honest - You're Not That Into Him Either by Ian Kerner

*****************

We are good at filling in the blanks.

Here's to allowing them to lie fallow, if they stay that way from lack of interest.

going deeper than words to give voice to your soul

Journaling with words (verbal journaling) is the most common method people use to record their thoughts and experiences. We have found that most serious journalers go beyond the mere recording of daily events in an attempt to quench a thirst for that often elusive dialogue in the core of their souls. Unfortunately, as many of those who have attended our workshops readily admit, they rarely succeed in getting to that core part of themselves with words. A woman in one of our more recent workshops told the group that for years she had kept a written journal even though she knew it didn't allow her to get into the real depth of her feelings. "I'm a writer by profession," she said. "Words come so easily to me that when I use them to journal, I am able to fool myself into writing what I want to believe about something that's happening in my life. Once I started doing visual journlaing, the self-deception ended."

--Visual Journaling: Going Deeper than Words by Barbara Ganim and Susan Fox

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I kept a written journal for many years when I was a teenager and a young adult. Its comfort as a confidant and its effectiveness as a sounding board seemed to lose its luster as I got older and less enthused about filling out a page, or typing on a keyboard; after awhile, I shared the writer's dilemma above in knowing that words alone do not communicate what we need most to hear.

For nearly two decades now I've been longing for another way in to what my soul has to tell me, and I am more than a little excited to try this visual journaling method. I hope to be burning up the ol' scanner with my results of color, line, and texture.

pull out the pencil

Imagine a room fan blowing air at you, very quietly. You know it’s on. You feel the air. You can’t hear it, but you can feel it. Now stick your pencil in the fan. That pencil in the fan would make quite a racket, wouldn’t it? That pencil in the fan would slow the fan.

So you would say the pencil in the fan is RESISTANCE. In other words, it slows the motion, or lowers the speed, of the fan. Well, RESISTANCE, in your physical realm, in terms of Energy, is the same thing. When you introduce a lower, slower vibration to a higher, faster one, the result is a slowing of the faster vibration.

So when you give your attention to something that is in vibrational harmony with who you are, THERE IS NO RESISTANCE. When you are praising, when you are appreciating, when you are acknowledging value, when you are looking for positive aspects, when you are laughing, when you are applauding, when you are joyous, when you are feeling that feeling of appreciation pulsing through you, in those times, there IS NO RESISTANCE within you. You are, in those moments, vibrationally up to speed with who you really are.

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I love simple analogies. They are quick, to the point, effective and solutions are no brainers.

It's impossible to miss the impact of a pencil jammed into a running fan blade, and impossible to understand the implications.

Stop. putting. in. the. pencil. and start laughing.

Dark Garden

I once had a garden filled with flowers that grew only on dark thoughts but they need constant attention & one day I decided I had better things to do.

Story People

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Heck yeah, you've got better things to do.

You were drowning - how does it feel to have the water out of your lungs?

it always works

Ever notice, Debra, that how you treat people in your life today is the single, biggest factor in determining how people in your life tomorrow, even totally different people, will treat you?

It always works,
The Universe

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Thoughts become things... choose the good ones! ®
© www.tut.com ®

Talk about manipulation, Debra... and it's perfectly legal.

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Lol!!!!!!!!!!!

feminine wiles

. . .if a woman does a useless thing, none reproves her; if she does a harmful thing, few seek to restrain her; but if she seeks to imitate the goddess and to encourage others, all those in authority accuse her of corruption. So it is more dangerous to teach truth than to enter a powder magazine with a lighted torch.

--Tsiang Samdup
The Book of Sayings

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Absolutely. Nothing more dangerous than a woman speaking her truth, waking up others to their truths. Then where would we be?

Heaven, I'm thinkin'.

the only hell that exists

Guest: Is there a judgement day?

Abraham: There is and it happens in every moment. You are the judge.

Guest: Thank you, I get that.

Abraham: So you say, I get to decide my degree of punishment and I get to apply it now. The only hell that exists is that space between who you really are and what you are allowing to be.

Guest: Thank you.

Abraham: This is good news.

Guest: That’s the REAL good news.

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Heh.

The only hell is the one I construct between my ears.

What freedom, and what responsibility live in that concept.

Take a look at your life to see how well you're doing.

Yeah, I know.

conditional love

Things to know about the future. #1: It doesn't have to look any particular way, but around here, if it doesn't, a lot of people will never speak to you again.

Story People

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Yikes - what an example of conditional love.

And that never speaking to you again is probably the greatest thing that could happen.

So you can move on.

I'd never thought of that

Maybe I don't want a Happy New Year, he said. Maybe I want an intense New Year with a lot of growth experiences & I had to admit I'd never thought of that.

Story People

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Muah ha ha ha ha ha!

Oh, my god, this is so funny I can't stand it.

There are people out there in the world who don't think about that?

Boggles my mind.

the first day of the rest of your life....

The best year of your life begins today.

-- Alan Cohen

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Yeah, it might be January 1 today, but that psychological line in the sand doesn't mean much to me. It's Christmas and my birthday and New Year's Day every day pretty much, which is why I like the sentiment in Alan's quote. It's a more palatable spin on that phrase from the 70s, today is the first day of the rest of your life. Which is true - I guess the backlash was for the new age haze that hangs around it. As a matter of fact, it's really the first second, or the first minute, of the rest of your life, all the time, since any time an epiphany happens, there you go again being a different person.

And that word "best" - that's a potential eye-roller too, but whatever. To borrow from Keri Smith's latest blog entry, "Some days don't you want to shout out loud, Wow, this is an amazing incredible trip! I can't believe that I get to wake up everyday and get to do it all over again. fuck yes. Let me experience all of it."

Fuck yes.

Revenge is far from sweet

Some timely, wonderful, inspiring words by John Welwood:

Is love enough?

Revenge is far from sweet

Download Embodying

Hearing this man and Abraham speak together would be an amazing experience, don't you think?

Value

Life must be cheaper here, she said & I said I don't think life is cheap anywhere, but there are some places people haven't added it up yet because they're too busy making stuff for America.

Story People

appreciation

If it's not yet obvious to you, the real reason for this season is you, Debra. A more perfect child of the Universe has never lived. Until now, only a celebration cloaked in myth and mystery could hint at your sublime heritage and divine destiny. You are life's prayer of becoming, and its answer. The first light at the dawn of eternity, drawn from the ether, so that the Universe might know its depths, discover its heights, and frolic in endless seas of blessed emotion.

A pioneer into illusion, an adventurer into the unknown, and a lifter of veils. Courageous, heroic and exalted by billions in the unseen.

To give beyond reason. To care beyond hope. To love without limit. To reach, stretch, and dream, in spite of your fears. These are the hallmarks of divinity - traits of the immortal - your badges of honor. Wear them with a pride as great as the unspeakable pride we feel for you.

Your light has illuminated darkened paths, your gaze has lifted broken spirits, and already your life has changed the destiny of all who will ever follow.

This is the time of year we celebrate Debra Schanilec.

Bowing before Greatness,
The Universe

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Thoughts become things... choose the good ones! ®
© www.tut.com ®

True, Debra, we party here at the drop of a hat... whenever your name comes up.

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A girl likes to be shown some appreciation.

it kinda does

It's not just that when one door closes, another door opens.

When one door closes, Deb, choirs burst into chorus, orchestras orchestrate, bugles bugle, marching bands march, dogs catch Frisbees, cats 'chow, chow, chow,' pigs fly, and 10,000 new doors open.

Kind of makes you want a door to close, huh?

The Universe

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Thoughts become things... choose the good ones! ®
© www.tut.com ®

Another door opens, Deb... "good grief."

Enough Time

Everything changed the day he figured out there was exactly enough time for the important things in his life.

Story People