Today, applications like Twitter and Facebook, while attracting new users at astounding rates have not fully defined their business models and the 800-pound gorilla has yet to emerge. It is still early in the game and the eventual winners in the social networking space may not even yet exist, but I would argue that Twitter and Facebook are emerging as potential contenders to dominate.

Why People Love Facebook

Facebook appeals to social animals and can be very addicting to people who have an insatiable appetite to stay connected with friends and make new acquaintances. In fact, some people report they rarely use email or IM tools anymore in their online social communications anymore, relying almost entirely on Facebook for email, chat, image and video sharing.
Facebook addicts prefer the social portal model versus having to log into AIM, Yahoo Messenger, Gmail, Hotmail, Flickr, YouTube, MySpace, etc. Instead, Facebook gives them a single alternative to all these applications, with one login and interface to manage their online social interaction needs. This largely explains the explosive growth Facebook continues to experience and why the company reportedly invested $200 million in data center upgrades last year to keep up with demand!
 
Why People Love Twitter

The usefulness of Twitter is not readily as obvious to some people as Facebook; although it may be more addictive once you get the hang of Tweeting; you get more immediate responses and it seems to live somewhere between the worlds of email, instant messaging and blogging. Twitter encourages constant “linking out” to anywhere and, in that respect, is more analogous to a pure search engine; another way to find people and content all over the Net.
Twitter has quickly built brand awareness and a loyal following, especially among the technically adept; bloggers, online marketers, evangelists, basically anyone with something to promote seem to find Twitter extremely valuable.

When asked why they love Twitter, users say like “I can ask a question and get an instantaneous response”. They crave the ability to “tap into the collective consciousness” of others on the network, bouncing ideas off others with whom they would otherwise have no means of connecting. Twitter addicts claim it’s like the old fashioned water cooler, where people can gather to shoot the breeze on whatever topic is on their minds. Twitter is like a communications stream you dive into for an invigorating swim.
 
Different Communication Styles for Different Social Settings

Let’s say you go to a wedding or other social gathering where lots of people know each other. The style and tone of communication there will be more like using Facebook; you chat with old friends and acquaintances, mixing and mingling in an intimate manner. In this setting, people tend to feel more relaxed and “in their element”. Conversations are familiar and center on shared experiences and connections.
Now, when you go to a large party or social event where you don’t know most of the people in attendance, you will use a very different style of communication, more like Twitter; you want to meet people and somehow make yourself known, stand out from the crowd, make an impression, self promote and make new connections. Twitter is like getting the podium and not everyone feels comfortable or knows how to stand comfortably in the spotlight.
 
So Which Social Network is the Best?

While zealots will immediately point to either Twitter or Facebook as being superior, the truth is that each has its advantages and disadvantages and will tend to appeal more to different types of people and for different reasons. Each can have great or little value to anyone; it really depends on what you are trying to accomplish in a given situation. Consider some of the pros and cons of each network:

 
TWITTER PROS 
Easy to navigate and update, link to and promote anything
Reach far beyond your inner circle of friends
One feed pools all users; anyone can follow anyone else unless blocked
Pure communication tool, rapid responsiveness
You don’t have to be logged in to get updates; you can just use an RSS reader
Very interactive, extensible messaging platform with open APIs
Many other applications being developed (Twitterific, Summize, Twhirl, etc.)
Potential SMS text messaging revenue from wireless networks (although Twitter states they are not currently getting any cut)
Potential future advertising and/or enterprise subscription-based revenue streams
With its “thin” overhead, Twitter is probably more scalable than Facebook, giving it a cost advantage
 
TWITTER CONS
Limited functionality; find people, send brief messages, direct replies
Limited to 140 characters per update
Not all people find it immediately useful
Over-emphasis on follower counts
Easily abused for spam and increasing the noise level
Relatively smaller installed user base
As yet no readily apparent monetization strategy
 
FACEBOOK PROS
Application mashup; find people, make connections, email, instant messaging, image/video sharing, etc.
Most people can quickly grasp the value of connecting with friends, family and established contacts; some people report they use Facebook instead of email and IM
More emphasis on deep connections with others vs. who has the most connections
“True Friends” feature increases your transparency to selected connections; almost like having private and public profiles
Huge, rapidly growing installed user base
Inherit stickiness, third party applications, “gift giving” and personal data collection make Facebook a powerful advertising platform
 
FACEBOOK CONS
More difficult to navigate and update
Requires investment of time to realize sustained benefit
Opt in model requires a user to allow others to connect
Less immediate responses; unless you stay logged on continually
Overhead of mashup and “thick” applications could limit scalability, bloat cost structure
 
The Future of Social Networking
In the end, both Twitter and Facebook are simply communication tools; both will continue to evolve and morph as users find new ways to extract value and either network may or may become a long term winner in the rapidly evolving social networking space. Ultimately, the fact remains to be seen whether either application has a profitable, scalable and sustainable business model or whether the exit strategy is simply to be acquired.
But, will either Twitter or Facebook become the next Google or will they fade into the rear view mirror of technological and social evolution?

What do you think?

1. Share what you know – I like to mention this first because it is vital that you blog about what you know. It doesn’t matter if you started blogging today.
You have information that someone else doesn’t know. Therefore, it is important to blog about what you currently know. When you know a topic it is a lot easier for you to write about it.

2. Make money while blogging – For some reason too many individuals are afraid of making money from their blog. There are ways you can turn your blog to create an income for you.
If you are going to blog, why not take some of that white space and turn it into money. You can sell affiliate products or create your product and sell it as well.

3. Stay up to date with your blog – If you can write a post everyday. Then go for it! That is the best way to jump start your blog. However, I know not everyone can put up a post everyday.
So it is important that you find a schedule when you can create a post and stick to it. When you are blogging, it’s about providing information whether it is funny or educational. By you staying up to date with your blog you’ll be able to generate leads and create an income from it.

4. Offer great information – I visit a lot of blogs and some of my favorite blogs are the ones that provide information that I can apply after reading them. I’m always looking forward to the next post because I know I’m going to learn something. Remember this simple rule, when you are able to provide solutions to individuals problems they will come back for more.

5. Keep your blog post interesting – Since you are going to be engaging with potential prospects and building trust with your readers. It is important to keep your topics interesting so your readers will come back for more.
You don’t want to blog about the same topic over and over it will bore your readers. Here is a question, I like to ask myself, “What Am I Going To Do Different To Stand Out From The Rest of The Bloggers?” This is a question you want to keep in front of you at all times.

My friends, I want you to know that following these 5 simple tips is all I’ve done since I started my blog.  I’ve been tempted to get side track but I stuck to the foundation that I put in place since the beginning.

I discovered Journey work, after a deep depression set in for me, shortly after the death of my husband.  This depression lasted several years despite efforts from traditional doctors of different sorts.  When I read Brandon Bays book, The Journey, I instantly had this deep knowing that this is what would help me release this depression that was gripping me.  And in one session it took the lid off of this depression.  The memory that I processed was actually in the womb. My depression was set up in the womb and got activated when my husband died.  I think I had had bouts of depression before that, but it was at this vulnerable time, that things took a  turn for the worse.  

Since that memory was cleared, I have become a trained Journey work practitioner and have not only continued to help myself,  but hundreds of others as well.

Our cells are memory and feeling organisms.  All the events of our lives are stored in this that we call our bodies.  When the memories are happy, we need not be concerned because that is our true nature. However, when the memories are negative, they can create havoc in our lives, if we do not know how to transform them.

About a month ago from this writing, I could feel such great tension in my body and that is always an indicator to me that an old negative memory has reared its head asking to be released.  I went inward with a Journey process and the memory was one of me tensing myself before I would go into my family home when I was a child.  My mother, bless her soul, was so affected by her past that I do not remember her ever being happy.  I was her eldest child born out of wedlock and it seems that most of the time she was triggered by my prescence.

So I learned to stay away from home as much as possible in order to be away from her constant criticism and unhappiness that she always blamed on someone, especially me.  And so this memory brought back me standing outside my family home bracing myself,  before I went in to either eat or sleep. 

Home was never something that I enjoyed. It did not have the wonderful feeling for me that it has more many people. I was more at home in nature than I was ever at home in my family home.   And so I spent my entire childhood bracing myself before I would go home.  Over the years this tension built up, until it just felt normal to be tense, especially in my thighs. This is where I held the tension. 

And it was during this process that I realized that I always saw myself as outside my family unit. I never felt like I was part of it.  And as I examined this more, I realized that for the past  25 years, I have been seeing myself as separate from almost every group that I was part of.   And I joined several groups over these years that were of such a negative influence that when I left I was so ill that I could not stand to be there any longer.

Now a healthy person would never join a group that made them feel so bad, but someone who never felt accepted (in this case myself) would find this as normal because it resembled their experience from the past.

And so this one memory has been the culprit in decision after decision of my joining this or that and being completely unhappy.  I was doing the same thing over and over again that resembled this initial experience.

This is how these memories are.  Until you clear them, you keep repeating them without even knowing or understanding why.  

It is in my determination to become happy and to clear everything negative that comes forth that I am slowly, after so many years, becoming the happy being that I was meant to be.  

And now after processing hundreds of people using Journey work, I can see how the same thing happens for all of us. 

The teachings of Abraham, as brought forth from Jerry and Esther Hicks, state clearly that joy and happiness are our goals in life and if we are not in these high feeling places, we want to get there.  Happiness is our birthright, it is our true nature. When we are not happy, it is key for us to find out why and to use every method in our hands to clear whatever is stopping us from this that we are.

I love how this work has helped to transform me and so many others.  It can save you hundreds of thousands of dollars because it can quickly and easily transform illness into health. It can give us those much needed skills to understand our emotions and what they are guiding us towards.   I lost several years of my life to depression and these skills have taught me why and how to never have that happen again.

When we clear these old negative memories, that are attached to unhealthy beliefs, that become the basis of our lives,  the health and happiness that we seek can come flooding in.

Please be in touch if I can be of help in your journey from illness to wellness, from depression to happiness, from doubt into knowing, from disappointment into enthusiasm.   I appreciate these amazing skills that are on the planet today.  They are really so new yet and so many people are in desparate need of them.

The other key element in releasing this ‘old stored stuff’ is to actually release the tension that has been in the body over the years.  For example, if someone has been emotionally and/or sexually abused over a period of time, the body begins to feel more and more stressed as time goes on. Even after the abuse stops or perhaps the person leaves home, the tension can continue to get worse and worse.

And so with years of built up tension, many people have a difficult time ever feeling relaxed. In fact, one begins to think that the tension they experience is their natural body, when in fact they are all wound up inside.   One can get so out of touch with true health, that some never recover back into relaxed natural well-being.

The purpose of this article is to acknowledge that even after a Journey process, careful attention needs to be made to find ways to let go of the years of built up tension. I had that experience recently whereby I uncovered a memory that I successfully processed but I could feel enormous amounts of tension inside my body after the process and I was not sure what it was about.  And that is when I realized that the years of tension that I had experienced was still stored in the body and that this too needed attention, as well as the old memory shift.

And so what are some ways to release this tension? 

Well what I got literally led to was a session of EMDR work with a beloved colleague. EMDR  accesses and helps one release old trauma and tension.  With just one session,  it lifted a pile of  residual emotion that was from this memory I had processed about a month ago.  And the interesting thing is that when I was in quite a difficult depression years ago, EMDR was not effective for me. I had had several sessions of it.  

I found it so interesting but enlightening because I have worked with many people who have had very powerful Journey processes but the changes still seemed to be slow or minimal. 

Now with a one time event, this emotional build up can be less but with consistent emotional truama, one must tend to the tension within.  Other things such as massage,  mild exercise,  hot baths, lots of rest and saunas are most helpful in becoming aware of this residual tension and then helping to release it.  I even found myself standing close to my fireplace to relax my muscles, allowing the heat to penetrate my cells.

After my process, I was curious why the changes that are usually quite quick with Journey work did not happen.  And then I discovered this.  It is the careful attention to how one is feeling that is the key. Listen to the body, feel how your body feels and if it is not completely relaxed which is our true nature, then some attention to this is necessary.

After my EMDR session, I then felt the extra relief and the changes that I was expecting. Everyone is different and it is my experience that if one is attentive to ones body and asks for the guidance to fully clear something, that the answers will come from within.  This is source energy guiding you to the wellness that you seek.  And when you clean up the tension, you increase your vibration and when you increase your vibration, those things you have been asking for can come flooding into your life. The law of attraction in action.

Another interesting thing in this event for me is that the friend/colleague who did the EMDR process for me is the same person who I first went to when I originally learned about Journey work.  I kidded her by saying that every few years I come to her for a massive shift.  I rest in so much appreciation.  And another thing is that I think that it is because of my close relationship with this colleague that I was even able to go to the depths that I did.  I just felt so much care and love from her, it gave me permission to truly release what I needed to.

If you have any questions about this post feel free to ask and if I can be of assistance to you in your inner work, please do not hesitate to be in touch.  My contact info is on my blog.

You do not have to live with depression anymore!

Teenagers can be the most misunderstood group of people. Trust me on this.

You do not have to live with anxiety anymore.  Trust me on this.  I will teach you how to release it. I did!

Today as I bask in the quiet of my mountain surroundings,  I can feel the presence of a love so great, it brings tears to my eyes.  The love is in front of me for miles as I softly gaze ahead, it is behind me, to both sides, above and below me. It is everywhere. I can feel it and taste it and smell it and touch the essence of it.

It has brought me back in time to just after my husband died.  He transitioned on November 9/97, just weeks before Christmas.  He truly was a Santa Claus and the thought of having Christmas as usual, just seemed impossible.  And so, I packed up my two children, ages 10 & 15 and we headed to the west coast of Canada, Tofino BC, to throw their fathers ashes into the open ocean that he loved so very much.

We stopped off at friends overnite and in  the morning, my son, decides he will go back and be with our family friends for Christmas.  And so my daughter and I continue.  We arrive in Tofino and for 4 days we wait for the clouds to clear so that we can hire a plane to fly over the open ocean where we will drop his ashes.  The clouds lift, the pilot calls and we are off. 

All goes well as we drop the ashes in the perfect spot. On the way back, I had decided to go to a sacred hot springs for a few hours. The pilot drops us off,  one can only reach this area by boat or plane, and he agrees to pick us up later.  As soon as we step out of the plane, three dogs came bounding towards us. One was a parent, older dog and the other two were like teenage dogs.   The older dog came directly to me and nuzzled his head around my legs. 

Feeling a familiar presence, I looked down and said,  Russell (my husbands name), what are you doing in this dogs body.  I could feel his energy as if he were beside me,  he was beside me.  I was so stunned, yet felt the knowing of his energy that I knew so well.  Well these dogs guided us to the hot springs, which was about 1/2 mile of walking.  When we arrived it was breathtaking as we felt the warmth of the springs coming forth. 

These three dogs literally sat with us, overlooking us on the rocks, as we both bathed and comforted ourselves in these springs.  The whole while I was talking to Russell.  I said to him, oh  my goodness, this is so perfect for you. Living by the open ocean that you love, guiding people to these sacred hot springs.   It was so surreal, yet real.  I knew without a doubt that he was here with me.

There was no doubt, I just could feel him all around me, a love so pure, so powerful.  We were in such need of comfort, both my daughter, who loved her father like no other and me, who was at a loss without him it seemed.   After our soak in the springs,  we dressed and the dogs walked us back to where the plane was picking us up.

Doug, the pilot was waiting.  As I stepped into the plane I said to Doug, “you will maybe not believe this, my husbands energy is in this dogs body” as I pointed to the parent dog.  Doug looked and without a pause, said,  “I believe you.” And he did, I knew he did.  Those dogs watched us lift off into the air and never took their eyes off of us until we were out of  view.

The knowing that there is so much more than what we can actually see, is something that I have come to know with out any question. It is a part of my deep sense of the infinite intelligence that we are all a part of .  When one sits in the quiet of nature as I do often,  you can feel the vibration of your being in harmony with all wellness.  You can feel the love every where.  It is palpable. 

Just sit quietly,  soften your eyes and feel it all around you.  It will reassure you and comfort you like nothing else. You will know that you are never alone, never ever alone.

Our bodies are naturally healthy and will stay healthy if we have healthy thoughts. If our thoughts are positive, joyful and happy,  then it follows that our bodies will remain healthy and happy too.  However, if we stray from our true selves, and begin to worry and fret and have doubts and anxiety about things,  these emotions are indicators that what you are thinking is not in alignment with your true nature of positive joyous energy.  And your body responds in kind by giving you an indicator that you are off track,  ie your arthritis.   This is law of attraction in action.

All illness has an emotional basis.  I personally had the beginnings of arthritis a few years ago and through journey work, that releases past issues and law of attraction teachings, that teaches how to guide our thoughts and emotions daily,  I was able to release it.  It has never returned because I am so diligent about my desire to be happy, that I will not allow negative emotions to be with me for long.  I make every effort when I feel them to soothe myself into a better feeling place.

So if you have arthritis you must get to the emotional root of it. You must begin to let go of the tension in the body. It could be old memories that need to be released through Journey work or it may be chronic thoughts in the present that are the root cause.  Whatever the case, rest assured, it can and many times has dissolved.  I have seen it countless times in many many people. 

To learn more about your emotions and their significance to illness, just read more on my blog,  each article gives you another piece of importance in this important learning.  It is going to make you want to understand law of attraction intimately, trust me on this.

This is a great video to watch so that you are aware of how you want to feel when you are making decisions. Enjoy!