Note: This post is updated to reflect a change in my Twitter handle on 8/12/11.
I sent 24 messages in a bottle to the universe today. They were wrapped as tweets on a social media tool. They were sent to 325 “followers” who probably aren’t sitting all day with their computers opened to Twitter and hitting the refresh button waiting for my next utterance. Probably not.
I learned a heck of a lot, though I need time to digest the experience. Not nearly enough to think that I really know what I’m doing. Just enough to feel that this work is really being at my personal edge: taking in the universe and letting it arise and witnessing my reactions and communicating those reactions with others and becoming more aware all the time.
There is more to mindfulness than sitting lotus-style in a dark room and noticing the motion of lungs and the arising of thought and the sensation of floor on buttocks. There is mindfulness to be had in every moment, mindfulness of the Self in the world, in me and you, in the hurtful or healing words right before our eyes.
- The human capacity to ignore or deny the dignity of #animalsastonishes – SciAm asks: Do bees have an emotional life?bit.ly/njP7Wy
- US doomed? I think it’s going thru awful growing pains. Andrew Baxter asks tough questions about our future. bit.ly/pyHoOr #integral
- To keep #Twitter followers, keep your tweets positive, upbeat, optimistic! – Damn, I HATE that news! bit.ly/bg1a5X
- The World Needs a New Language bit.ly/qy2mQV #language
- via @JesusNeedsNewPR Social Justice Exhaustion: new disease afflicting bloggers. The ones who aren’t too jaded anyways.bit.ly/pNJJAx
- Weary of old #language games, fights if something is true or false of a #religion. On whose authority? My, we all speak as if dumb gods.
- NYT: Most US Muslims identify with both #Islam and their country.nyti.ms/pYIJ78 But do they identify with #Allah, Supreme Identity?
- Study: most don’t know how memory works huff.to/or5zDz - But do these researchers consider the ego’s structures? Doubtful. #psychology
- BPS Research Dig. looks at the astonishing role of verbal forms in impacting elections #language #psychology #politics bit.ly/ptzEfW
- #Language of the universal #awareness: #music may be key to human- #animal communication… w/ #dolphins at least. on.io9.com/mWytJB
- Bloggers’ hostility can lead to violence. #blogs debate if right or left is worse. http://bit.ly/raqA6e Wait! We can blog for peace, right?
- Scientists may have found four alternative universes, which could interact w/ ours in a “disc-shaped” pattern. Hmmm…on.io9.com/qppsDh
- #Spirituality teachers repeat themselves a lot. You noticed? But existence, #awareness, these are always in change, faster than thought.
- Paul Bloom: > Knowledge = > Pleasure. The more understanding you get, the richer your experiences will be. #psychologybit.ly/n4dCrP
- IQ scores get higher over time, but heaven forbid anyone speak of an “invisible hand” at work! bit.ly/pccy03
- The human capacity to ignore or deny the dignity of #animalsastonishes – SciAm asks: Do bees have an emotional life?http://bit.ly/njP7Wy
- Christian Jarrett examines the #psychology of holidays. They do more good than harm, but the picture is not fully clear. bit.ly/qu1gtb
- Now @hugoschwyzer has me concerned about #facebook ’s role in harming self-esteem of youth, esp. teen girls. For sure, the self is shifting.
- More attention needs to be paid to surveys and polls, how they not only REFLECT reality but INFLUENCE, even CREATE it.bit.ly/ogXjay
- #personalbranding is about BEING with our stories, inhabiting them, letting them TELL THEMSELVES via our whole person.bit.ly/ogXjay
- America must do better! via @sullydish Republicans oppose #Obama ’s birthday, vote to keep him 49 through fall 2013bit.ly/ocNC3J
- via @steveroesler - To give an effective presentation, tell people in room what you expect of them. Build awareness! bit.ly/oLxcJ7
- You can never have too much awareness, but you can have too many tweets. How much #socialmedia is too much? -http://tinyurl.com/3zmep7s
There is this expectation so many people have that they must be perfect before being public. Nothing is further from the truth in a sense. When you are confident that you are already perfect in every way that matters, it’s absolutely okay to show up as you are.
Tomorrow I’ll tweet again and bring a bit more awareness, I hope, and again and again. I don’t know from what perspective it is to say that my words may get “better” or “worse,” but if I keep showing up and finding my authentic voice — that deeper, more world-wrapping-around-the-equator expansive Self that is the stuff of you and me and God — others will show up and bring their own authentic voices.
About Joe Perez
