1. The Mindmapping Software Blog reviews mind mapping software available for a comprehensive overview. I am adding from a post: “The 5 best mind mapping programs for brainstorming”. The 5 products chosen are: NovaMind, MindManager 8, Visual Mind plus the Realizer 2, iMindMap 4.1, and ConceptDraw Mindmap 6.
2. The Mindmap Blog includes a great mind map of American history.
3. Idea Mapping by Jamie Nast has great mind maps about Black Friday Christmas Shopping which can be used as a blueprint for all your Christmas shopping. Her website does a great job of explaining mind mapping.
4. Peace of Mind has a good explanation of the idea wall which is a great tool for groups to brainstorm ideas.
5. Mind Map Switch has a 5 minute exercise for creating mind maps.
6. Litemind by Luciano is about exploring ways to use our minds efficiently. This translates to a wide variety of topics such as creativity, problem-solving, visual thinking, memory, self-mastery and more.
7. Assistive Technology is a blog on the topics of assistive technology, elearning, mind mapping, project management, visual learning, collaborative tools, and educational technology.
8. Mind Map Art—showcases the world’s finest mind maps includes a very large collection. It includes maps for the arts, business, education, lifestyle, mind mappers, offbeat, science, sports and technology. All the maps are also listed alphabetically by titles.
9. Thinking and organizing was created for the Topicscape in May of 2005. Another Topicscape blog is Roy’s Mind Mapping blog @ http://www.topicscape.com/blog/.

A special treat—

Lorikeet in flight by aussiegall

I live in a community of over 800 homes which was an over 55 park and has been changed to allow younger residents. I’m glad because I think a mix of young and older is good for everyone. A year ago, I created a blog about blogging named Coral Cay Blogs. I have a need for income and was disappointed to not have anyone much interested in blogging.

I have a need for income this year that is more urgent as I am being divorced at age 68 with only Social Security as income. I know that would terrify many people but I gave my life to the God of my understanding over 32 years ago. So I know that He has a plan for me. I also know that it will be in service to others. And I know that I give in because I have a need to help others. He always supplies my needs and sometimes He gives me what I want also.

I have a burning desire to help others. But I know that they have to find me. If I go looking, I may be getting more than I bargain for. So I create and work everyday toward being able to help someone either with stress relief, relaxation techniques, addiction recovery, or with blogging.

I love all these topics. From my main blog, kathyberman.com, I have created 5 other blogs. So I don’t want to start another blog. Instead I’m combining all the topics in this blog. I will be writing about writing in order to encourage others to begin. The beautiful thing about a blog is that it can be anything you want it to be.

Please tell your friends about Coral Cay Blogs. it will be easy to follow and be meant as a place where new bloggers can get ideas.

Previously that day I found the  puppy cam site about the shiba inu puppies that 3-4 million people watch daily and downloaded it to my PC. I minimized it and promptly forgot about it. I use my PC infrequently throughout the day as I get carpal tunnel in the craziest places because I use a computer 8-12 hours most days. My laptop I use on a portable, adjustable table. The adjustable table is great plus I got a new comfortable chair. The table, the chair, and my handy carpal tunnel brace make carpal tunnel disappear.

But back to the puppies—in the middle of the night, I awoke to some animals in our house. But I couldn’t locate them. Lou got up and went outside and said that they were in the wall. But we don’t have real walls in these homes. I thought they were down in the heat vents. But I still couldn’t find them. So I decided to come out with a flashlight and “trap” them. When I came out to the kitchen with a flashlight, I noticed the light from my computer speakers. It was the puppies—apparently; they love to play at night.

In finding sites like the puppy cam, many of the blogs I read daily for writing ideas have a RSS link—that little orange button you see everywhere. With RSS, I can keep a check on all the blogs I like and only have to read 5 headlines from each to see if I am interested or not.

The 2 RSS readers I use are Google Reader (the most popular) and Pageflakes. I am so obsessive I use two so that I can skim Pageflakes when I like and read Google reader closer daily. I follow about 100 blogs—many of the more prolilic bloggers follow 500-600 daily. But many of the the large blogs also have 5-10 writers to cover a wider field of daily information.

The following list are places you may look for new blogs. Never forget to check the blogs listed on the blogs that you like.

1. Google Blog Search–returns links from machine-made blogs sometimes which is disheartening when they ban bloggers for the same practice.

2.  About.com has a blog search engine page that lists several search engines for blogs.

3.  Webcrawler has links to find blogs. This link page also has good articles for the blog newcomer.

4.  Resource Shelf has links for finding blogs by location.

5.  Blog Catalog lists itself as the blogger social network but also has a good directory. It also has a “rate my blog design” until Jan. 9, 2009.

6.  I use delicious a lot and it has a blog that has a lot of tips for using delicious on your cellphone if you are going mobile. Here is my delicious tags/bookmark list.

“Hatha yoga is a meditation program that includes exercises to help improve flexibility and breathing, decrease stress, and maintain health. Yoga has been practiced for thousands of years in India and is based on the idea that the mind and body are one. It is thought that yoga improves health by improving how you see the world, which calms the spirit and decreases stress.”

“Two basic components of Hatha yoga are proper breathing and exercises, called postures, that stretch the body. Postures are done while standing, lying down, sitting in a chair, or in a headstand position. While practicing a posture, a person does breathing exercises to help relax muscles, maintain the posture, and focus the mind.”

“Hatha is one of many types of yoga. While each type focuses on different aspects of yoga, all share the same goal, which is not only improved physical and mental health, but achievement of “oneness” with a higher being, the self, or some form of higher awareness.”

“What is yoga used for?”

“Most people who try yoga for meditation find that it increases flexibility and reduces stress. Several studies have shown that yoga helps lower blood pressure and improves a person’s sense of well-being. Studies have also shown that yoga can help people who have asthma learn to breathe more easily. If you suffer from a long-term (chronic) medical condition, you can often combine yoga and conventional medical treatment.”

“Is yoga safe?”

“Yoga is considered safe.”

“Always tell your health professional if you are using an alternative therapy or if you are thinking about combining an alternative therapy with your conventional medical treatment. It may not be safe to forgo your conventional medical treatment and rely only on an alternative therapy.”

“Like any physical activity, yoga can cause muscle strains or sprains. Gentle stretching before a yoga session can help prevent injuries.”

The author for the above information is Paul Lehnert.

Yoga requires very little room to practice-just room for your body on the floor. You may choose to use a yoga mat. A site that has great variety in yoga mats and meditation products, matsmatsmats, also has a catalog that you can download.

A short glossary of the basic yoga poses, abc-of-yoga, will help you to get started with the basic poses. This extensive site may be all that is needed for your yoga education. It gives information about yoga and meditation, health, exercise, postures, equipment, and tools. It also has a members site and a links directory.

One of the best sections on this site is under “yoga exercises and postures” as it lists the yoga exercises under these sections;(1) warm-up poses, (2) standing poses, (3) seated poses, (4) twist yoga poses, (5) supine poses, (6) inverted postures and balance poses, (7) backbends, and (8) finishing poses. I especially like their warning that yoga is not a competition but a way to learn to relax.

Some of the best yoga products are for sale at Gaiam which is a lifestyle company with ideas and products for mind-body fitness, solar living, apparel, home and outdoors, wellness, and DVDs (and audio and books).

The Yoga Site has a directory of yoga retreats across the US, Canada, Central/South America and the Caribbean, Europe, and Australia.

Wai Lana has weekly asanas (exercises) with a video to learn that week’s pose. Flickr has many pages of yoga poses.

My favorite yoga CDs are: (1) Sara Ivanhoe’s 20 minute yoga makeover (ISBN 1-59443-546-4) and (2) You Can Do! Yoga (ISBN 0-7662-1904-6).

Two responses begin to exert themselves in this space: (1) I find myself in fear and panic, or (2) my brain tries to ‘figure out’ what to do next. Neither approach accomplishes anything except to use my energy in a negative way. AA calls the second approach: “the paralysis of analysis.”

When I get tired of spinning my wheels, I relax into the solution. It always seems that the solution was there all along and I am the last to arrive at the party. I relax by doing the next best thing—something unrelated to solving the “problem”. I say next thing so I won’t use any more energy on “the problem”.

The new direction for Changemaker has always been there. What we will be concerned with is change of all types and varieties. I’ve know for several years that all I need to do in life to feel fulfilled is to help others. So I am creating a reservoir for the wonderful opportunities for help with change so that you may choose to help others.

Life is so easy when I do what I love to do. Steve Jobs gave a wonderful commencement address that he titled: “You’ve got to find what you love.” I want to help you find what you love to do.

The topics that I’ll be exploring are: career change, change, diet, exercise, finance, happiness, hobbies, home-based businesses, motivation, productivity, relaxation and work

The RSS reader that I use is Pageflakes. I love it because I can arrange my favorite blogs according to topics. Each topic comes up like the pages in a newspaper with a picture added and 5 posts. The most current post for the day has a short summary.

Pageflacks also has the features of flakes, pagecasts , and people. Clicking on the large round “snowflake” brings these choices to a separate sidebar for the choices you may choose to use. You also have the choices to add your RSS choices and/or create your own pagecasts.

However, I started this blog six months ago (Thanksgiving, 2004), and I love blogging. For the 28 years that I have been in recovery, I have studied and researched about all aspects of personal growth. The main
aspect about blogging that suits me is that although I have 5 file cabinets full of material, with blogging i only have to write a “post” which is generally 3-10 paragraphs for me.

As all who have blogs that they update regularly know, a blog that has a general direction and particular messages takes a lot of work. I have been astonished to find myself working on my blog 10-12
hour days. I don’t work outside the home now so I can devote the time to it. Of course, organizing material collected over a 28 year period takes a lot of time. The rewriting and reorganizing are also time-consuming.

But it truly has been a labor of love. I am grateful that my husband has given me this opportunity and am doing what I have wanted to do for years–expressing myself about ways that we can help each other grow
emotionally, mentally and spiritually.

My model for the self-discovery groups I hope will happen from the information, materials and direction that I have available from this blog comes from the following quotation that I have used on another
post.

“We are each of us angels with only one wing, and we can only fly by embracing one another.”

Luciano de Crescenzo

The two building blocks he talks about are the anecdote and the moment of reflection. I think of the anecdote–which makes dull events interesting–as the “hook” for getting attention. The anecdote shows the sequence of the story and has a momentum of its own. Kind of like deliberately leaving an elevator with on listeners wondering how the anecdote ended. The second block–”the moment of reflection”–completes the tale by telling you why you are listening to this story.

Copyblogger consistently provides great tips/ideas about writing and marketing. Sonia Simone writes “13 Emotion-Based Headlines That Work” and includes the following examples:

1. When’s the Last Time a Cute Girl Checked You Out?
   Emotional benefit: feeling attractive and sexy
2. Learn How to Stand Up to Your Boss (and Force Him to See What You’re Really Worth)
   Emotional benefit: feeling assertive and confident
3. Your Grandkids Will Be Struggling to Keep Up with You
   Emotional benefit: feeling vital and energetic
4. You’ve Worked Hard All Week–Now Indulge Yourself
   Emotional benefit: feeling pampered, justified entitlement
5. A Limited Number of Spaces Are Still Available for Founders’ Circle Membership
   Emotional benefit: sense of belonging, exclusivity
6. Are You Working Harder than Ever, but Still Worried About Downsizing and Layoffs?
   Emotional benefit: feeling in control of one’s own destiny
7. The 20-Minute Read that Will Make You a Financial Genius
   Emotional benefit: feeling wealthy and powerful (also feeling smart)
8. They Laughed When I Sat Down at the Keyboard–But Then I Began to Blog!
   Emotional benefit: feeling proud, sense of accomplishment (also being gigantic dork)
9. How to Take Command of Any Meeting
   Emotional benefit: feeling respected
10. The SecureWidget Alert System Keeps Tireless Watch Over Your Family
    Emotional benefit: feeling safe
11. Is Your Child Emotionally Intelligent? Take This Test and Find Out
    Emotional benefit: feeling like a good parent
12. Reconnect With Your Friends and Family on this Incredible Three-Day Retreat
    Emotional benefit: feeling of loving connection
13. How to Survive (and Yes, Even Thrive) in a Recession
    Emotional benefit: feeling financially secure (note that this is subtly different from feeling wealthy and powerful)