Disqus - Latest Comments for gwenbell

Re: It’s Time, Part 1

Gwen Bell — Thu, 30 May 2013 21:39:51 -0000

Dang yo. I hear this. Thank you for your bravery, Dave Lukas. On all fronts - and especially creating your site from scratch - phoenix from the ashes style.

Re: Making Money With My Principles Intact by Mary Ann Mhina

Gwen Bell — Sun, 13 May 2012 07:15:16 -0000

Mary Ann, thank you for sharing this appreciation in public. I'm humbled to read the ways in which our work together has helped you.

Re: Guess Who's Going To Costa Rica On A Gift Of Happiness Eco Adventure This Winter???

Gwen Bell — Sun, 13 Nov 2011 17:16:52 -0000

I've been to - and absolutely love - Costa Rica. Enjoy your Fresh Air Project.

(I have SAD and a light box helps, Vitamin D helps more, and pure fresh sunshine a la Costa Rica helps most of all!)

Re: one year.

Gwen Bell — Thu, 10 Nov 2011 13:36:20 -0000

I knew today was the day, and I came by to see how you are. I knew, because I spent the end of last year bearing witness from afar. I wrote about it, and you and Chad and the girls, at the time, folding your story into my own memories of witnessing my mom's denouement at this time of year, 19 years ago this year.

November and December, the darkest months of the year for me. Thank you for sharing your story, his story, their story. Our story.

(There is a light.)

Re: Why Being Delusional Is the Pathway to a Glorious Future

Gwen Bell — Tue, 27 Sep 2011 14:34:39 -0000

I hate to draw comparisons, but you could be the next Oatmeal, Mars.

Re: Question about Social Media by @jeffsarris

Gwen Bell — Tue, 27 Sep 2011 01:25:57 -0000

"when a hundred years ago, all we had to do was sleep at night." ---
maybe true...maybe not true.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wik... <- comes to mind. Perhaps we're further up the pyramid now, and perhaps we use these digital tools for self-actualization. And we get off them...for self-actualization. Two sides of the same coin.100 years ago in 1911 there was an entirely different set of worries keeping people up at night. -> http://en.wikipedia.org/wik... pushing back a little because, though I hear what you're saying about we shouldn't need to unplug, I'm not sure we're at a place where the internet can refresh us. Maybe that's a thing that will happen by 2111?

Re: Question about Social Media by @jeffsarris

Gwen Bell — Mon, 26 Sep 2011 15:47:37 -0000

Stepping away once a year for a digital sabbatical (2010, 2011, and I plan one again in 2012 and for as far into the future as I can see) gives me renewed vigor. Coming back, I was able to see clearly that my decision to leave Facebook was a sound one. That it was time to leave Twitter, too.

Now, I have a healthy relationship to Google+. I dip in a few times a day, and it's with awareness. There's no refresh button, no desire on my part to get constant updates. I mention the way I was able to wean myself (including tracking my time for 168 hours) on my Digital Sabbatical page. In short, cultivating discernment, asking what I wanted to get out of the engagement with the social web, what I was _not getting_ by being online all day, all that....simply asking those questions and tracking my current engagement...brought me to a place of clarity.

Clarity didn't mean instant tranquility. That's the thing. There seems to be withdrawal time (for me, felt more leaving Twitter than leaving FB, but I had much deeper roots in the T community than I did in FB...and T was a great tool for launching my digital career four years ago).

Just like when you leave coffee behind, leaving the digital tools behind is hard.

And. And, at some point, each of those tools started to feel less like tools and more like empty husks. I don't miss either site (been off FB since last year, been off T for +/- a month) - though I have mourned the loss sufficiently, and I think that's the piece I got from unplugging for July - two years in a row.

Re: Gwen Bell - Blog - One Thing Well: Ice Cream

Gwen Bell — Wed, 21 Sep 2011 14:33:05 -0000

I look forward to seeing what comes of this, Nate!

Re: Gwen Bell - Blog - Featured Project: End Malaria Day

Gwen Bell — Wed, 07 Sep 2011 21:11:16 -0000

I'm honored that you'd take the time out of what I know must be an incredibly motion-oriented day to thank me. Thank you for your tireless work on this, Michael.

Re: Gwen Bell - Blog - Digital Sanctuary [VIDEO]

Gwen Bell — Tue, 06 Sep 2011 14:15:52 -0000

Adam, thank you. I'd love to know if you've found a place like a " a small secluded tea house surrounded by giant pines" somewhere on the web.

Re: Gwen Bell - Blog - I Write to Support My Faerie Habit

Gwen Bell — Sat, 27 Aug 2011 16:51:43 -0000

Oh, and I do, "don rainbow striped socks and a pair of fairy wings." I do. I'm convinced that in another life, I was a Japanese anime character.)

Re: Gwen Bell - Blog - I Write to Support My Faerie Habit

Gwen Bell — Sat, 27 Aug 2011 16:50:29 -0000

Beautifully put, Tanja. Thank you, as well, for sharing.

Re: Gwen Bell - Blog - Life Experience: End of Line - When Online Community Bites Digital Dust

Gwen Bell — Wed, 24 Aug 2011 17:38:15 -0000

Dave, thank you for commenting. It's good to hear your voice.

Here's the thing. Zaadz... to me it felt to me like slow growth. In breath, out breath kind of growth. (Then, I wasn't in the code. /cc Jake)

Fact is, that's what drew me to it, and kept me there. It wasn't FB, it wasn't Twitter, it wasn't G+. I loved that it was a community you had to apply to enter. I haven't seen anything like that online before or since. It was selective without being exclusive. The people there chose to be there. There's an intentionality to that kind of work. I haven't seen that since, though I would love to see it again.

The closest I get is my letter. People opt in. I've asked questions about them through the months I've had the letter (through a Wufoo form which has been totally amazing). So, we get to know each other in that way. But it's not yet the kind of community feeling I had with Zaadz. Though, as I write this, I sense it's a need I want to meet for myself. Or have met. So, I'm to the drawing board on how to do that here.

Re: Gwen Bell - Blog - Life Experience: End of Line - When Online Community Bites Digital Dust

Gwen Bell — Wed, 24 Aug 2011 17:19:44 -0000

Hmm. Not sure I completely follow. Can you say more? Perhaps tell from an experience you've had with this?

Re: Gwen Bell - Blog - Life Experience: End of Line - When Online Community Bites Digital Dust

Gwen Bell — Wed, 24 Aug 2011 17:11:02 -0000

Touched by your words, Jake. Thank you for taking the time to share this.

It's remarkable what an impression it made on me. The number of friendships that have lasted to this point is testament, I think, to the power of what you & we created there. There was a weight to it. I think Cameron hit on it in the EJ post. Somehow, Zaadz went beyond 'social media.' It seemed aimed at the heart of the word 'web,' as in, spider. As in, interdependence. That's how I got hooked on this work in to begin with. I saw I could take what I was doing in the studio, on the mat, and bring that intention and lifeforce to the digital realm. Zaadz was doing it, and I could, too. That kind of community can be replicated, in smaller ways, on our individual sites. But as I told Brian a few months ago, I'd love to see it tried again, with proper funding and/or pay model, with a deeper financial well to dip into. Now, with where the web is, I think that seed could take root in a way it couldn't in 2005.

Re: Gwen Bell - Blog - Digital Dharma: Cultivate Beginner's Mind Online

Gwen Bell — Fri, 19 Aug 2011 00:40:36 -0000

Tammy, hi! (I saw you shared the Unplug transcript to your Google+ peeps. Thank you.)

Like you, I've met so many amazing folks through...well, Twitter. Not FB actually. And, like you, I'd never bag on Twitter. It has been part of my life since 2007. It has led to interviews and speaking engagements and I've grown as a human being using it. I'd love to have all my tweets from the beginning for posterity.

I just feel that it moves differently now than it once did, for me; I have a sense of mastery over it and am ready to begin anew. Google+ challenges me right now. Next year, it may be something different. And always, always, cultivating our own pieces of the world at our own sites, which you do so well.

Thank you again for stopping by, and happy writing. I know the labor of love it is to wake up each day and put (digital) pen to paper. I'm with you in spirit.

Re: Gwen Bell - Blog - Life Experience: How I Became a Highly Paid Speaker

Gwen Bell — Thu, 18 Aug 2011 15:12:36 -0000

Thank you, Deb. And here's to many more speaking engagements for you. (If you ping me with the kind of thing you're looking for, I can always forward things your way that might be a better fit for you than for me.)

Re: Gwen Bell - Website Login

Gwen Bell — Thu, 18 Aug 2011 11:41:10 -0000

I woke up thinking about some of the cons of speaking, Jean.

Like the writer's life, speaking has been for me a solitary kind of career. You spend a lot of time alone, en route to and from your engagement. Alone at the hotel cafe. Alone on flights to and from. It's not a con, necessarily, it's just something I didn't understand about speaking before I started doing it.

Because when you see speakers "in action" they're usually up in front of a crowd, mic'd and talking with their hands. And that is 1/10th of it. Maybe 1/25th of it. We don't (and shouldn't) see the hours of prep work that go into preparing a talk or a workshop. But that doesn't mean those other elements (they could be called cons, but they are simply the less glamorous aspects, perhaps) of this kind of work.For Patrick, those thirty engagements also mean 30 hotel rooms, 60 plane trips, 60 taxis, etc. Not to speak out of turn (Patrick, I'd love your thoughts) but that's the work audience members never see.

Re: Gwen Bell - Blog - Life Experience: How I Became a Highly Paid Speaker

Gwen Bell — Thu, 18 Aug 2011 11:11:21 -0000

Thank you for the question, Deb. I enjoyed sharing the stage with you when we did (http://www.mom2summit.com/t..., by the way. Was reflecting on that last night.

On "leave no trace." I wondered if someone might ask; glad you did.

When Patrick (http://www.gwenbell.com/peo... was in the Peace Corps in Morocco, I spent the summer (and then a winter) there. The Peace Corps has a similar ethos to "leave no trace." It's essentially this: when you leave the Peace Corps, when you go home, the people you have served should say, "we did this ourselves!"

When I say "leave no trace," I don't mean leave no impression. I mean to burn myself up so completely that I've left no trace of myself. So attendees can take ownership of their experience - that they're inspired to reflect on themselves, to want to do what it is _they_ do more completely. That there's never a "oh, Gwen Bell, I want to be her/I want her life!" Instead, that my presence helps others come more fully into themselves, more fully into their own.

Re: Gwen Bell - Blog - How to Achieve Desktop Zen

Gwen Bell — Tue, 16 Aug 2011 11:59:08 -0000

Sascha,

Thanks for the shout. I'm not sure what you mean by file structure? Like, what do I name my files? Or how do I nest them? Can you be a little more specific, or give an example of how you do that?

Re: Gwen Bell - Blog - Sunday Question for Reflection: Align

Gwen Bell — Sun, 14 Aug 2011 22:07:28 -0000

Happy moving, Becky. Hope the transition is a smooth one for you.

Re: Gwen Bell - Blog - Sunday Question for Reflection: Align

Gwen Bell — Sun, 14 Aug 2011 22:05:11 -0000

Takes one to know one on this. I've struggled, too. And I'm not sure writers get off the hook as easily as we once could. We are responsible, in a digital world, for both the writing _and_ the delivery of it. And, perhaps there's a way to do one at a time, rather than attempting to do both simultaneously. I'm right here with you.

Re: Gwen Bell - Blog - Touched: The Most Beautiful Video I've Seen in Weeks. Or Months, Even.

Gwen Bell — Sat, 13 Aug 2011 11:56:16 -0000

Simon, I wanted to let you know I hear your comment. I felt your unhappiness and culture shock in it. And, perhaps, lack of trust around the vulnerability portrayed in the video.

Perhaps if vulnerability is "portrayed" then it's not vulnerable at all, is what you're saying? If a chance encounter on the street, completely spontaneous seems more vulnerable - would you say a critical element of vulnerability is spontaneity? (I would not, but I'm curious if you would.)

Re: Gwen Bell - Blog - Touched: The Most Beautiful Video I've Seen in Weeks. Or Months, Even.

Gwen Bell — Fri, 12 Aug 2011 19:47:27 -0000

That was a three-pause video, Kandice. As in, I had to pause it on three separate occasions to catch my breath. Soaring beauty; thank you for sharing this.

Re: Gwen Bell - Blog - Touched: The Most Beautiful Video I've Seen in Weeks. Or Months, Even.

Gwen Bell — Fri, 12 Aug 2011 19:38:24 -0000

On the 48 hour comment policy: I came back to the web with beginner's mind. I'm giving it a go like this because when I run across blog posts from 2007 that still have comments open, I'm surprised. Even if I'm compelled by the material to comment, there's a feeling of - well, I could comment, but would it be like a tree falling in the forest with nobody there to hear? What's the purpose of comments if they're open from now until eternity?

I am trying out this 48 hour thing. We'll see. What do you think about it?

(The other element is if people want to talk about a past post, they can always write about it on their own blog and then trackback/ping me, no matter when I wrote it.)