SKILLS is #InternetGeekat50 Lesson 2. One thing I know for sure about being an Internet Geek is that learning new skills is an ongoing process. This month, my web site content creation skills are growing as I work with Michelle Langston, a fabulous WordPress developer, on the design and relaunch of AnandaLeeke.com. Picking the new web site design and creating a content outline was fun. The hard part has been creating and posting content. My fear of not having the perfect words paralyzed me for two weeks. Thanks to Michelle’s patience and guidance, and a video chat I had with Press Publish conference organizer Andrea Middleton, I put the finishing touches on my new content on Monday night. What skills have you developed as a result of being online?
HEALING is #Yogaat50 Lesson 2. Last week, I added a series of Yin Yoga hip opener poses to my home practice. As I held them for five to six minutes, my mind quieted down and space was created for me to hear my inner voice. She revealed some fears I was hiding from and encouraged me to surrender and embrace them. I used each yoga session to follow her wisdom. After a few days, I started journaling about my fears and how I could face them head on. By the end of the week, I had shared them with my accountability partners and began to take baby steps to overcome them. I now realize that a healing had begun thanks to my yoga practice. Have you ever experienced any form of healing through yoga?
#FierceLiving Friday is back on the blog with a special five-week series entitled #FierceLiving@50 Lessons. Each week, I’ll be sharing one of the five key lessons I have learned about fierce living. MINDFULNESS is #FierceLiving@50 Lesson 1. I started practicing mindfulness during my first meditation class in 1992. It is the practice of being present in the moment without judgment.
Since then, I have used a variety of breathing exercises, Buddhist meditation, mantra chanting, Reiki healing touch, and yoga to enhance my practice of mindfulness. They help me stay in the present moment where I can access stillness. Practicing mindfulness helps me communicate better with myself and others. Do you practice mindfulness?
I’m bringing #CreativityThursday back with #Creativityat50 Lessons, a five-week blog series that will share the five key lessons I have learned as an artist and writer over the past 20+ years.
SURRENDER is #Creativityat50 Lesson 1. Each time I have created a piece of artwork or written a book, I have faced creative blocks stemming from fear and/or feelings of being overwhelmed. The one thing that has helped me overcome the fear and overwhelming feelings is making a choice to surrender my will and need to control. The act of surrender opens the door to my intuition and imagination. It also jumpstarts my courage to move with my fear and feelings while taking positive steps to express my creativity. I surrendered my fear and overwhelming feelings surrounding the content I am creating for my web site relaunch, upcoming email campaigns, and the creation of a newsletter today when I decided to attend a free class on MailChimp email campigns and newsletters offered at Martin Luther King, Jr. Memorial Library in Washington, DC (see photo above). Thanks to DC Librarian Victor Benitez I walked away with tons of creative tips I can use in my MailChimp email campaigns and newsletter, web site content, and work with clients seeking to launch and offer newsletters. I also walked away feeling energized and more committed to the creative surrender process. Have you ever practiced surrender in your creative process?
Happy #DigitalSisterhood Wednesday! Guess what I’m doing today? Launching #DigitalSisterhoodat50 Lessons, a five-week blog series that will reveal the five key lessons I have learned while cultivating relationships and working with women online.
COMMUNITY is #DigitalSisterhoodat50 Lesson 1. In 1995, I visited an Internet Cafe at the United Nations (UN) Fourth World Conference on Women in Beijing, China. It’s hard to believe that it happened 20 years ago. I was 30 and on the brink of a major career and life reinvention. When I walked into the UN Internet Cafe, I saw women from around the globe reading and sending emails, accessing web sites, and having face-to-face conversations. In a matter of seconds, I realized how powerful women are when they connect and build community in the digital space. I left the cafe and conference determined to keep in touch with three women from Boston (MA), Nairobi (Kenya), and Greensboro (NC) who later became my first community of digital sisters via regular e-mail sharing. Tonight, I was reminded of the importance of COMMUNITY among women online when I attended the DC Web Women’s (DCWW) Entrepreneurial Speaker series held at the Uber offices. DCWW is one of my strongest and nurturing #DigitalSisterhood communities. It uses a group of daily listservs to share events, information, resources, and opportunities; provide feedback and support; and celebrate women’s accomplishments each Friday via a brag thread. The group also sponsors in-person events including job fairs, networking socials, workshops, and speaker series. I am really grateful for all my fellow DC Web Women do to build and celebrate COMMUNITY. Do you have a #DigitalSisterhood COMMUNITY? How has it helped you?
Today, I’m bringing #YogaMonday back to the blog with a five-week series entitled #Yogaat50 Lessons. Each week, I will share a lesson I learned through my yoga practice and service as a yoga teacher.
Here’s LESSON 1: Namaste helps me honor and celebrate my true identity and connection to others from the inside out. Guess where I took my first yoga class? Aboard a cruise down the Nile River during an African American studies trip with Kemetian scholar Tony Browder in 1995. I was 30 and interested in the deep breathing and stretching benefits of yoga for support with my running practice. When I returned home from my trip, I found a yoga teacher who provided one-on-one instruction in my home. Her name was Gloria. She taught me how to breathe deeply and do poses that eased the tension and tightness in my hamstrings, hips, legs, and lower back. She explained the meaning of Namaste and showed me how to chant it at the end of each session. Over the past 20 years, my home practice and service to others as a yoga teacher has deepened my understanding of Namaste. It has become a sacred self-care ritual that reminds me to to look within, accept, and celebrate my true identity as a spiritual being living a human experience with strengths and weaknesses. Saying Namaste also taught me to appreciate and value the true identity of everyone and everything in the universe, and our bond of oneness. What does saying Namaste mean to you?
If you’ve been reading my blog and/or following me on social media, you know I’m heading to Press Publish, WordPress’ first-ever conference featuring WordPress bloggers and the people behind WordPress.com, on March 27 and 28 in Portland, Oregon. While I am at Press Publish, I’ll lead a session on “Blogging for Obama” that will give me an opportunity to share how I began blogging for personal reasons, evolved into a social media leader for the White House, and learned how to make the most of opportunities that have presented themselves as a result of my blogging adventures on March 28.
I’m also serving as a panelist for Michelle Langston’s session, “A Tale of Two Sites.” During this session, you’ll have a chance to look at my older web site and blog and learn how Michelle transformed them into a new and improved site that fully expresses my personality and online goals.
In addition to these sessions, you’ll be able to dive into a day of learning with presentations and tutorials led by an amazing group of speakers on blogging 101, blogging on the go, going pro as a blogger, storytelling, turning your blog into a book or business, writing, WordPress design and plugins, and so much more. Click here to see the schedule.
Oh yeah, you’ll get to attend a Friday evening mixer where you will meet your fellow bloggers (like moi), receive your attendee packet, and enjoy storytelling by Longreads, snacks, and libations.
Guess what? The generous and groovy Press Publish team is offering a special 40% discount to the conference! Click here and use the special coupon code SISTERHOOD40 to register. One last thing — your ticket purchase also gets you a 1-year subscription to the WordPress Premium upgrade, a $99 value, that you can use on any WordPress.com blog. A coupon code and instructions on how to redeem it will be included in your ticket confirmation email.
Ananda Leeke 