Let the Magic Begin - original oil on linen painting c Robert F. McInnis " Visma's Green High Heel's" http://www.rfmmcinnis.ca

Dear Readers

Thank you so much for all of you who have made such encouraging comments on my blog over the past few months.

My intentions were to share with you my readings and photos of my life as it has been happening in the moment and this blogging process has been a real pleasure.  Below is an article written that portrays what I could not have written and expressed better myself.

Thank you.

With loving kindness and gratitude

Love Visma

June 6, 2011

Main Blog Post – Week 7: Blog as Self Management Tool

By cherylchen066

B) Lovink (Reader, page 222) also argues that: “No matter how much talk there is of community and mobs, the fact remains that blogs are primarily used as a tool to manage the self”. Discuss the argument by giving an example of a blog. Specify chosen argument in your answer.

We are what we imagine. Our very existence consists in our imagination of ourselves. -N. Scott Momaday

While it is more concerned for its relation with the news industry, the act of blogging was first seen as a way of diary keeping and discussed on its close features to diary on various aspects. According to Lovink (2007:6), the idea of “blogging as a ‘technology of the self’ was first developed by Foucault. Blogs, in this sense, are more of a tool for private conversations like the records of therapist’s rather than a public forum open for discussion to the online community. More specifically, Lovink (2007:28) argued that ‘Blogs are used for the need to structure one’s life, to clear up the mess, to master the immerse flows of information, as to PR and promotion.’ A blog call ‘vital self management’ created by Visma Mesley makes a typical example for the use of blogs  as keeping track of life experiences, perfect management of self-image, self-expression, and self-promotion. (http://vitalself-management.com/blog/)

Solove (2007:24) pointed out that ‘many blogs are more akin to diaries than news articles, op-ed columns, or scholarship’. Statistic showed that bloggers most commonly write about their personal experience, while only 11% blogs are about politics. Visma Mesley’s blog is kept in daily basis; her blog gives a clear view of her life, and her personal experiences and activities.It is as Medosch (2008) suggested, Mesley’s blog is simply a place where people can mix personal thoughts of what is happening in his life, reports, and comments on what is going on in the Web and the World that he lives in.

Blogs offer a way for one-to-many conversations. ‘Whatever the type, purpose, or content of a blog, it remains a virtual environment controlled by the author, where, unlike face-to-face communication, a person is only what is expressed in manifest content. (Tramell, 2004:3) Thus, Blogs offer its user better or even full control of self-expression and better management of self-image. Blogs, like other social networks, fulfils the need of self-promotion. The choice of theme, the colours in the space, the content we create all conveys a sense of the self. As Mesley blogs about her fear, and writes therapy-like posts such as ‘open your heart’, ‘let the past slip away’ and ‘stop punishing myself for fear’, she is providing not only the readers, but also herself the solutions to cope with negative emotions and to cope with the ups and downs in her life.

Furthermore, Looking throughout Mesley’s entire website, her blog keeps tracks of her life journey of all challenges and triumphs. By commenting her own life experiences in the blog, she was subjectively promoting her own idea of ‘vital self-management’, which is created by her own belief system and her personal sense of the concept.

Reference

Lovink, G. (2007) ‘Blogging, The Nihilist Impulse’, Zero Comments: Blogging and Critical Internet Culture, London: Routledge, pp. 1-38

Solove, D.J. (2007) ‘How the Free Flow of Information Liberates ad Constrains Us’, The Future of Reputation: Gossip Rumour and Privacy on the Internet, New Haven: Yale University Press, pp. 17-49

Medosch, A. (2008) ‘Paid in Full: Copyright, Piracy and the Real Currency of Cultural Production’, Deptforth. TV Diaries II: Pirate Strategies,London: Deptforth TV. pp. 98-100

Tramell, K. (2004) ‘Examining the New Influencers: A Self-Presentation Study of A-List Blogs’ <http://www.kayesweetser.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/02/trammell-keshelashvili-2006-self-presentation-on-blogs.pdf> Last accessed: 04/06/2011

Mesley,V. ‘Vital Self Management’ < http://vitalself-management.com/blog/> Last accessed: 04/06/2011

Let the Magic Begin - original oil on linen painting c Robert F. McInnis " Visma's Green High Heel's" http://www.rfmmcinnis.ca

Thank you Cheryl Chen.

Blog as Self Management Tool

By cherylchen066

B) Lovink (Reader, page 222) also argues that: “No matter how much talk there is of community and mobs, the fact remains that blogs are primarily used as a tool to manage the self”. Discuss the argument by giving an example of a blog. Specify chosen argument in your answer.

We are what we imagine. Our very existence consists in our imagination of ourselves. -N. Scott Momaday

While it is more concerned for its relation with the news industry, the act of blogging was first seen as a way of diary keeping and discussed on its close features to diary on various aspects. According to Lovink (2007:6), the idea of “blogging as a ‘technology of the self’ was first developed by Foucault. Blogs, in this sense, are more of a tool for private conversations like the records of therapist’s rather than a public forum open for discussion to the online community. More specifically, Lovink (2007:28) argued that ‘Blogs are used for the need to structure one’s life, to clear up the mess, to master the immerse flows of information, as to PR and promotion.’ A blog call ‘vital self management’ created by Visma Mesley makes a typical example for the use of blogs  as keeping track of life experiences, perfect management of self-image, self-expression, and self-promotion. (http://vitalself-management.com/blog/)

Solove (2007:24) pointed out that ‘many blogs are more akin to diaries than news articles, op-ed columns, or scholarship’. Statistic showed that bloggers most commonly write about their personal experience, while only 11% blogs are about politics. Visma Mesley’s blog is kept in daily basis; her blog gives a clear view of her life, and her personal experiences and activities.It is as Medosch (2008) suggested, Mesley’s blog is simply a place where people can mix personal thoughts of what is happening in his life, reports, and comments on what is going on in the Web and the World that he lives in.

Blogs offer a way for one-to-many conversations. ‘Whatever the type, purpose, or content of a blog, it remains a virtual environment controlled by the author, where, unlike face-to-face communication, a person is only what is expressed in manifest content. (Tramell, 2004:3) Thus, Blogs offer its user better or even full control of self-expression and better management of self-image. Blogs, like other social networks, fulfils the need of self-promotion. The choice of theme, the colours in the space, the content we create all conveys a sense of the self. As Mesley blogs about her fear, and writes therapy-like posts such as ‘open your heart’, ‘let the past slip away’ and ‘stop punishing myself for fear’, she is providing not only the readers, but also herself the solutions to cope with negative emotions and to cope with the ups and downs in her life.

Furthermore, Looking throughout Mesley’s entire website, her blog keeps tracks of her life journey of all challenges and triumphs. By commenting her own life experiences in the blog, she was subjectively promoting her own idea of ‘vital self-management’, which is created by her own belief system and her personal sense of the concept.

Reference

Lovink, G. (2007) ‘Blogging, The Nihilist Impulse’, Zero Comments: Blogging and Critical Internet Culture, London: Routledge, pp. 1-38

Solove, D.J. (2007) ‘How the Free Flow of Information Liberates ad Constrains Us’, The Future of Reputation: Gossip Rumour and Privacy on the Internet, New Haven: Yale University Press, pp. 17-49

Medosch, A. (2008) ‘Paid in Full: Copyright, Piracy and the Real Currency of Cultural Production’, Deptforth. TV Diaries II: Pirate Strategies,London: Deptforth TV. pp. 98-100

Tramell, K. (2004) ‘Examining the New Influencers: A Self-Presentation Study of A-List Blogs’ <http://www.kayesweetser.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/02/trammell-keshelashvili-2006-self-presentation-on-blogs.pdf> Last accessed: 04/06/2011

The coolness of Winnipeg Elm trees lining the streets

Where Do I Get My Energy

Think about my energy. Examine and learn what revitalizes me, refreshes me, renews me. Pumps me up. Makes me feel charged. How do I recharge my battery? Do I wait until my battery is drained, almost dead, before I recharge?  I have done that, it just takes a longer period of rest. A time to pause and be patient. Are there people or things in my life that drain me, deplete me? Do I want to let them do that?

A comfortable feeling of the past

Where do I go to get recharged?

Who are the people who enhance my life force, invigorate me?

Who does it feel good to be around?

What activities make me feel better?

What forms of nature speak to my soul?

Opens my heart, helps me feel alive, breathes life into my spirit?

Experiment. Spend some time watching, noticing the impact people, activities, and objects have on me.  Know that as I change, the impact of my environment, what is around me, may change, too.

Bar Italia a Winnipeg meeting place and cafe

Tune into my energy field and the energy

Of the world around me.

Learn to be sensitive,

Open up to how things feel for me.

With loving kindness and curiosity

Love Visma

Adapted reading “Journey to the Heart” by  Melody Beattie

Discussion on creativity and life

I am hear to learn my lessons, discover my truths, have my adventures

Trust the Timing of My Lessons

Too  often the first inclination when I learn a lesson, gain a new insight, have an awareness, or glimpse a new truth is to judge and criticize myself – for not seeing it sooner, not knowing it before, or being in denial too long.  That’s not necessary. It’s not appropriate.

I am not at fault because I didn’t have this awareness or understood this lesson until now.

I don’t need to see the truth one moment before I see it.

Judging myself for not knowing sooner can close me off to what  life has to teach me now.

I am here to learn my lessons, discover my truths, have my adventures.

Let myself have my experiences. Allow myself to learn what I learn when I learn it.

Don’t judge myself for not learning sooner. Be happy, grateful, and excited when my lesson arrives.

Trust my voice, that quiet inner voice, when it speaks to me of truth.

Be grateful I can hear it; do what it tells me to do.

Trust the timing of my heart

With loving kindness, determination and passion,

Love Visma

Adapted reading “Journey to the Heart” by Melody Beattie

Trust the timing of nature. Trust the timing of my heart.

Moksha Yoga Winnipeg

Moksha Yoga Winnipeg has an annual community fund raiser at the Assiniboine Park

to raise funds for introducing yoga to children in the city schools.

What a wonderful idea!  I was participating again this year.

Enjoy the video below!

With loving kindness and gratitude

Love Visma

Let's begin our yoga with a heart opening exercise and breath. Enjoy and share the moment

to see the video c lick here,  Namaste          YIP 2011 – JOY SHARED=JOY LIVED from team Doucette on Vimeo.

Connect to My  Creativity

Exploring my Sexuality with Nude Art IPad Gesture by Don Noricki at the Wag, Winnipeg, Manitoba Jan 2011

The more open and connected I am to the world around me, the more creative I become.

I am become more creative in my own growth and in how I live my life.

I  more creative in problem solving in work and in play.

I am more willing to try new things – whether it’s learning to paint, build a stone wall,  create a new garden, ride on a motorcycle or model for nude art or taking photographs of what is around me.

I find myself more open in solving problems with loved ones, trying less traditional approaches that I might have considered in the past.

I find myself gaining insights, information, and healing from sources I may have preiously overlooked.

My participation in all my activities are less controlled and more spontaneous.

I  hear the universe prompting me more.  I  imagine more. I  recognize the quiet voice of intuition, the voice of my heart.

I  see possibilities,  and because I am more open to my heart.

I hear the guidance of my inner voice, and  then I know what to do and when to do it.

The more connected I am

to the universe, to life, to myself,

the more I creative I will be.

with loving kindness and grace

Love Visma

Adapted reading “Journey to the Heart” by Melody  Beattie

Sketch done at the Wag Studio, Winnipeg Manitoba

Jan 2011

Nude Sketch Art at the Cre8ery Winnipeg Manitoba Jan 2011

Snowboarding with my son James on Grouse Mountain B.C.

The Peak of Vancouver

Up the chair lift with James, my dreams come true.

Snowboarding with James on Grouse Mountain B.C

My Snowboarding day with Jamie

The day was crisp with some sunshine peaking through, a perfect winter day with fantastic snow conditions. We rode from top to bottom on all the hills with an exciting run down the double black diamonds ” the outer limit”.

It is with great pleasure for me to share that, my creative process and intentions that I wrote  at the start of this year have come true.

I have moved to Winnipeg Manitoba this year and I was not sure if my snowboarding and skiing days would be coming to a close, not for the lack of passion but the availability to travel.

It is with heartfelt gratitude that I would like to thank Mike, my loving husband , to help make this come true.

The key for me was to be grateful for my health and  have a clear vision to be positive and develop harmonious relationships with my family.

I previously shared that my son James was on his own journey to discover a new life in North Vancouver B.C and my own intention to continue my passion of snowboarding.  This is a precious moment that we shared together on our life journey.

Snowboarding and skiing is an activity that is close to my heart and  I am happy to share  these experiences with my family.

I spent a wonderful day snowboarding  at Grouse Mt. with James.  It is my dream come true.

I am blessed and proud to have the priviledge to have such a wonderful son.  A thoughtful and warm  hard working young man.

I am very proud of all you have accomplished James.

It is a powerful indication again that what we strongly wish for will somehow happen in ways that are unique.

It is a miracle on how how my dreams have come true when I have complete faith in the 12 steps of success and riches that I follow.

It is one of my most important intentions  to have close and harmonious connection with my family.

I am once again grateful for the mysterious ways we are guided by a universal force with a strong applied faith.

To  live in the moment and be aware of what it is that I want and be open when the opportunity arises.

If it can happen to me it can also happen to anyone.  Remember to have faith and to apply that faith at every opportunity.

Live in the moment.

with loving kindness and gratitude

may the light in me shine out to the light in you

Namaste

Love Visma

Requesting for guidance for this day with gratitude

February 9 2011

Words of Gratitude and Acknowledgement to Melody Beattie and her book ” Journey to the Heart”

http://melodybeattie.com/about-2/

It has been my pleasure and great honour to have the book “Journey to Heart” given to me as a gift, from

a dear friend who was  also  at a cross road in her own life.

It has been my guiding light daily for the past few years.

I posted the readings from this book on my blog as one of the recommended

rituals that I had been practicing daily and found tremendous power to help me

with my own emotional toxins.

The intentions or readings were to guide me daily on my own road of recovery

and it would be my intention for the day, along with my  daily yoga practice.

It started as  part of my own recovery process in a 30 day  Moksha Yoga challenge in Winnipeg  July- August 2010.

I have since continued with this writing on my blog  I have  come to the realization that

I must wait for further guidance with how to proceed.

There are been an overwhelming positive comments from so many of you,

I did not realize that so  many  had been reading it  until a flood of comments poured  in .

For that I have been grateful and inspired and I thank you.

It was my way to throw it out to the “universe” so to speak, what I have discovered to be true.

If you wish to  have further information on the author and her books to take you further

on your own journey the web site is http://melodybeattie.com/about-2/

with loving kindness and gratitude

Love Visma

Winter in the English Garden, Winnipeg Mb

My writing Intention for Vital Self- Management

by Visma Mesley

Vital Self-management was first developed as a means to share my experiences

and share my blessings of the tools and teaching that I have myself learned.

I have researched information on health and nutrition at an early age being an athlete and my university study in Kinesiology,

the study of humans, through health studies, and sciences such as sociology, psychology and physiology.

I would like to deal with categories  of the Mind, Body and Soul.

Life skills I  have found to be the core strength of change in the” Mind Body Soul connection” are:

• writing “ morning pages” as a way to clear your mind and help access  emotions and self awareness.
• setting your intentions for the day with Readings that are inspirational
• exercise and recreational activities for fun and exercise to fit into your own lifestyle
• connecting and understanding women – sharing stories
• research on meditation, yoga , strength training
• using the internet and modern technology to present personal knowledge
• life planning methods which aids in achievement of personal and business goals

It is my intention to record and write my story, my life through out my 50’s.

It has been a very colorful and interesting and if I can share some of this information in a positive way that would be my goal.

My own life and observations when it comes down to a health are these 3 key factors

1. developing a positive attitude
2. nurturing  sound physical health
3. harmony in human relationships

These  are the top 3 of my 12 keys to Success and riches of life.

The theme for this year  2011 is discovering and recovering my  creative Self.

That is my own personal goal and writing is part of this process.

Practical rituals that we can develop or access when the need arises.

Life is ever changing but digging into  that “tool box” when the time is right is often a life changing event.

I would like to develop entertaining ways to get my point across with stories that others can relate to and yet not be instructional but in a softer more personal way.

Stories that allow each one of us come to our own conclusions that resonate at our own pace.

Having Faith

that our life plan does not need to have all the steps laid out in a specific order but to have confidence and the  availability to our own inner voice  that makes each of us unique.

I have  spent my lifetime studying human behavior and our physical body with my previous career and my own unique family and life experience.

It is a topic that is complicated and so unique to all of us, and facinating how we are all interconnected.

It is my intention to find and expose those threadsof beliefs and attitudes that benefit or hinder my own  development  and family.

This journey of finding the best creative means of communication

allowing for my personal freedom to travel and be with my family

and nurture my relationship with my husband, Mike.

with loving kindness and passion

Love Visma

Creating Memories with your Children

Skiing is a Family affair

It is such a joy to create great memories with our family.

What better way than to participate in outdoor sports that the whole family can physically participate.

Including Mom who is taking the pictures enjoying her family and making arrangements for after skiing fun.

It is a time for bonding to grow with stories to tell about the day.

The evenings spent huddled up near a fire or even a hot tub enjoying good food and company.  This is what the ski experience is about.

A time to meet other family members and friends

Enjoy everyday, with what ever comes up and enjoy your children whenever you can.

With loving kindness

Love Visma

My sweet Cami and Gabi enjoying each other and the day