It’s about time I introduced you to another BLOG VILLAGER.
Her name is Lynda, and she teaches Pilates & Reiki as an American Ex-pat in the Turks & Caicos Islands. In her
July 10, 2007 post on her blog,
Pilates in Paradise, you will see that she enjoys blogging and is setting up several more blogs! She has a pet peeve concerning people that are unduly licensed to teach Pilates & Reiki and has made a couple of You Tube Videos available on her blog that explain Pilates & Reiki. To start off the interview I asked her to tell us who Lynda is and to share something about herself that she hasn't posted in her blog!
Lynda replied: “As a child & teen I was very interested in mysticism and spirituality. I studied Tarot, meditation, Ouija boards, astral travel, energy healing, etc. Then I went to college and got into western philosophy and went straight into a PhD program.
In traditional western philosophy the soul and anything mystical is completely frowned upon. Nobody believes in god, religion is silly and in a different department, and something like Reiki energy healing would be laughable. So I taught Pilates part time and just closed off my spiritual side.
When I left academia to open my first Pilates studio in 1995, I was suddenly inundated with alternative people, practices, ideas. And within a few years I was back to practicing Judaism, meditating, and exploring energy healing.
Now I've realized that contradiction is OK. As Schopenhauer explained many moons ago, faith is a leap we take knowing full well that we cannot logically explain everything. Sometimes when I teach Reiki I am struck by how silly some of it still sounds to me; yet it works and I cannot fault what works!”
To my question “What prompted you to start blogging in the first place?”, Lynda exclaimed, “I love to write and wanted to share some of my stories and knowledge with the entire world. Once I realized how easy it is to blog, it became a habit. Now I have readers from all over and my blog produces some income from advertising. I have considered splitting my blog into Pilates specific, Reiki specific, and expat specific sites, but people have told me that they like the variety in my posts so for now I am going to leave it as is.”
The next question should have been “When do you find time to blog?”, however I asked, “When do you find time to read other blogs?"
Lynda stated, “Not often enough! That's why I love places like Blog Village or Blog Her where there is a group of blogs that I like to read. I read other blogs throughout my day/week. Some don't update regularly so it's a quick pass through.
I find that Google alerts help. I receive blog alerts daily for Pilates, Reiki, Turks & Caicos and that connects me with blogs I never would see otherwise.”
When asked, “Where or through whom did you hear about BLOG VILLAGE?”, Lynda’s answer was, “One of the blogs I visited through a Google alert was Rosemary's (Day By Day with PD & PN), and I clicked through to join."
To continue the interview I wanted to know, “Why do you blog? Is your blog personal, business, therapeutic, or just plain fun?”
“All of the above! I have received writing & teaching offers from my blog. Advertisers like my blog. My clients read the blog, and I have gained clients from having a blog. Plus, I get to write and have fun, not knowing who will be reading!” was Lynda’s enthusiastic reply.
I was glad to hear that Lynda sometimes explores BLOG VILLAGE when I asked, “How many BLOG VILLAGE blogs do you read?”, because she said, “There are about 8 that I cycle through regularly. But sometimes I go in and just click different ones to see what's out there.”
The last question helps me with the answer to “Who do I pick for the next interview?” Lynda would like to recommend
Eric of Erixgraphy, so he will be added to my list of BLOG VILLAGERS to get to know a little bit more!
Interested in joining BLOG VILLAGE? Start
HERE.
If you are interested in being the Featured Villager on our BLOG VILLAGE News blog, please contact
Janey Loree,
Kilroy, or the
Gatekeeper, the members of our Village Interview Team.
