So, I’m on Squidoo.

I’ve got a MySpace page.

I’m on Facebook. (Just barely. There seem to be fish in my aquarium and plants in my terrarium. And I have no idea how they got there.)

Now, I’m on Twitter.

And I’m curious to hear from you. How, if at all, do you use Twitter?

I’ve been using it to pretend that my Followers are my Song Coaches. I tell them when I go write songs for my next CD. Then, I tell them when I return from my songwriting session. They hold me accountable. (At least I pretend they do. They’re probably too busy trying to figure out Facebook to pay attention.)

But as for being connected all the time to Twitter -

I can imagine no greater distraction from creative focus. (That’s just me. I need complete disconnection from the internet when I write songs.)

Seth Godin aptly called it Noise Creep.

What about you? Twitter? (Or Facebook? Or Squidoo? Hub Pages? Forums?) How do you use them?

Here’s why I ask:

During the blog conference this past weekend - as each speaker was doing their thing - the people at the tables were Tweeting about the conference. They were Tweeting each other, and all their Followers who weren’t at the conference. Opinions, descriptions, snippets in rapid fire during each presentation.

I whispered to someone “Twitter is the opposite of Eckhart Tolle.” She looked at me like I was nuts.

Maybe I am?

“Here is my own plan for life, the Pathfinder’s plan: ‘I exist in perpetual creative response to whatever is present.’” - Martha Beck, Steering by Starlight

In her incredible new book, Steering by Starlight, Martha Beck writes about a mantra she made up…

“Just this.”

I’ve been saying “Just this” to myself for several weeks.

I say it when I wake up in the morning to my dog’s thumping tail. I say it when the sun starts rising. I say it while I’m slicing vegetables for the dinner salad. I say it when there’s a large choir of the “I’m not enough’s” or the “I messed up again’s” singing rounds in my head.

This weekend I said it to myself throughout the Successful and Outstanding Blogger conference. (I performed on Friday night and participated all day Saturday.)

I know. I know. Conferences are not for this woo-woo stuff. Conferences are where I should be handing out my business card (don’t have one), networking (not my favorite word) and taking notes (I prefer pen and Moleskine).

The only problem is this: when I get too much into that Conference mindset, I forget that other human beings are present. Conference Mindset makes me become more about getting things than about being at the conference. Conference Mindset makes some people “important” and some people “not so much.” (I’ve showcased at a few big music conferences, where most people look at your name tag before they decide whether or not to look at you. Watching someone who is “important” step onto an elevator of people who “aren’t” is priceless.)

Not everyone looks at it this way, I know. But most people would agree that it’s easy to go to a conference and lose the moment completely.

So, throughout this weekend, I put it to the test. I reminded myself to be at the conference with the other people by reminding myself:

“Just this.”

When I could do this, (and admittedly, sometimes I couldn’t) I felt like I experienced the conference. I experienced each person I met. I experienced the speakers. I really saw each person I talked with.

Now, let me be clear. I didn’t get weird or anything. I didn’t look at anyone and say, “I’m experiencing you now.” This would’ve caused mass chaos. “Help! There’s someone from Asheville over there! Grab your laptop and run away!”

You can keep your “Just this” in your own head. No one has to know you’re doing it.

Try it this week. Twitter it. It’s a great little mantra.

p.s. If you decide to get Steering by Starlight, I highly recommend that you click on the Audible.com link in the left sidebar and get the audio version. It’s worth it just to hear Martha Beck read about Cookie the beagle.

Someone I know is dealing with an abusive client. After a recent violent outburst, this person is panicked. She’s wondering how she could attract anyone so horrible into her business and what she can do to change this energy and create a more positive environment.

Now, I’m a big fan of clear communication, correcting mistakes, and apologizing in situations when you’ve messed up. That’s the first place to start.

And if you’re a reader of this blog, then you know I regularly refer to the Law of Attraction and similar approaches to daily life.

After that, three thoughts come to mind:

The first thought is about Wonder Woman.

It’s oh-so tempting to think that because you’re a “conscious” person, or because you understand Law of Attraction, that you now have to slog through every negative situation in your life in order to figure out how you “attracted it” and how you might “heal from it.”

I call this Superhero Thinking.

We’re certain that we could transform any situation if we could only use our powers of thought in the perfect and right ways.

Sometimes, however, this isn’t the best choice. Often, it makes us stay in bad relationships, draining friendships, and hurtful jobs to prove that we are able to leap tall negativity in a single bound.

It will benefit you, your dog, your children, your friends and the entire planet if you get over this as quickly as possible.

I spent two years talking with business coaches and reading management books trying to change myself so that I could deal with an abusive employee. At first, she was a star in my office. But as time wore on, she became angry and lashed out when she didn’t like the decisions I was making about my music career. It was painful. And I tried hard to make it work because, after all, I knew about these spiritual principles.

Finally, I did the wisest and most conscious thing I could do.

I fired her.

We may think we have super powers and that if we could just get healthy enough then we can transform a negative situation — but sometimes the best answer is to take off the orange cape and mask and simply let go.

The second thought is about fear.

Often, the real issue is not about what we’ve attracted. The real issue is why we won’t let it go. The real issue is that we’re scared. We think we need this client, this employee, this boyfriend, this job, this gig.

We think these external things are the source. The source of our money. The source of our joy. The source of our productivity. So, we become attached to them.

That’s when things get wonky.

We convince ourselves it’s about changing our thoughts and working with the negativity we’ve attracted. But really, it’s about addressing our fear of lack and our misguided attachment to something outside of us.

The third thought is about water-skiing.

When I started water-skiing, I’d get my balance and then immediately lurch forward, slamming face-first onto the lake. Then, in spite of all the water-skiing wisdom anyone had ever offered, I’d hold onto the handle for dear life as the boat dragged me several hundred feet across the lake on my stomach.

Now, the problem was not that I attracted bad experiences as I learned to water ski. The problem wasn’t that the boat was mean to me, or that the lake was evil, forcing me to swallow much of its contents.

The problem was that I wouldn’t let go of the handle.

It’s the same thing in life. Sometimes you have to stop asking how you could possibly attract this and recognize that you’re the one holding onto it.

Sue Ludwig is a poet. She was one of the wonderful women at the March Great Big Dreams retreat.

I perform a very casual intimate unplugged concert on the second night of the retreat, and then I open the “stage” for the women to read poems, share works of art, or perform songs. A few brave souls will step up each time. Sue read this poem of hers that night, and I asked her if I could reprint it on my blog.

Here’s to Spring and the wild celebration of new life out in the woods!

Sprout
by Sue Ludwig

I am in search of my life.
Not the one I was dealt,
but the one I want to have.

Not the one
repeatedly stomped into the ground
popping up
where I least expect it,

But the one where
I wake up each day
excited to be on a path
blooming with
maybe nothing I expected
but everything I wished for.

I have been tending to the hard work.
I have unearthed and tilled
and reseeded the dead areas.

I am beginning to see sprouts.
Little glowing green life
pushing against gravity,
weight of earth
to find light.

They are in search of their life.
They know more than I
how to shed the confines
of the seed,
thank it for its lesson,
and grow.

The laws of creativity apply to everything - not just to works of art.

The gift of practicing art is that it teaches the creator how to create, and how to be a creator. Over and over again, the artist learns the process of making things - including the obstacles that arise, the futility of forcing the flow, and the joy of allowing inspiration. This practice has been nothing less than revolutionary in my own life.

That’s because I grew up learning more about Getting than I did about Creating. And I’m not alone in that. Most of the life lessons we’ve all learned are about Getting.

We gotta get rich, get approved, get things from people, get a job, get a life, get laid, get publicity, get someone to do something, get approval, get high, get married, get a loan, get good grades, get a clue, get into college, get up, get down, get out.

Get it?

Getting is an epidemic. It makes us grab at life. It takes us out of the present moment. It makes us powerless. It forces us to manipulate our own spirits so that we can manipulate the situation. Getting requires that we use our precious creative power to get, rather than to use it for its primary purpose, which is to Create. When we misue this power, we become contorted. We block the flow. The focus is on “out there” rather than “in here.”

When we become Creators, we turn the whole thing around. Everything becomes an inside job. We experience true power. We create our lives.

One of the people in my six-week e-Seminar set her intention for wealth and money during the first week. She is now going through a huge awakening about her relationship to money and to her father. She realizes that her dad has been her source of money, and so she has spent most of her life looking to him, resenting him, and playing games with him to get her money. She never learned that there was any other way to do it.

As a beginning step, I asked her to imagine what it would feel like if she knew she could create her own money and generate prosperity for herself. I asked her what it would feel like to not need her dad’s money.

It was the first time she’d ever explored that possibility. She said it would be amazing and liberating. It would allow her to have a relationship with her dad on her own terms.

Stepping out of the mindset of Getting and into the mindset of Creating heals relationships. It will also heal your life. When you don’t need to Get things from other people (including your happiness), then you can allow them to be who they are and make their own choices. You can request things, of course. But the energy of this is very different from trying to Get something.

Think of one thing that you’ve been trying to get. What it would feel like to become a creator instead? How would your actions be different?