Best Tweets for Trauma and PTSD Survivors is a weekly Friday feature. My selections are entirely subjective, and I know it will never be possible to include every great resource tweeted. But I can try! I’ve personally read all tweeted links, and believe them to be of great value.

Disclaimer: I am in no way responsible for content found on any other website. Stay safe, and don’t follow links if you believe you might be triggered by them. Also, I will not be re-checking links from older Best Tweets posts, and if the site’s archived URL is different from the one I’ve provided here, you may need to do a search on their site.

Please Share My Stuff! You can now “like” and “share” this post everywhere with the touch of a button or two at the end of the linked tweets! Feel free to do any or all of that! (And thanks.)

Photo Credit

@WisdomalaCarte “Your current safe boundaries
were once unknown frontiers.” ~ Anonymous

Six Standalone Tweets to Ponder

@LillyAnn “You cannot save people. You can only love them.” ~ Anaïs Nin

@Tamavista “It is in retrospect that we realize the brevity of life. Knowing this, take a moment each day to live in the present.” ~ Kitamori

@Carlolight “The way you look at things is the most powerful force in shaping your life. In a vital sense, perception is reality.” ~ John O’Donohue

@WisdomalaCarte “Your task is not to seek for love, but merely to seek and find all the barriers within yourself that you have built against it.” ~ A Course in Miracles

@HealthyPlace “To free us from the expectations of others, to give us back to ourselves — there lies the great, singular power of self-respect.”

@800273TALK “Don’t let what you cannot do interfere with what you can do.” ~ John Wooden

Linked Tweets

@SafetyStar What’s Your Excuse [to not discuss child sexual abuse with your children]? “My Body Belongs to Me” (video about the book)
[SEO: This short but essential book provides a bridge by which parents can talk with their young children about a subject most parents would prefer having a root canal instead. If your children don't clearly understand about good touch/bad touch, they are vulnerable.]

@drludygreen Stunning article by actor Patrick Stewart on domestic violence.
[SEO: "As a child I witnessed [my father's] repeated violence against my mother, and the terror and misery he caused was such that, if I felt I could have succeeded, I would have killed him. If my mother had attempted it, I would have held him down. For those who struggle to comprehend these feelings in a child, imagine living in an environment of emotional unpredictability, danger and humiliation week after week, year after year, from the age of seven. My childish instinct was to protect my mother, but the man hurting her was my father, whom I respected, admired and feared.”]

@SoulHealr Learn about the connection between Depression, Trauma, and PTSD, as well as strategies for coping with them.
[SEO: This extensive resource offered by the National Center for PTSD pertains to both veterans and the general public. Be sure to peruse the links in the left column for other PTSD-related topics which can help anyone suffering with PTSD, regardless of the cause.]

@800273TALK Find a therapist with this tool from @psychtoday. If you need to talk to someone right now, call 1-800-273-8255.
[SEO: This therapist directory will show you results for psychiatrists (and psychotherapists), group therapy, treatment centers, or all of them. Both the therapist directory and the crisis 800 number are applicable in the US; the therapist directory also has listings in Canada.]

@ssanquist Dr. Deb: January is Stalking Awareness Month (via @Deborahserani)
[SEO: Information regarding research, statistics, and what to do if you are being stalked. Protect yourself, and be your own best advocate.]

@goodthingz 10 Life-Changing Facts About Anger (via @aflourishinglif)
[SEO: Good, useful considerations and strategies for looking at anger and its role in your life differently. Constructively. Perhaps even beneficially. Lots to think on if anger is an issue for you.]

@HealthyPlace In Recovering From Mental Illness, Patience is a Virtue
[SEO: It took 38+ years for me to fully understand the role of mental illness in my life, and then I wanted it done and over with yesterday. (Actually, I still do.) This post discusses why patience must be a factor in your mental wellness plan. "Work to understand that being patient, learning how to be patient, aids in your recovery."]

@pourmecoffee “Before the Internet, people could only poison their close family and friends with toxic cynicism in real time.”

@heykim Oops! Everyday items invented by mistake: Call it dumb luck or a miracle.
[SEO: Lots of medical things were oopsies, as were PlayDoh and Silly Putty. Who knew?]

@Quotes4Writers “You write out of your subconscious hauntings.” ~ Susan Cooper

@Flipbooks The 50 Best Websites Of 2011 (via TIME)
[SEO: Truly something for everyone here. Categories are: Music & Video; Families & Kids; Sports; News & Info; Financial & Productivity; Shopping & Travel; Health & Fitness; Social Media; Games; and Education.]

@natasha_tracy Man cannot live by cheesecake alone -> myth

@heykim Spectacular Northern Lights display over Norway (video)
[SEO: Just gorgeous.]

@AncientProverbs “To be uncertain is to be uncomfortable, but to be certain is to be ridiculous.” ~ Chinese Proverbs

@ashwinsanghi 15 Most Creative Fences
[SEO: Pencil fences seem to be a trend, but I like the rainbow fences best!]

@SarahEOlson2009 “I love this Billy Joel lyric: ‘You may be right. I may be crazy. But it just might be a lunatic you’re looking for.’ Goodnight Twitter!

Best Tweets for Trauma and PTSD Survivors is a weekly Friday feature. My selections are entirely subjective, and I know it will never be possible to include every great resource tweeted. But I can try! I’ve personally read all tweeted links, and believe them to be of great value.

Disclaimer: I am in no way responsible for content found on any other website. Stay safe, and don’t follow links if you believe you might be triggered by them. Also, I will not be re-checking links from older Best Tweets posts, and if the site’s archived URL is different from the one I’ve provided here, you may need to do a search on their site.

Please Share My Stuff! You can now “like” and “share” this post everywhere with the touch of a button or two at the end of the linked tweets! Feel free to do any or all of that! (And thanks.)

Photo Credit

@healingtrauma “Rowing harder
doesn’t help if the boat is headed
in the wrong direction.” ~ Kenichi Ohmae

Six Standalone Tweets to Ponder

@WisdomalaCarte “An intention is a quality of consciousness that you bring to an action.” ~ Gary Zukav

@ArrInspirations “The only way to change the future is by inhabiting the present moment.” ~ Jon Kabat Zinn

@soulseedz “One of the reasons we struggle with endings is because we engage in mortal combat with time.”

@GabeBerman “Spirituality, then, is nothing more than giving up your resistance to what is.” ~ Annemarie Postma

@back2incomplete “When you deal with people, always consider whether you are spreading light and love, or whether you are limiting it.”

@DrAthenaStaik “Your presence in heart and mind is one of the most precious gifts of love you can give.”

Linked Tweets

Depression in the News

@SarahEOlson2009 [Low] Vitamin D Levels Linked to Depression Risk
[SEO: If you don't get out into the sun much, or drink milk, vitamin D supplements are not expensive. Doctors seldom test for vitamin D levels; ask your doctor to include that test in the next batch of basic blood tests you're given. And always ask your doctor before starting any kind of supplement. There may be contraindications from prescription meds you take.]

@SarahEOlson2009 Treatment Integration for Depression, Diabetes Increases Success for Both
[SEO: People with diabetes are at higher risk of becoming depressed, and people who are depressed have a higher risk of becoming diabetic. "In the end, 60.9 percent of subjects who received the integrated approach [of treating diabetes and depression as correlated, with a special program aimed at education and compliance] had improved blood sugar levels, compared to only 35.7 percent of patients who received only the usual primary care. Also, patients in the integrated care group were more likely to show fewer depression symptoms in comparison with patients in the usual care group (58.7 percent vs. 30.7 percent, respectively).”]

The Rest of the Best

@AshleyJudd More on why we must prevent child abuse: “You can modify behavior, but you can’t rewire disrupted brain circuits.”
[SEO: "'Toxic stress', or adversity, in early childhood can lead to a lifetime of mental and physical problems -- including disruption of the body’s metabolism or brain development -- and pediatricians should take a leading role in providing care that addresses the problem...." Includes several links to articles which discuss the research behind this conclusion.]

@NAMIMass Do you know the signs that you or someone you know are in an abusive relationship?
[SEO: "Noticing and acknowledging the warning signs and symptoms of domestic violence and abuse is the first step to ending it. No one should live in fear of the person they love." A comprehensive resource, this post includes signs of being in an abusive relationship; the relationship of financial or economic abuse to emotional abuse; tactics used by abusers; the cycle of violence in domestic abuse; and what to do if you or someone you know is caught in this situation.]

@MentalHealthV Picking a therapist
[SEO: If you are looking for a therapist, it's not as easy as picking a name out of the phone book. Be your own best advocate. It's in your interests to make an informed choice. This article provides an excellent primer in how to ensure that you find the right therapist for you.]

@DCoEPage Yoga: an alternative therapy for wounded warriors with PTSD (via @WarriorCare)
[SEO: Yoga: also not just for veterans. Yoga has been used for years in trauma care, regardless of what caused it. "Bessel A. van der Kolk, M.D., a PTSD author, clinician, researcher and teacher since the 1970s, asserts that therapists treating psychological trauma need to work with the body as well as the mind. He states that yoga may provide a safe and gentle means of becoming reacquainted with the body and allowing people to confront their internal sensations."]

@Mindful_Living Mindfulness Over Mood: The Now Effect and Your Mental Health
[SEO: "Every moment of our lives our brains are rapidly taking in information and making snap judgments, interpretations and decisions based on what we see, hear, smell, touch, and taste. Depending on how we’re feeling we’ll interpret it differently."

"Even though we believe our thoughts represent reality, the truth is, our thoughts are not facts. A lot of us live without an awareness of this, operating mostly from a state of auto-pilot, sleepwalking through life. The good news is we can train our minds to become more aware of this automaticity, get perspective and tune into what really matters."]

@Vdkeck Mental Illness as a Disability (via @Natasha_tracy)
[SEO: A thoughtful analysis of why mental illness can be considered a disability, and why resistance to the label may be misplaced. "I don’t have anything against people with a disability. Why would I? Being disabled means nothing about the individual, it simply indicates their situation. It would be like being against people with siblings. It would just be silly."

"Nevertheless, when considering my own bipolar disorder, I bristled against the word 'disability.' I know; this is hypocritical of me and a double standard. It’s OK for someone else to be disabled but not me? I’m embarrassed to even think it."]

 @pourmecoffee “American Idol starts tonight, so now there are two endless stupid competitions of unworthy candidates with false drama.”

@ChrisDaniels5 This tree is NOT an ice sculpture, but certainly looks like one

@HealthyPlace “Isn’t it enough to see that a garden is beautiful without having to believe that there are fairies at the bottom of it too?”

@heykim The BARKside of the force ~ Dogs barking Star Wars Imperial March (video)
[SEO: This is great! ]

@natasha_tracy “The art of writing is the art of discovering what you believe.” ~ Gustave Flaubert

@pourmecoffee Lightning below, Milky Way above (video)
[SEO: The Milky Way, and storms over Africa, in about 20 seconds from the International Space Station. I love this stuff.]

@Quotes4Writers “Dreaming in public is an important part of our job description.” ~ William Gibson

@Flipbooks Volunteers Wanted for Planet Hunt to Find Planets That Could Support Life
[SEO: "When humans have looked at data, we know they find planets that computers can't." Neener neener, HAL!]

@Quotes4Writers “All easy problems have already been solved.” ~ Anonymous

@ashwinsanghi Ikea Installs An Apartment In Paris Subway Station (video)
[SEO: File this in: not enough money in the known universe to make me do this. Even if it's just for six days.]

@pourmecoffee “haiku: tebow Less intangibles / Way more of the tangibles / Tangible are key”

@Austincreates12 “Art to me means the natural expression of one’s being when uninterrupted by self inflicted chaos.” ~ Ösel Tendzin

Best Tweets for Trauma and PTSD Survivors is a weekly Friday feature. My selections are entirely subjective, and I know it will never be possible to include every great resource tweeted. But I can try! I’ve personally read all tweeted links, and believe them to be of great value.

Disclaimer: I am in no way responsible for content found on any other website. Stay safe, and don’t follow links if you believe you might be triggered by them. Also, I will not be re-checking links from older Best Tweets posts, and if the site’s archived URL is different from the one I’ve provided here, you may need to do a search on their site.

Please Share My Stuff! You can now “like” and “share” this post everywhere with the touch of a button or two at the end of the linked tweets! Feel free to do any or all of that! (And thanks.)

Photo Credit

@Carlolight “Above all else
I want to see things differently.”
~ A Course in Miracles

Six Standalone Tweets to Ponder

@WisdomalaCarte “Your standard of living somehow got stuck on survive.” ~ Jewel

@PsychDigest “Your core values should be the blueprint for everything else in your life. Recognize what your values are.”

@SarahEOlson2009 “It’s funny how we feel so much but cannot say a word. We are screaming inside, but can’t be heard.” ~ Sarah McLachlan #FavoriteLyricOfAllTime

@EFTdoc “Any change, even a change for the better, is always accompanied by drawbacks and discomforts.” ~ Arnold Bennett

@CarePathways “That’s right. You have a part of you that has never been wounded.”

@Mindful_Living “Be passionate about what you do, treat others with compassion, and take actions to make the world a better place.” ~ The late Shirley Levine

Linked Tweets

@pourmecoffee This Denver Post photo essay of Scott Ostrom’s battle with PTSD is fantastic, and brutal to read.
[SEO: For veterans, and for anyone struggling to understand how PTSD manifests in daily life. This is a series of 49 photos, each with a paragraph caption, of former Marine Brian Scott Ostrom, who's been dealing with the aftermath of his service in Iraq for the last six years. Note: The symptoms he describes are not unique to war veterans. They are unique to anyone dealing with PTSD from whatever cause.]

@Dr_StevenG Preserving Mental Health During Unemployment (via @drmelanieg)
[SEO: "Many psychological variables are adversely affected by unemployment, including perceived control, belief in one's own competence or self-efficacy, self-esteem, identity, life satisfaction, and sense of meaning and purpose in life." All of this is made even more difficult if you are also dealing with PTSD. Having a support structure in place if you are unemployed -- or fear your job might vanish -- is priceless. Seek help before you think you need it.]

@Mindful_Living Whether you’ve done this before or not, take a minute to become present
[SEO: A guided exercise in mindfulness by Dr. Elisha Goldstein. "This short mindfulness practice is meant to be sprinkled throughout the day to support you in becoming more present, reducing stress, and being more effective in every day life."]

@DrAthenaStaik A Key Aspect of Being Authentically You — Identifying Your Triggers
[SEO: "Awareness is key when it comes to living -- and loving -- authentically. A key aspect of awareness is getting to know, and understand your self and life around you, and one thing that involves is being aware of what triggers you." Includes a writing exercise to help identify triggers. If you are in therapy or feeling especially vulnerable, don't do this without some support lined up.]

@SarahEOlson2009 How to Train Your Brain to Alleviate Anxiety
[SEO: Read the entire article; it's both fascinating and important. What you think and focus on physically alters your brain. Includes three anxiety-alleviating practices to try. Here are just a few snips from the post. "...Individuals who are constantly stressed (such as acute or traumatic stress) release cortisol, which in another article Hanson says eats away at the memory-focused hippocampus. People with a history of stress have lost up to 25 percent of the volume of their hippocampus and have more difficulty forming new memories.

"The opposite also is true. Engaging in relaxing activities regularly can wire your brain for calm. Research has shown that people who routinely relax have 'improved expression of genes that calm down stress reactions, making them more resilient,' Hanson writes. ... Also, over time, people who engage in mindfulness meditation develop thicker layers of neurons in the attention-focused parts of the prefrontal cortex and in the insula, an area that’s triggered when we tune into our feelings and bodies."

"Other research has shown that being mindful boosts activation of the left prefrontal cortex, which suppresses negative emotions, and minimizes the activation of the amygdala, which Hanson refers to as the 'alarm bell of the brain.'"]

@psychcentral Introducing a new blog: “Bounce Back: Develop Your Resiliency”
[SEO: “Resiliency is a key psychological trait that differentiates people who can overcome adversity with only a dip, and those where adversity throws them into a state of stress, feeling overwhelmed, or even depression. That’s why it’s a key trait to learn more about and cultivate in your own life.”

Here’s the direct link to “Bounce Back: Develop Your Resiliency. It “will cover key concepts such as: learning how to gain perspective and ultimately acceptance over events and things that happen in life; looking for the hidden gifts in seeming adversity; learning not to resist; and becoming comfortable with failure including seeing the lessons it provides.”

@Quotes4Writers “If I don’t write to empty my mind, I go mad.” ~ Lord Byron

@mjdub The Best Picture You’ll See Today
[SEO: Hint: scroll down the pic slowly!]

@PsychDigest “Life is too short to spend time with people who suck the life out of you.” ~ Amanda Martin

@petapixel Beautiful stop-motion video shows a bookstore coming alive at night
[SEO: So what really happens in a bookstore at night after the people leave? Charming and fun!]

@Carlolight “Art washes away from the soul the dust of everyday life.”

@heykim 10 Amazing Life Lessons You Can Learn From Albert Einstein
[SEO: Einstein truly was an amazing person, beyond all the physics stuff.]

@Aquariuseyes “We’re fascinated by the words — but where we meet is in the silence behind them.” ~ Ram Dass

@ashwinsanghi INFOGRAPHIC: The Differences Between Left And Right Brain People
[SEO: This explains a lot! ]

@Quotes4Writers “It is often easier to fight for principles than to live up to them.” ~ Aldai Stevenson

Best Tweets for Trauma and PTSD Survivors is a weekly Friday feature. My selections are entirely subjective, and I know it will never be possible to include every great resource tweeted. But I can try! I’ve personally read all tweeted links, and believe them to be of great value.

Disclaimer: I am in no way responsible for content found on any other website. Stay safe, and don’t follow links if you believe you might be triggered by them. Also, I will not be re-checking links from older Best Tweets posts, and if the site’s archived URL is different from the one I’ve provided here, you may need to do a search on their site.

Please Share My Stuff! You can now “like” and “share” this post everywhere with the touch of a button or two at the end of the linked tweets! Feel free to do any or all of that! (And thanks.)

Photo Credit

@Mindful_Living “May we all recognize in this New Year
that the moments of our lives are rare and precious.
Open to them, Bask in them, We are alive.”

Happy New Year! While I was recharging my batteries in December, there were many wonderful blog posts and mental health resources tweeted. This week we’re looking at the best of December 2011, and this last week.

Six Standalone Tweets to Ponder

@CarePathways “Empowerment is not fearlessness. Empowerment is recognizing the internal ability, even the skill, to experience all of our feelings.”

@Tamavista “Compassion is the antitoxin of the soul: where there is compassion even the most poisonous impulses remain relatively harmless.” ~ Hoffer

@HealthyPlace “Every time you don’t follow your inner guidance, you feel a loss of energy, loss of power, a sense of spiritual deadness.” ~ Shakti Gawain

@PemaQuotes “Only when we know our own darkness well can we be present with the darkness of others.” ~ Pema Chödrön

@PsychDigest “We all have an “inner critic,” a voice in our head that tells us everything that’s wrong. Practice recognizing and tuning out this voice.”

@lizstrauss “My life keeps circling round to lessons I’ve met before. It’s my life to figure out what applies now.”

Linked Tweets

Suicide Prevention Resources

@safeagain Suicide Prevention: Spotting the Signs and Helping a Suicidal Person
[SEO: Excellent resource. If you have suicidal tendencies, this is the page to give to your loved ones and friends who know you best. Do this now, even if you're not currently feeling suicidal.]

@HealthyPlace How Do You Prevent Suicide? The 4th most read blog post ever on our site.
[SEO: Another excellent mental health site with numerous resources and pointers about suicide prevention, including dealing with stigma. Healthy Place also covers individual disorders extensively, including hosted blogs by patients.]

Child Abuse Prevention

@DrAthenaStaik Child Sexual Abuse: Ten Ways To Protect Your Kids (via @PsychoBest)
[SEO: What many child abuse survivors have known their entire lives (and have often not been believed): "People are beginning to understand and talk about how sex offenders can be a friend or a family member. The Penn State and Syracuse scandals have broken our denial about how famous, powerful, and revered people cannot possibly be offenders." Awareness is only the first step. Read this.]

@SafetyStar 10 Reasons not to discuss Child Sex Abuse in 2012
[SEO: Especially aimed at parents, here are ten of the most commonly used excuses to not discuss child sexual abuse with your child. Each of the ten also includes information as to why you must not give in to that excuse.]

The Rest of the Best

@serialinsomniac The 2011 TWIM Awards — The Results! « This Week in Mentalists
[SEO: "TWIM is a weekly digest of selected writings from blogs across the Madosphere, our affectionate name for the mental health blogosphere. ... A group of volunteer authors take it in turns to write the digests, which enables a wide base of mental health blogs to be reviewed." The Twim Awards are nominated and voted upon by its readers, and cover numerous categories. Some of these winning blogs were unknown to me, which is one reason why I like TWIM. Check them all out!]

@DIDwife The fight goes on (via @TheBloggess)
[SEO: I was unfamiliar with The Bloggess till I read this remarkable post about fighting through and living on with depression. She captures the struggles exceedingly well, and obviously struck some major chords with people. I can't remember the last post I read about depression that had 2330+ comments, especially one just published six days ago.]

@natasha_tracy Why is Family so Stressful for Mentally Ill?
[SEO: A discussion of various ways family, especially at holidays, can be so stressful. One aspect discussed that resonated strongly for me was about mental illness and pretending, and how a lot of it boils down to just waiting for it (whatever "it" is, good or bad) to be over.

"And this type of pretending, this type of acting, really is tiring for the soul. Most people have no idea what it is to orchestrate every blink to ensure that others don’t know how you really feel. But people with a mental illness know. They know what it is to hide their every thought from those around them. They know what it is to shoehorn into normal. They know what it is to pretend to care about tinsel and lights when all they really want to do is curl up in a ball and wait for it all to be over."]

@SarahEOlson2009 The Freedom of Boundaries
[SEO: This post focuses from a borderline personality point of view, but is an excellent summation of boundary issues for anyone who struggles with mental health issues.]

@OneLifeTherapy Where Do You Keep Your Un-Cried Tears? Learning To Live With Grief
[SEO: "If you sit for a moment, just you and your sorrow in some stillness, whereabouts in your body do you sense that sadness residing just now? And what might it be like not to feel under pressure to fix or placate or silence or hide it? But just to acknowledge it? Just to see it? Maybe even to accept it? How might you and your grief help one another through this loss?"

@PsychCentral 5 Things Therapy Won’t Cure
[SEO: Dr. John Grohol (Psych Central founder) discusses five major categories which therapy can't resolve or change, which are: Your Personality; Your Childhood; Half a Relationship; A Broken Heart; and Losing Someone. Meaning, for example, therapy can't literally change what happened in your childhood. What good therapy can do is help you to understand and work on aspects of these issues so that they no longer stop you from living your best life.]

@SarahEOlson2009 Borderline Personality Disorder: Erotic Transference
[SEO: This issue is not specific to borderline personality disorder. Transference in psychotherapy involves you working through troublesome relationships by transferring your feelings about that person to your therapist. Your therapist steps into that role, sometimes in such a subtle way you don't even know he or she's doing it. Sometimes it can involve actual role-playing.

Erotic transference refers to sexual feelings you have transferred to your therapist. Many therapists just don't want to go there, which I think says more about them than you. It can be hard enough to admit to those feelings without your therapist grimacing in discomfort. Those who do go there skillfully, and who uphold boundaries as mandated, can help you heal in life-changing ways, particularly if you come from an abuse background.]

[My apologies for some broken links in last week's post, due to an odd three characters somehow added in the auto linking html. Weird. But fixed now!]

@SarahEOlson2009 Check out ‘Building a Rose Parade Float 2012′ (video)
[SEO: Today's trivia: I worked on floats as a teen with an organization known as Petal Pushers.]

@Tao23 “Aw, look at the bots pushing Xmas gift card scams. How cute!It’s the most spammiest time… of the year!”

@heykim ~30 Best Google Doodles of 2011 (via @Mashable)

@Splinteredones new Maru hahahahaha
[SEO: FYI, Maru is probably the most famous internet cat. In this episode, he plays on his owner's white sofa, which they must vacuum hourly. Never a shed hair on it! The extreme close up at the end is sooooo Maru.]

@Quotes4Writers For everyone who has ever missed a deadline

@AmazingPics Slow Shutter Fireflies by Tsuneaki Hiramatsu
[SEO: Beautiful images, even if they are about bugs. ]

@HealthyPlace “Some cause happiness wherever they go; others whenever they go.” ~ Oscar Wilde

@heykim Wow! Insane Sand Sculptures!
[SEO: "Dealing with topical subject matter ranging from the political to the playful, Jara creates sculptural masterpieces that give Ancient Greek classics a run for their money. Jara told The Huffington Post: 'It's just sand and water, and we're just doing what we do, what we love to do.'" Just sand and water?! Some of them seem to levitate!]

It’s the end of the year already! Where’d it go?! Favorite TweetStuff this week is replete with Best of’s, and Top 10′s, and the like. Enjoy! And …

Photo Credit

@HealthyPlace “Cheers to a new year and another chance for us to get it right.” ~ Oprah Winfrey

@heykim Best Meteor Shower Pictures Of 2011

@WisdomalaCarte “All the world’s a stage and most of us are desperately unrehearsed.” ~ Sean O’Casey

@Alyssa_Milano 2011′s most shocking, most beautiful, and most memorable photos (via @LIFE)

@Tamavista “The longer you wait for the future, the shorter it will be.” ~ Loesje

@ashwinsanghi The Best And Worst Of Everything In 2011: A Mega, Meta Mashup
[SEO: Written as a narrative, just about every word or phrase in this story is a link to the source of various best and worst lists. (via Fast Company)

@pourmecoffee "They should block the Straits of Hormel. That's where spam comes from."

@mjdub The Year in Television in Under Four Minutes [Video]

@Tamavista “Losing an illusion makes you wiser than finding a truth.” ~ Ludwig Börne

@heykim Lunar And Solar Eclipse Photos Of 2011

@pourmecoffee “Drew Brees has won the Nobel Prize for football-throwing!”

@pourmecoffee “Packers lose. Colts win. Someone went back in time and stepped on a bug.”

@EdKiernanNYC Jon Bon Jovi responds to the “exaggerated reports” of his death with this pic — Heaven looks like New Jersey — awesome!

@PsychDigest “For fast-acting relief, try slowing down.” ~ Lily Tomlin

@AmazingPics Mark Fisher: Extreme Skiing
[SEO: Is this sane?! Scroll down the page for more pics.]

@lizstrauss “My life keeps circling round to lessons I’ve met before. It’s my life to figure out what applies now.”

@mjdub Review of the year: the most discussed Twitter pictures of 2011
[SEO: "Staff at Twitter have compiled the most interesting, tweeted about pictures from Twitter in 2011, which are all tied to major world events." While it's hard to call many of these pictures "favorites", they reflect a stark, true reality that puts my own little world into far greater perspective, and inspire gratitude for things I sometimes take for granted.]

@pourmecoffee “Today is the Winter Solstice, the longest night of the year due to your relatives being in town.” #science

@Tamavista “In the depth of winter I finally learned that there was in me an invincible summer.” ~ Camus

@ashwinsanghi 10 Coolest Armchairs
[SEO: I especially like the sweater chair, but the sheep chair (from which, arguably, the sweater chair is derived) is somehow a bit creepy. ]

@StevenHandel “It’s no inconvenience for reality that we have trouble defining it.”

@mjdub The 79 Best Viral Videos Of 2011
[SEO: Warning, some of these may not be PC, or may be abjectly stupid, but both of those criteria are part and parcel of a lot of viral videos. This is a '3 second each' compilation of the 79 best viral videos of 2011. If you scroll down, there are links to all 79. One of my favorites is Princess Girls Sing Nicki Minaj. This little girl is awesome!]

@WisdomalaCarte “The storm starts when the drops start dropping. When the drops stop dropping, the storm starts stopping.” ~ Dr. Seuss