When I started my public blog at WordPress, it was just that. A blog I could make available to the public. It was also where I put in my yoga posts and other thoughts.

The next move I made was to join iblog3 in April (a blogging summit that brings bloggers together). At that summit, I met so many professional and newbie bloggers like me. An exchange of blog sites apparently became a domino effect because the more I posted comments on others’ blogs, the more traffic came into my own blog, not just from the Philippines but from Asia, UK and US. My virtual community grew by leaps and bounds.

But what really floored me was when Noemi Dado, a pioneer in grief recovery in the Philippines, and a professional blogger at that, included the blog in her nomination entry for the Top 10 Emerging Influential Blogs in 2007. Imagine, included in her top 10 list were the likes of the blogs of Pia Cayetano or Cathy Babao (who has several blogs including one on her grief journey. Remember her? She is the mommy who lost Migs, her child, and set up “Migi’s Corner” — playrooms for sick kids — in many hospitals to-date). And the list includes bloggers who are way, way ahead of me in blogging history!

I told Noemi I was so humbled to be in such company but she answered that it was my yoga advocacy that caught her eye. YOGA! Wow, it was a growing recognition that yoga is indeed making its way into the lifestyles of people (or at the very least, creating awareness that this is indeed a practical, alternative way to health).

The judging will still be in early August but I do not care anymore. This nomination is enough for me. It inspires me to continue what I am doing and go for MORE.

A great PLUS for me now is that yoga practitioners have began finding my blog (and I have been discovering many of theirs as well) and I have started corresponding with some of them already. As my yoga practice progresses, I hope to be able to get support, help, tips and more from these people who now form a large chain of contacts in cyberspace.