Great News!

I am officially starting to work on building a Hugs Heal Online Community! I have bought the domain name and am currently setting up the hosting account. I've also decided to take on a few volunteers to help run the Hugs Heal Myspace. I will still be reading and answering all comments and messages, posting bulletins, and updates myself. These things will not be done by volunteers.

I'll be posting periodic updates as I go through the process of building this social network. Until then, I'd like to share some ideas for the community with you.

Here are some of the ideas I have:

Members should be able to

• Send each other “hugs”; i.e. “Click here to hug Michael”
• Invite friends outside Hugs Heal to become members
  
• Earn points that can be used to buy items in the Hugs Heal Shop
• Members can earn points for: friend referrals, organizing/participating in Hugs Heal activities, donations they collect
• Create unique avatars
• Post challenges for themselves and other members
  
• Submit ideas for Hugs Heal activities
  
• Participate in or organize activities
• Create profiles
• Add friends (buddies?) with details about how they know them
• Suggest things to be featured on site; i.e. quotes, people, organizations, pictures (site section)
• Plan and invite each other to events and activities (make sure mass invites can be sent, make sure members can disable this feature if desired)
• Keep a blog?
• Build their own groups within Hugs Heal Community
• Search for friends by name/email/zip, etc.
• Enter in contests
• Vote in contests
• Block members they do not wish to communicate with
• Report spam/abuse
• Vote in polls
• Ask for support from other members in the peer support center

Other Ideas

• Polls (all members invited to vote)
• Private chatrooms
• “Hug of the Day” - featured hug; could be any person, picture, organization, type of hug, i.e. comforting hug, affectionate hug, friendly hug, loving hug, etc.
• Automatically feature a welcome to the newest member
• Show how many member are online
• Spirit Lifter of the Day
• Randomize quotes through out site
• Members will be called “Huggers”
• Points Earned = Different Huggers Status, ie. Bronze, Silver, Gold Members

Contests - Winners get item(s) from Hugs Heal Shop, all Hugs Heal community members will be invited to vote for each contest

• Hug Photo Contest - members can enter any photo depicting a hug
• Hugs Heal Story Contest - members can share any experience in which they have witnessed a hug help anyone in anyway
• Donation Contest - Competition who can collect the most donations for a specific project or in a specific amount of time.
• Hug Visual Art Contest - members can enter an image representing any visual depiction of a hug or hugs, except photos go to the photo contest

Possible types of art medium including but not limited to (may be categories of contest, depending on number of entries)
Drawing
Painting
Sculpting
Graphic Arts

• T-Shirt Design Contest - members can enter a design to be printed on a t-Shirt (show printable area to members). Design can be a drawing, a graphic, and/or words that has a positive message in keeping with the spirit of Hugs Heal. Prize will be a T-Shirt with their design printed on it and their design will be featured and make available for purchase in the Hugs Heal Shop. Understand all profit from sales of items bearing the design will go to Hugs Heal.
• The Greatest Inspiration Contest - members share stories about how they have helped others in any way, members vote on who is the Greatest Inspiration

Sections of Site

• Home Page
• Help Section
• Suggestions by members
• Challenges (Daily? Weekly?)
• Search/Browse members (name, email, zip code, group membership)
• About Hugs Heal
• Why I Started Hugs Heal
• Peer Support Center (members can post about problems or anything they need support from other members for, get support, advice, and answers to their questions)

Please share some of your ideas!

The New Hugs Heal Shop

Hey guys! Sorry I haven't updated in a while, but I've been busy, busy, busy! The new and improved Hugs Heal Shop is up and running and I'm adding more new designs all the time.

This new shop features more versatility and choices in your purchases, a larger variety of items, and considerably lower prices. It includes clothes for women, men, children, and pets and toddler clothing! These items will bear many different things, including the Hugs Heal Logo, Hug Phrases, and other designs that I've created.

Here are a few of the items in the store. Click any of the following pictures to be taken to the item details :

A Lesson in My New Responsibilities

Today on the Hugs Heal Myspace I received messages from two different people who were both very unhappy with me, for two completely different reasons. Before today, the only messages that I had received about Hugs Heal were very positive; wonderful messages sending hugs and love and thanks for starting Hugs Heal. I had never received anything remotely negative. One of these things was not my fault at all, a simple miscommunication that was extremely unfortunate; as for the other, I was wholly at fault. But both messages have made me understand that I have some very important, very new responsibilities that need to be a priority for me.

The first message told me that a friend of Hugs Heal had sent me a previous message asking me to post a very important bulletin about a young woman who had been kidnapped. Since Hugs Heal has so many friends, it makes sense that this request would have been made to me so that as many people as possible would have access to the information about this young woman. However, I never received message, even though according to Myspace, I had. I'm very sad to say that the body of this young woman has been found, too late. To see the information about this, please follow this link: Denise Lee

The other was from another friend of Hugs Heal saying that she had sent me hugs and messages, and that lately she hadn't been hearing back from me. She said that she didn't think it was right that I was sending out messages about the new Hugs Heal Shop when I wasn't even responding to her messages. This is all true. I've been trying to keep up with responding to messages and comments, sending out birthday wishes, designing logos, trying to bring in money for projects for Hugs Heal along with a profit that will allow me to devote myself to it more completely, running my own separate business, getting ready for school to start up (I'm a returning college student), and everything else in my life. I explained all of this to her and she was very understanding, which I'm thankful for, but it still makes me think.

I started Hugs Heal as a way to express the dear love I feel for hugs and how important I believe they are. I never expected for Hugs Heal to become such a huge part of my life, or that so many people would respond to it with such enthusiasm. But now, Hugs Heal has over 2,300 Myspace friends, people who contribute content to it, who send me messages wanting talk or needing the hugs that they feel they can get just by talking with me. Because of all this, I now have a responsibility to these people that I did not have before.

I am now responsible for spreading news that needs to be spread, sharing hugs that need to be shared, posting pictures and stories that need to be posted, and answering messages that need to be answered.

I had not expected these responsibilities, but now that Hugs Heal is so important, especially to me, I will do my very best to do right by it.

By the Non-Existant Hair of My Chinny-Chin-Chin

Goal reached, just in time! Woohoo! 2,000 Myspace friends by Jan 1, 2008! Thanks to everyone who helped by adding Hug Heal and by placing my banner on your site!

And you know what they say: "When one goal is reached, another has to be set." Okay, fine. The saying is actually "When one door closes, somewhere opens a window", but... same difference.

New Goal: 2,500 Myspace Friends by Feb 1. And let's not forget the ongoing secondary goal 10 subscribers to this blog by Jan 15. Help out by subscribing right now!

A Touching Christmas Message

I recently recieved a message from one of my Myspace friends that touched me deeply and renewed my faith that Hugs Heal really is making a difference; far more of a difference than I could have ever expected or hoped for. Now I'd like to share this message with you.

"Just last night I was feeling the weight of the world on my shoulders. With Christmas approaching and my not being able to provide my children; I am raising my 3 grandchildren and 1 great nephew; with the things they deserve I was feeling pretty alone. I cried myself to sleep last night and prayed for God to just send me a friend and I woke up this morning to receive a friend request from Hugs Heal and it brought tears to my eyes again, only for a much different reason. I just had to say thank you for what you do and today will be a much better day for me because of you." - Mimi

"Hugs Make Me Feel" Challenge

I challenge everyone to tell the world how you feel about hugs by completing one of these sentences:

When someone hugs me I feel...
When I hug someone else I feel...
When I see people hugging eachother I feel...
When I need a hug but can't get one I feel...
The thought of students not being able to hug eachother in school makes me...

Here's a few to get the ball rolling.
When someone hugs me I feel... better, no matter how I was feeling before.
When I hug someone else I feel... wonderful, because I am healing that person's hurts.
When I see people hugging eachother I feel... pride in humankind.
When I need a hug but can't get one I feel... lonely.
The thought of students not being able to hug eachother in school makes me... angry and determined to make a difference.

How I Came Up With “Hugs Heal”

I've had some people asking me how exactly I came up with Hugs Heal and why I choose to do this, so here's the deal.

I've always enjoyed hugs and thought that they were a very important part of anyone's life, but that thought was always kind of abstract; I didn't have anything specific to attribute it to. But not long ago I was reading an article on abc.com about a study that was done showing that hugs can actually reduce the risk of heart disease. I remember thinking “Wow, hugs really do heal.” I thought that was so incredible and a such very important find. It made me think of all the times in my life that a hug has made me feel better and all times I've hugged friends and family members when I thought they needed it. I realized that hugs have a far more profound effect on our lives than most people really appreciate. So, I came up with the "Hugs Heal" idea.

So far it's just a myspace and a blog, but people have been responding so wonderfully to my message that who knows where it will go. I've been getting all sorts of ideas about making this into a real organization, but it's a bit early to consider that too seriously. For now, I just want to get my message across and touch as many lives as possible in the process.

Stop The War On Hugs

I have just read yet another article about students getting in trouble for hugging. Personally, I find these "Hug Bans" at school absolutely ridiculous, unnecessary, and potentially harmful to America's youth. Please Click Here to read the article and get a better idea what these rules are about.

Every time I hear about a student being punished for giving their friend a hug, my chest constricts, my face turns red, my hands clench, and let's just say that no one should be asking me any favors. Hugging is such an important part of our lives, and it is especially important to children and teenagers.

These are the years when emotions are already in such turmoil; how can we deny these children the simple and wonderful comfort of a hug? And if our youth grow up not experiencing the incredible power of hugs, how can we expect them to understand how important they are? How much will this effect these children? How will it effect how they treat they kids and grandkids? This is our future we're talking about. Are we headed down a very slippery slope toward an world where freely-given affection will be socially unacceptable?

These bans may seem insignificant to some, but if they are allowed to continue, I believe that they will spread and evolve into stricter and stricter rules banning many expressions of affection. Just how many acts of warmth and friendliness are we willing to allow our children to miss out on?

How can we expect our children to become kind people in adulthood if we punish them for acts of kindness in adolescence?

1,000 Friend Goal Reached 4 Days Early!

Hey everybody! I have surpassed my goal of 1,000 Myspace friends by Dec. 1 and it's only Nov. 27! Yay!

Now, I still need 8 more subscribers to this blog by Dec. 8, so you guys have to help me out by subcribing and telling your friends to visit, ok?

Friends and Subscription Goal

Okay you guys, my goals for Hugs Heal at the moment is to have 1, 000 Myspace friends and at least 10 subscribers to this blog by Dec. 1, 2007.

Help please!

To become a friend of Hugs Heal, please click here and add me!

To subscribe to this blog by looking to the right and clicking "Subscribe to Hugs Heal"

Or better yet, do both!

A Hugs Heal Online Community

I am very seriously considering turning Hugs Heal into an interactive online community, like myspace or facebook. I can set it up so it will bring people together through hugs! Friends can send each other vitural hugs, photos, stories, and anything else having to do with hugs!

Does any one have any ideas about what I might want to include in an online community?

I'd also like to design some clothes with the Hugs Heal logo to sell in order to help spread the message.
Any advice?

Hugs Reduce the Risk of Heart Disease!

Source: ABC.com

A study conducted at North Carolina University concluded that hugs increased levels of oxytocin, reducing blood pressure; which reduces the risk of heart disease, America's #1 cause of death.
So if you think hugs are worthless,
YOU ARE WRONG.

Hugs

This blog is dedicated to bringing people together and to spreading a message of love and kindness. Hugs Heal is inspired by the awesome healing power of hugs.

A hug is an embrace; to take someone into your arms with caring and affection. But thats not all a hug is. A hug is an expression of love, friendship, and kindness. A hug can heal the world's worst wounds; physical or emotional. A hug can give a person that bit of strength that they need in order to just keep going.

There is a hug for every mood, every ailment. The Comforting Hug for when you're sad, the Happy Hug when you're excited, and of course the Bear Hug; appropriate for all occasions.

My cat starlight hugging his kitty doll!