Olga

Hmm. In my original post I was actually referring to living and surviving in the middle of the war. We have a war in Europe, most of my friends and relatives are split into two opposing sides, people are dying or escaping, I am reading daily accounts of survival under bombing and I am volunteering as interpreter for the Ukrainian war refugees arriving in Vienna. But since this already been going on for over a month, I am trying to adjust to the "new normal" and learn to live with the war (as with Covid before). I am envious of those around me who are not so emotionally involved (I am Russian by birth). My way or coping this week: get physically tired or even exhausted (through work or volunteering), then lie down and listen to the relaxation tape - it keeps me down on the mat better when I am physically tired. If anyone else has experienced war, I would be glad to hear your advice how you learnt to cope.

Hello all, I have been trying to practice relaxation (using audio recordings) in the past 9 days - since the 24 February, the day of the Russian invasion of Ukraine - with varying success. Sometimes it won't work at all, I have to stop. Sometimes I can follow till the end and feel better, more detached afterwards. Sometimes it is mixed: like today, I gave up two thirds into the practice and poured myself a glass of red wine instead. Anyone can offer some practical recommendation? In these times we need this practice more, but it comes so much harder than in "normal" (peaceful) times. I guess it also matters if you live in Europe right now and if you feel somehow involved in the war by virtue of your place of birth. I wish I could be more detached and to that end I try to use the relaxation practice. Olga

My little contribution - since I gave the "chair" topic a lot of thought in the past 10 years. 1. I have not had any chairs (ie sitting device with back support) at home since I furnished my first own flat from the scratch - since 2009. All I had in that first flat were high bar stools (appropriate for the level of the high bar table) where I used my PC and a firm sofa-bed where I would lie down to rest, but never sit down. I hate sitting on sofas 🙂 with my knees squeezed up to my chest and when it is impossible to get up. That was a Hong Kong apartment so I never had much space to think of more sitting arrangements. 2. I now live in a much bigger apartment in Vienna which I also furnished it from the scratch. I now have a long large wooden table where I and my husband use our computers and do everything else - eg it doubles up as group dinner and work table. This table came with two benches - yes, I am sitting on a long wooden bench as I write this. I have plenty of space to move my butt around, and I keep putting one or another leg under me or even cross both of them when I feel like helping my back to sit straighter. 3. Since I am living with my husband who is not very flexible (appropriate for his age and sporting history), I had to think a lot to bring him over to my "no chair" camp. But I managed. When he works at his own small work desk he has a small stool without back support. This is after his living 60+ years in a fully chair-ed environment. I cannot even recall any more why I switched to back-less sitting arrangements years ago, but now, when I am forced into a chair, I move away from its back and use it as a bench. There is simply so much more freedom for my body to move and change positions at it feels necessary than with my back against something firm.

Dear Olivia, thank you for the link to the article, I read it with interest. I, too, am used to "hold" positions in tension and I am only a teacher of Pilates 🙂 never did - not even attempted - a somersault in my life. But teaching other people a perfect way to move (and on the machines loaded with springs) is a hard work and a lot of "leant" muscle tension. I think my neck problems originate from there. xxx Olga

One month into the course, I thought I'd write a feedback. First of all, I have not been following the progress of the Stretch Therapy website, so I had no idea there were online courses - and of such a high quality. GREAT job: easy to access, easy to use, short, bite-size exercises and a clear structure. Good for beginners and for those familiar with the Stretch Therapy. Thank you for doing this!! I am through with the Level 1 (as of today). I tried to do an exercise a day, and had some breaks for holidays and travel. I was surprised to find out that I had neck pain - this usually does not come to attention while I exercise other parts of the body (and supervise and lead other people's exercise routines), but I do have neck pain. It didn't go away easily after a month of easy stretching, I guess there are deeper reasons and a longer-term approach is needed. How I have used the exercises after taking a lesson: there were a few exercises from Level 1 that I particularly liked and I found myself coming back to them every day. I feel great after the stretch but the following day the neck pain/tension creeps back after a particularly strenuous physical activity. Will keep up with the stretch practice. What was a nice surprise however is the impact of (almost) daily relaxation (!!). One of the reasons I bought this course was to force myself to do daily relaxation practice. I have accumulated a library of Kit's relaxation scripts but wasn't able (willing to take time?) to actually do it on a regular basis. But now when I purchased a course where daily relaxation practice is prescribed I feel driven to actually do it So after about 3 weeks of daily practice I realised that I am less "reactive" to the events and stresses of the outside world, I cannot care less of the latest Covid statistics or Boris Johnson Party-gate or any piece of news that does not have an immediate and direct impact on me and my family. What a wonderful gift - I can live with the neck pain if I could only keep this "couldn't care less" attitude. Finally, it is very soothing to watch and and listen to Kit's videos, anyone who has taken his in-person classes can relate to that. Thank you again for bringing this course!

Noone can stop me or hold me back unless I allow them. I do not pay attention to what other people think and say about me and what I am doing with my life. They judge from their own perspectives and living their own lives. When someone matters enough for me to start paying attention, that is a concious decision to balance between personal growth and mutual growth (eg in a relationship).

I have posted three links to courses just a couple of posts above. I am attaching a few downloads from those courses that are relevant and may be of interest. Additional Information to Add to Your Images.pdf List of Position - Rank Tracker Tools.pdf stepbystep_SEO_Reader.pdf Back Link Analysis and Link Outreach Tools.pdf Competition Analysis Tools (Free & Premium).pdf

I watched Marcus's voice over - my first impression is that it was spoken extremely fast (we also speak slower here ... and of course my German is not anywhere fluent as my English). I would suggest that Kit instructs in the coming videos with non-native English speakers in mind as audience: keep it simple, precise, less colloquial and more standard English, and slower than usual. It will make the job of the translator so much easier.

Skillshare courses I liked: (I focused on Local SEO ie optimising a local business site for the search engines) a long but productive course for local SEO rankings, from A to Z how to use Google Search Console SEO tips for sites based on Wordpress

@Jim Pickles The fonts is where I spent minimum time contemplating and deciding - as you said, I used simple rule of thumb serif for the body text, sans serif for headings. Have you tried running this on the mobile phone too? I had to check both versions and I got OK within 10 min of trying different fonts, and left it there. The fonts come as part of the Premium WP Theme called Antenna, all of them are fancy and there is no the usual ones like Times New Roman or Arial. So I picked the least fancy fonts ))) Attached below.

In the meantime, I largely finished my own website update. Key changes: -split into two separate sites, one for German and another one for English (by way of subdomain) - got through many hours of SEO-tutorials (free month membership, so free) on Skillshare.com. I can post here those I found most useful - ran many tests via SEO-related tools available for free on internet, starting from Google Search Console and sites like MOZ - updated pages and texts for both DE and EN sites based on what I learnt in those tutorials: keywords, internal links, headers etc - ON PAGE SEO - started to work on OFF PAGE SEO like building links to my site, getting listed wherever possible. now waiting for millions of clicks of traffic

Done!

Thank you! I think most posts from that of November 25 (see link below) can be moved to the new thread.

I second that - this thread "feedback on my site" could fit well under Promoting Our Work. We could also collect links and addresses of ours on Instagram, Facebook etc so we don't have to work hard to find each other on Social Media )))

The menu looks more structured but still overcrowded - an inconsistent: on the Classes Page there are 7 submenu items under Dance and only 6 on the Home page (by way of an example). Another consideration, do you really need to keep all this stuff in one website? What is the purpose of this website - an online filing cabinet (for you) or a presentation of your as a XXXX to the internet audience? If second, then perhaps you could move your dance photos to a separate photo-hosting site or a WP photo-based blog and keep the Stretching info in its own separate place. If first (filing cabinet for yourself) then it is entirely up to you how to organise and present it... only do not expect other people to "get it" and to understand the content. If I were your webdesigner, this is the first thing I'd ask: what kind of site are you trying to make? Begin with the end in mind.