Creating my Site: About Page and Behind The Scenes

I have been busy setting up my Website - much of which is behind the scenes - I have set up 'Use of Cookies' tab and also completed the Privacy Policy so that this will come up as I am collecting data and this affects GDPR

I have also added a welcome letter that links to the subscribe box - this looks like this at the moment but does need some tweaking... this is just a test sent to my email.

I have now also added the About Page which I think looks good..

I am hoping that this will send the right message and will get people to engage with the site - I am planning on creating a quiz to help generate traffic as this is often a good way to get people on board..

Creating My Site: Zoetic Mindfulness

I began this journey before I even looked at websites with considering very carefully the name I wanted - i checked out the domain names available and the closest I could get to what I wanted was zoeticmindfulness.com.  I wanted a .com as this is the best.  Hendricks states in Forbes;

'A whole industry is dedicated to .com real estate, with moguls (aka cybersquatters) owning thousands of .com names, and selling them to budding entrepreneurs for a healthy return on investment. They buy generic domain names for $5 each and often resell them to companies for thousands, or even millions of dollars. Small companies with a bootstrapping mentality don't have the resources to purchase an expensive domain name. This often forces small business owners to buy a domain that's wordy, weird, or uses a .co, .net, .biz, or other irrelevant or sub-optimal top-level domain (TLD).' (Hendricks D. 09/04/15)

This is due to search optimisation all companies want their website at the top of the Google search - .com are most visible in searches and the public trust .com sites over other domain extensions as stated above. 

So I found a good name I have used mindfulness in the title as this hopefully captures the zeitgeist and the Zoetic is good as it relates to my name and means life and in this case 'living mindfulness' which (I think) is great!  

After I had my domain name I set up an email with this name and I began by choosing a template and started to create the look of my site:

I started with a image from pixabay and just adjusted this slightly on Photoshop changing it to Black and White and overexposing it slightly as I wanted it to give out pure white.  I added the title and will begin looking at the menu and what I really want to include on the site to get this started. I can't decide whether to use a personal approach or a more business approach on the About page. 


References

Hendricks D. (09/04/2015) Forbes: How Important is it for your website to be a .com? [Online] Available From: https://www.forbes.com/sites/drewhendricks/2015/04/09/how-important-is-it-for-your-website-to-be-a-com/#5aa3f09995d0 (Accessed 21/04/19)

Day Nine: 30 Day Challenge Update

Aware Meditation: 5 breathing exercises to find peace

I was particularly looking forward to my 30 day challenge as I know it would have enhanced how I felt everyday.  Unfortunately due to medical reasons I have to put this on hold.  I can still practice the breathing and I think this will be beneficial but the exercises I am not able to do at the present time.

Part of the reason I wanted to make the website was to promote wellness and I think I can do this and as I can't do the actual exercises perhaps this will give me more time for the writing! Also it is good whilst in the midst of doing this to be reminded that health can be fragile and you should make the most of everyday of good health and try to maintain health that is in your control.  Looking forward to really starting my project and as you will see in the next posts I think I am on track so far...

Day Seven & Eight: Making a Plan

Completed my yoga in the morning on these two days and I started to finalise my plan.

Toppr:Types of plan

Aim: To create a transformational website that can be promoted on social media and that I can drive traffic to popularise.

Planning 

Week One, Two & Three

• Develop the idea and research - please see previous blog posts 

Week Four

• Begin setting up the website - choose template start to design
• Buy a domain name 
• Set a dedicated email address
• Research further sites 

Week Five

• Set up Social Media Sites to connect to website - Twitter, Instagram etc
• Complete site and launch 

Week Six

• Promote on Social media
• Add offers
• Engage the audience

Week Seven

• Reflect on what has worked and what has not 
• Look at traffic generated 
• Add more of what is work and remove anything that clearly does not 

Week Eight 

• Keep promoting and enhancing site 
• Add images 
• Add Blog posts 

Week Nine

• Consider whether this has been successful and work on improvements 

Keep researching all the way through to improve traffic, promotion and ideas to ensure that it has the best chance of success!

Day Six: Morning Yoga/Transformational Websites

Transformational

Carried out yoga in the morning and further to yesterday's posts I have decided I would like to make a transformational website so to create a plan for this I will need to do the following:

1. Set up an email address that will attached to the site
2. Set up a new Wix account possibly using e-commerce website to ensure that it will accept payments securely
3. Decide on the kind of transformational assistance I might have to offer
4.  Decide on services/goods I can offer
5. Create the design based on other sites that I have looked at
6. Look at how to automate newsletters and offers
7. Check how to create customer database linked to site

Check out the next post to see how I get on!

Day Five: Transformational Websites Review & Target Market

Completed my yoga this morning when I got up in an effort to feel calmer all day ...I think it helped to an extent! 

I have been looking at transformational websites and I have now understood that business is good in for all those who promote personal transformation - there are many life coaches, spiritual life coaches, life changing blogs etc.  All promise to change your life in a few easy steps and many will happily extract the money from your paypal account or credit card...

Here are a couple of examples:

Spiritual Awakening

This site offers Spiritual Coaching, Healing, Guidance and Wisdom.  It does not align to any religion and cleverly uses the vague term 'spirituality' to draw you into how you can be changed from the inside.  On the side menu a free gift is offered which is 'channelled from different spiritual beings'.  You can also subscribe - it states it is free but if you click on this you are sent to paypal!  The homepage states that Spiritual Awakening offers:

• Consciously channeling a variety of angelic, spiritual and extra terrestrial beings and sharing their wisdom
• Providing spiritual awakening and spiritual life coaching and mentoring
• Doing energy healing and spiritual healing
• Sharing spiritual information and wisdom though audio and video recordings in my membership site
• Passing on messages and guidance from Spirit
• Helping people develop their intuition, psychic abilities and unique talents
• Periodically sharing spiritual and inspirational information via email
• Doing live seminars and events
• Helping to bring more love, joy, kindness and compassion into the world to raise the energy vibration of the world

Spiritual Awakening homepage:

If you then click on 'Services' you will get this page: 

Spiritual services which offer healing through a Reiki Master and channeling the spirit again - also when if states that something is free you still have to pay $80 for 60 minutes and $100 for 90 minutes - this is followed by a list of testimonials with lots of people stating how healed and amazing they felt like this: 

y second Reiki healing session was the start of a spiritual awakening.  I would describe it as nothing short of amazing!  It was like I had a second sight into life.  It is an experience that I would recommend for others, as you will start to explore further inward on your soul’s journey.  

Thank you Dortmund!  You are a wonderful person assisting others on their journeys, which helps us to recognize what it is we can do to help ourselves.  You are truly a great teacher.”

– Namaste Carol Mitchell

On the members page you get the benefits of membership:

As you can see there are many things here that I am looking forward to trying out - I like particularly 'Raise your energy vibration' and 'Discover and fulfill your life purpose' - I imagine that if I pay $80 all my prayers will be answered and my life will have changed!  I can see clearly now that I am in the wrong business as it seems you can offer anything and people will buy in if they think that they will be changed or healed or fixed...very interesting.

So above is one approach now take a look at this - 

Liz Goodchild, Life Coaching

This website is clean, simple and actually really does catch your attention and this cleverly does not opening ask for money or credit card payments anywhere - you can contact Liz and then I expect the cost would be revealed!  However this site is clever in under the About in the drop down box the first item says '7 Reasons I am not the Life Coach for You' your thinking, hey why she actively discouraging me and of course then you read more - I ended up reading her whole personal story about how she changed her life and what was holding her back and all the way through there is much more of a pull to believe in this woman - it is very good indeed! I am not talking about the actual coaching I am talking about the reeling you in, making you want it and that is a successful site! This below is teh blurb from the About page.

And here below 'What I do' so simple, so easy - no spiritual awakening but clear sensible advice - a completely different market to the one above - think business people...

Looking at these two you can see how the transformational market is really a big one out there and there is sooo much on offer.  It was difficult to find definable statistics on this but there clearly is a rise in these kind of self help websites - This article from Market Research.com states that this is a 9.9 billion industry and on the rise - Check out the article here.  It states also that the market is changing and that it used be baby Boomers who were the largest marketing but now it is shifting to millenials. The 'average' coach makes $62,000 per year so I expect as a really successful coach this could be very good pay and many things are completed online as this suits people's lifestyles and a general tendency in humans to be lazy!  We want to transform ourselves but we don't want to put in the effort or the time!  Many of these sites sell on 10 minutes a day or so many steps so that it doesn't look like hard work.  Overall This has been a very useful exercise in looking at how this works and now I am off to change my job!....

References

Namaste Dortmund (2019) Spiritual Awakening [Online] Available From: http://spiritualawakeningwisdom.com/membershipsite-benefits/ (Accessed 15/04/19)

Goodchild L. (2019) Liz Goodchild: Life Coaching [Online] Available From: https://www.lizgoodchild.co.uk/ (Accessed 15/04/19) 

LaRosa J. ( 17/01/2018) Market Research.com: What's Next for the $9.9 Billion Personal Development Industry [Online] Available From: https://blog.marketresearch.com/whats-next-for-the-9-9-billion-personal-development-industry (Accessed 15/04/19)

Day Four: Night Yoga

As I had a busy day I completed my yoga session late...

Today I used the book I really learnt yoga from to begin with it is called 'Wake Up To Yoga' and was my companion as a young girl for many years.  It taught me basic stretching and breathing and is by Lyn Marshall

Wake Up To Yoga By Lyn Marshall

Check out this video:

Fil OK "Parasympathetic" (ft. Lyn Marshall) published by fillywilly 25th January 2013 youtube

I wondered what had happened to Lyn Marshall as I had followed her moves for so long and discovered a tribute page to here on Twitter: Tribute to Lyn Marshall

I tried to find an obituary online about Lyn Marshall however I could not find one (which was strange) she died in 1992 and spend her life as an actor, model, presenter and yoga teacher on TV and in books really admire her work and everywhere I did look online there were other people who said the same that she had introduced them to yoga and that they followed her work.  I found this an uplifting thought that Marshall really had inspired many through her work and dedication to yoga and health and fitness.

References

Marshall L. (1975) Wake Up To Yoga, Ward Lock Ltd, London 

Tribute to Lyn Marshall, Twitter: @lynM01, https://twitter.com/lynm01?lang=en (Accessed 14/04/19)

Published by fillywilly (25th January 2013) Youtube: Fil OK "Parasympathetic" (ft. Lyn Marshall) [online video] Available from:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RiMfYpZN7AE (Accessed 14/04/19)

Day Three: Mother & Phoenix Yoga!

Today I did yoga with my son, Phoenix - I wanted to take pictures but he wouldn't let me so instead I am going to show you the moves we did together from the yoga book.  The yoga book we used was 'Yoga Made Easy' by Rosalind Widdowson

Yoga Made Easy by Rosalind Widdowson

The moves we did today were Neck & Shoulder Tension, Alternate Nostril Breathing and Anxiety Moves.  We brought out my yoga mat and did these together.  It felt good to do the moves and I really felt that the moves were releasing tension. I particularly am finding the breathing really useful as this is very calming...more tomorrow!

Day Three: Discussing Transformational Projects

Today I have been looking at research for my project and as I had quite a few books to discuss I have made a small film.  Hope you enjoy...

The books that I discussed in the film are here: 

I made the film using Olympus OM-D 10 Mark II - enjoying this camera!  I edited the video on Movie Maker on Windows so it was a very straightforward process - I have uploaded to youtube as blogger was struggling with the size of the video.  Although I am not keen on my voice or face on film this is a really good way to discuss the information for this project and talk about research and why it is important. 

References

Nott C.S (1965) Teaching of Gurdjieff: An Account of Some Years With G. I Gurdjieff and A.R Orage in New York and at Fountainebleu-Avon, Routeledge & Kegan Paul, London

Holy Bible, English Standard Version (2001) Crossway, Illinois, United Staes of America

Perec G. (1997) The Species of Spaces and Other Pieces, Penguin Books Limited, Middlesex, England

Ono Y (1995) Instruction Paintings, Weatherhill, Tokyo & New York

Calle S. (1999) Double Game, Violette Ltd, London 

Calle S. (2003) M'as-tu Vue? (Did you see me?), Prestel Verlag, London

Day Two: Before Work Yoga/Poses for Anxiety/Stress

Today before work I completed a couple of poses and made polaroids of these - I will add these later as I left them at work!

This evening I did poses for anxiety/stress as part of the idea was to create a more calm me..

curious mind magazine yoga poses beginners anxiety stress relief

I did these poses and they did make me feel calmer and more relaxed I am going to try to do these on a daily basis.  The article that was with these poses states;
'Harvard Medical School writes about the way yoga supports mental health. Namely, when we practice yoga, our heart rate slows down and we breathe more easily. One study even proved that yoga practitioners have higher pain tolerance as a result of practicing yoga.' (Williams E. 2015)

I like the improved breathing as I used to practice yoga tranquillising breathes quite often as these really did used to make a difference.  Looking into this further I found the breaths that used to help me and these are called Nadi Shodhana Pranayama (Alternate-Nostril Breathing) and these breathes should help to lower blood pressure and studies show that these had an effect within seven days.

Here is a visual guide to the technique it should be repeated 3-5 times 

Alternate nostril breathing

I am going to practice these before bed...good night and sweet dreams everyone..

References 

Williams E. (2015) Curious Mind Magazine Yoga Poses for Anxiety & Stress Relief [Online] Availabel from: https://curiousmindmagazine.com/yoga-poses-beginners-anxiety-stress-relief/ (Accessed 12th April 2019)

Levine J. (17th June 2015) Yoga Journal 5 Pranayama Techniques With the Power to Transform Your Practice—& Your Life [Online] Available From: https://www.yogajournal.com/practice/importance-breath-yoga (Accessed 12th April 2019)

Day One: Work Yoga!

Everyone, as promised the first day of my challenge with my first yoga exercises recorded.  As I was at work and I needed to make sure I fitted it in I went to the Clephan Life Drawing Studio and did my yoga poses there.  It was very uplifting - perhaps not relaxing as it had to be fitted in between things but it certainly was good for me! 

Here is the shots of me doing the yoga I used interval shooting on my Olympus Stylus SH-2 it is one of the features I really like as I can do things and it just shoots at intervals.

Hope you enjoy!

30 Day Challenge; A Transformative Project

After my last post I have chosen the route I would like to take in terms of development and I have chosen to complete a 30 day yoga challenge.  I have chosen this as I started do yoga when I was a teenager as I was picked on at school.  Doing yoga every morning used to really help to calm me down and make me feel happier. Now many many years later I find that although I walk aa lot, have a vegan diet (for 30 years) and am not too unhealthy.  I do have quite a hectic life which has caused me some stress and I think that this would actually counteract some of this and I think I can make this into a project using film, photography and text.

Yoga Pose

I think to complete this project I have to use in the manner of Sophie Calle.  Calle uses rules for each of her art pieces that she follows strictly as stated here; 

'SOPHIE CALLE: The rules of the game are always very strict. In Take Care of Yourself I asked the participants to answer professionally, to analyze a breakup letter that I had received from a man. The parameters were fixed. For example, I wanted the grammarian to speak about grammar—I wanted to play with the dryness of professional vocabulary. I didn’t want the women expressing sentiment for me. Except maybe my mother . . .' (Neri 07/03/09)

My project rules will be as follows:

To complete at least 10 minutes of Yoga every day
Aim to increase the time over the four weeks to at least 30 minutes
To document each day through a diary
To engage in Guerilla yoga at least three times (more of this later)
To use photos and film to document the process
To complete a portfolio of these documents

I will use basic wheel of yoga foundations, I will not do cat yoga, llama yoga, hot yoga etc!

Wheel of Yoga

I will use a diary and will post pages here and keep documenting progress and further research here.  I am hoping this project will create a daily discipline and will be creative as a artistic transformational project ....

References

Neri L. (7th March 2009) Interview Magazine, Sophie Calle [Online] Available From: https://www.interviewmagazine.com/art/sophie-calle (Accessed 09/04/19)

Welcome to the New Term- Object Lesson & 20 Ideas

The new term has begun and I aim to create a project that I actually get to finish this time!!! We started in class with 20 ideas in 20 minutes....



I also created in my second lesson through the Object Lesson on Milanote this board...my object was a spiky blue ball!



As you can see this one inspired me to look at the mountains of Peru, the images of Casper David Friedrich and ideas of the sublime and transformation.

I reflected on both my ideas pieces and both included an idea of transformation or causing change. In my first piece 20 ideas there was the idea of a 30 day challenge and recording this or something similar and the idea of chance/fate/free will and consequences. I think all these ideas may come together to begin something. Therefore I will begin by researching these ideas ....

Carl Jung was a swiss psychologist (1875-1961) who was interested in symbols, dreams and myths and how they entered our unconscious. he believed that by analysing our dreams we would understand ourselves better and our own motivations. He thought that there was a series of archetypes that could be interpreted





'Jung looked at areas of the mind that constitute the psyche, and the way in which they influenced one another. He distinguished the persona, or the image of ourselves that we present to the world, from our shadow, which may be comprised of hidden anxieties and repressed thoughts. Jung also noted the relationship between our personal unconscious, which contains an individual's personal memories and ideas, and a collective unconscious, a set of memories and ideas that is shared amongst all of humanity. Shared concepts, which Jung described as archetypes, permeate the collective unconscious and emerge as themes and characters in our dreams and surface in our culture - in myths, books, films and paintings, for example.' (psychologistsworld.com: 2019)

What is interesting and useful about this is perhaps using this idea to really use my own dreams and find my own archetypes and make photographs of these. 

Many have thought that dreams could somehow be captured take this image by Commandant Darget taken of his wife's forehead whilst she was sleeping using a photographic plate - he really thought that he had captured her dream state through the image.

Photographie du Reve L'Aigle by Commandant Darget

Dreams are unconscious and random and only some dreams are lucid - which means that that you may be able to control the dream while you sleep.  Here again we are between the elements of chance and the elements of control over life, fate and consequences.

Just as an end point to this post I also looked up 30 day challenges and similar like this one 'embracing the simple' and I will look further into this as I do think that this has all the right elements for a project that I can clearly document and us.  I will develop this idea further in my next post with a small practice run!

References

Psychologists World (2019) Carl Jung: Archetypes and Analytical Psychology [Online] Available From: https://www.psychologistworld.com/cognitive/carl-jung-analytical-psychology (Accessed 7th April 2019)

Gabbatiss J. (17/01/17) The Man who tried to Photograph Thoughts and Dreams [Online] Available From: http://www.bbc.com/future/story/20170116-the-man-who-tried-to-photograph-thoughts-and-dreams (Accessed 7th April 2019)

Cohut M (14/09/18) Medical News Today: Controlling the Stories of Sleep [Online] Available from:  https://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/323077.php (Accessed 7th April 2019)

Tiplea C. (23/05/16) Embracing The Simple Blog: Fifteen 30 Day Challenges [Online] Available From: http://embracingsimpleblog.com/fifteen-30-day-challenge-ideas-will-change-life/ (Accessed 7th April 219

Reflection

As I could not complete the actual rendering of the altar pieces I will have to find a way next term to work on a more continuous project that is more timely.  I still want to continue working on the altar pieces but these will have to be done over a longer period of time.

Camille Leherpeur, Recklessness-Altarpiece

I will look further into more modern altarpieces such as this one above and see if there are further experiments I can make to explore these ideas....