Victoria's blog

 Since October Russia has been effectively cutting Ukraine off from energy. Their latest target is the biggest Ukraine port city-Odesa. In the early hours of Saturday, Russian strikes hit key energy transmissions lines, affecting the whole Odesa region. Moscow did not use any munitions during this attack, but simply drones, that fly into their target, were enough to destroy energy facilities. Now, there is no electricity in almost all the districts and communities of the region, which before Russia's 24 February invasion had a population of more than 1 million. In my opinion, this attack as well as the whole war now is looking extremely exhausting to Ukraine. Russian's moves are thoughtful and well-prepared and that keeps me worried for the fate of Ukraine. I personally can't imagine myself living without electricity, because it became our almost basic need, and it's hard to function without it for a longer period of time, and suddenly most of Ukraine has no other optio...

  Christmas is always associated with spending time with your loved ones, but lately it looks like it's a holiday of massive consumption. We all love receiving gifts, but research shows that we appreciate them more when it's something sentimental and has a history behind it. That's why we should start buying our christmas gifts secondhand. What makes an item meaningful is not its price, but its past, that we can fantisize about. So getting an old item can be good for the imagination, as well as it makes us take better care of our current belongings. It creates an attachment to our stuff, so when they get old, we're more likely to give them a new life, than just throw them out. In my opinion, this idea is just brilliant. I, myself am a big oponnent of mindless consumption during black fridays and christmas. I think nowadays, a lot of us are addicted to shopping and most of our purchases are things, that we don't actually need, but we just like the feeling of having b...

 As we all know, walking improves our health a lot, but apparently doing exactly the same, but backwards is even more beneficial. When walking in a forward direction is something natural, walking backwards is a lot more challenging for our body and brain. It demands coordination between systems like visual-what we see, vestibular- sense of balance and body position, and proprioceptive system- sense of where our body is in space. And coordinating all of those systems is harder and takes longer while doing something that feels unnatural, so that's why it has more benefits than regular walks. Backward mobility improves things like balance and stability, and it alters our whole range of motion for joints and muscles. It eases the chronic pains in the back and heels, streightens the knee and prevents many injuries. All while burning up to 40% more calories than walking normally at the same speed. It seems to me, that this sport is a perfect rehabilitation tool and a helpful activity for...