Someone wrote to me and asked if my attitude to yoga practice was a purely physical pursuit and, if so, he wouldn’t be in touch again. It made me smile. The debate about physical-OR-spiritual is really something we don’t need to worry about.

I’ve been thinking about eyesight recently. Lots of people who are working from home are doing more sitting and, potentially, hunching over a keyboard and it isn’t just the back that is complaining. Eyes are not designed for non-stop close-up focus. All muscles need exercise and relaxation, eye muscles are no different.

I’ve taken to giving Tree Pose as an option in class and I’m always struck by the beautiful feeling of the pose. Whenever I taught this pose in a gym, to 20-30 yogis, it always brought a calm and meditation to the room. It felt as though we were touching real yoga!

Yoga props have not been around since Patanjali times! They are not mentioned in the Yoga Sutras. This doesn’t mean that yoga with props is inauthentic, though! Step away from that thought! The history of props is... really quite funny.

I heard Ross Edgley, the swimmer who swam around GB, talk about the Stockdale Paradox this week. It’s his inspiration to practice controlling the controllable and accepting the uncontrollable. I jumped on to Wikipedia so fast the ground shook.

In one way or another, everyone has discovered something new about their Groundhog Day personality. How’s the Monkey Mind doing under lock down? How’s the attention span?

This week, I started reading Rod Stryker’s The Four Desires, his book about ‘mental prosperity’ and ‘the yoga of fulfilment’. Y’know, I always found these huge promises of yoga quite unobtainable. Fulfillment? My best life? Really? Yoga isn’t huge; For most people it’s the subtle change that happens while you’re doing other things like posture practice. However, in the first few pages I knew I could trust Mr Stryker’s book which, by the way, is a workshop book and has tasks for the reader.

Apparently only 9% of us want life to go back to what it was. The majority of us have had some kind of little or long Road to Damascus. It may be the realisation that comes with the commute detox. It might have been the insight that comes with being with family, kids or elders, and hearing the birds reclaim their morning chorus.

Happy Easter! The traditional story of death and resurrection is taking on a metaphorical meaning for our culture and society, eh! Many people contemplate the rebirth that’s coming. Will we keep some of the gains of lock-down? For example, did you hear the loud and proud dawn chorus? Some of us are dealing with tough times. Some of us are bored. Some of us are really quite pleased with the lock-down. Does yoga help?

Well, now that you’re locked down, under house arrest, what about starting or improving your meditation practice! I know... the reluctance. Once you get going, though, you’ll add it to your yoga practice and it will become all-of-a-piece.

The yoga we practice was born in ancient times and was pretty much only concerned with meditation.