Well! I want to ask you how you’d feel about a yoga retreat this September? We used to fly out to Kythera, Greece, on the second weekend of September which, this year, is Saturday 10th. A nice thing about this year is that the orchestra I used to play with will be there at the same time so we can add a blissful classical concert to our experience.

Happy 2022! How’s your Dry January or Veganury? How are the bones coping with the cold? How is the back handling more working from home? And how’s your energy when the evening starts in the mid-afternoon? I’m hoping I’ll see you in class. We have a friendly time and we iron out some crinkles.

Well! It’s the time of year to think about Christmas presents. I have a couple of different suggestions. Here we go:

This is a guest-written blog. Many of you know my dear friend Alain and, if you did his class at Eden Fitness Friday morning, you’ll have heard this at the end of the class: A Somatic Meditation on Friendship (Kindness).

James Nestor (I’ve written about him before) says we’ve lost the knowledge of how to breathe and you only have to look at the amount of people with chronic respiratory illnesses to know it’s true. He was on Virgin Radio this week (30, November, click here, wind forward to 2:52:30 – it’s a nice interview) reminding me, with his exquisite expertise about breath, that we do so much more in yoga practice than postures!

I was listening to Naga Munchetty on Radio 5 this week and her exploration of the QAnon phenomena in the yoga and wellness world. The interesting thing is that yoga has a history of being anti-establishment and anti-science. (Wind forward to 39:20). Listen to how conspiracy theories and wellness communities have always converged.

Last Sunday I was at a Kathina Robe Offering, a yearly ceremony, offering cloth from lay supporters to the clergy. Back in the Buddha’s day, disciples wore robes sewn from left-over cloth and rags taken from cemeteries or cremation grounds. Can you imagine how unhealthy and how unhygienic this would have been!

This is what Mum sounded like before Dementia took hold.

Though she was small… she was mighty!

I’ve been teaching a bit of Tai Chi for meditation in class this week. It’s how I meditate so I thought I’d pass it on. When I found it, my whole meditation practiced relaxed… perhaps it even started right there. Before finding a meditation technique that suits you, it’s a bit of a desperate concentration. This changed meditation for me from effort to non-effort.