How is lock-down treating you? Are you OK? Are you frustrated? Have you experienced loss? Are you experiencing uncertainty? We’ve been at this for over three months now and it’s worth being gentle with your idea of being you and how you’re handling life with Coronavirus! The practice of yoga and mindfulness brings you closer to thoughts, feelings, and mind-habits and encourages you to observe your experience. This is what yoga wants to gift to you, not the flawless Triangle Pose or picture-perfect touching of toes! Observing is how we move towards non-attachment and freeing the mind.

Vein health: when do we ever talk about things that go wrong with the veins?! Veins feel pressure and our one-way valves might break down. Gravity has something to do with it but also sitting or standing for long periods of time mean your legs are getting the rough end of the deal. Doctors often tell people to put their feet up for lower-leg swelling or vein problems.

Breath is a special thing. At George Floyd’s funeral this week it was given special mention: ‘Genesis II said that God formed man… they say he breathed breath, the breath of life to make him a live human being, which means that breath comes from God. Breath is how God gives you life. Breath is not some coincidental kind of thing that happens. Breath is a divine decision that God made’.

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.