Happy Monday! Another weekend slips by! This weekend took my 11th anniversary of teaching with it. It was Saturday 11th February in the year of the London Olympics. It was a mid-morning class at Virgin Acton, but news was already in that Whitney Houston had died.

Did you see the planets and the stars last night? I missed the ‘planet parade’ which was after sunset, apparently, but Orion the Hunter was just above our front door! The stars assembled around Orion like a meeting. I wonder if they are gathering like Greeks Gods to plot their games with us! Anyway, still beautiful. Maybe they gathered to welcome Pelé.

Meditation isn’t all that easy when the brain is in full Catherine Wheel Mode. That’s exactly when you need meditation – when the brain won’t comply. I have all kinds of techniques to lure my brain away from the fire, to come and sit down with me and just be. My brain has all kinds of surprising ways of resisting!

I think about footballers often, not just because of the world cup! Footballers come to class, along with other types of athletes and bodies, and I’m struck at how the body responds to all kinds of decisions we make: the sports we take up, the accidents we have, the career we take up. Imbalance comes with those choices ‘as standard’! Of all the one-sided sports, football really takes the biscuit!

Some people are convinced that yoga is religious. Some try to prove legally that it isn’t. I think it's better than that. It trains your mind to be present and grateful, and it trains your body to be up for the challenge. Physical life gets harder and harder but we have a duty to be grateful for what we have, keep the body MOT’d and keep the positivity and energy going,

“This is such a spiritual time of year” said a yogi. The muscular statement took me by surprise. And yet, goodness me, it’s such a spiritual time of year! Autumn Equinox and the Winter Solstice frame a time of spiritual traditions, festivity and special foods all over the world.

How are you? Coming to class? We start the Friday class with a short meditation – just 10 minutes. It is, after all, one of the Eight Limbs of yoga which includes Yamas and Niyamas/Dos and don'ts, Asana/posture practice, Pranayama/breathing exercises, and Dhyana/meditation. Full Eight Limbs here.

I was brought up with the idea of merit: making merit, accumulating merit and performing meritorious deeds – even transferring merit to departed loved ones who need our help to be reborn into a better life. Well! I always pictured this as some sort of bank account that you build up and up by performing good deeds. You get something back from this bank account – you get a better next life! Not so!

Well, Kythera is a memory for another year. Kapsali’s gorgeousness retreats into the past for another year: its double bay and Aphrodite’s rock, its deep blue sea churning and kicking up September foam, its tavernas and cafes, cotton wool clouds and warm air, my morning run up to ‘the capital’ picking figs to eat along the way. We’re doing our retreat next year! Definitely!

I've been listening to YouTubes by Patrick McKeown, writer of The Oxygen Advantage. Wow! There’s so much information that this Friday Email is becoming part one of two posts! He’s really worth a listen! I've been listening to his Atomic Focus Breathing workshops part 1. He starts by saying: 'This is not about mindfulness. This is about going beyond it'.