I’m not very disciplined
At 05.20 last Thursday morning, I was beginning to question a decision I had made three days earlier. I had signed up for a seven-day sadhana with the Isha Foundation, culminating yesterday on Guru Purnima — the first full moon after the summer solstice and, in the yogic tradition, a time to honour the teachers […]
The practice that disappears when life gets busy
Britain has just appointed its seventh prime minister in a decade. In his first speech, Andy Burnham said the country needs to show that it can regain its stability. Meanwhile, the Bank of England’s April report contained no central forecast at all. It set out three scenarios instead — three possible versions of the next […]
What Is Your Resistance Protecting?
A few days ago, in a yoga class, we were preparing the body for an advanced variation of half pigeon involving a deep twist and a turn onto the back. We weren’t expected to perform the final pose. The preparation was the practice. I watched the demonstration, tried it—and got the legs wrong. My body […]
At 10:22pm on Saturday, I quit
Listen to how you describe yourself when someone asks how you’re keeping. Not the passing how are you? that we all answer with fine — but the real one, the one that wants to know how you’re holding up, how it’s all going, how you’ve been lately. Watch the words as they leave you, and notice which one lands […]
You’re at a crossroads. You just haven’t told anyone
There’s a moment most of us know intimately, even if we’ve never named it. Nothing dramatic has happened — you’re still doing the work, keeping the commitments, showing up. But somewhere underneath, a question has started to hum: is this still the direction? That moment is a crossroads. Whether you’re weighing whether to stay or […]
You rarely fully switch off, do you?
Summer arrives, and something in you finally exhales. However you take your break — a fortnight abroad, a week at home, or simply the lighter rhythm of these months — the promise is the same: rest. The pool will be beautiful. The weather, gorgeous. You will sleep. You will laugh. Perhaps there will be wine, […]
It’s not too late – and it never was
“I’m eighty years old,” she said, “and my family don’t understand why I keep working. They think I should be slowing down and it’s frustrating! I have a purpose — a mission — to help parents raise responsible children, so something good gets passed down the generations.” We were in a breakout room on an […]
We resist change even when we ache for it
Change can be announced in a single meeting. The transition inside each of us keeps its own time. What I watched happen in a room of women leaders this week. If change is the river, the harder question is how we cross it. This week I facilitated a workshop born of exactly that pressure: an […]
You don’t have to blow anything up
I’ve reached the age — past the half-century mark — where the invitations have quietly changed shape. There were years of weddings, then years of christenings and significant birthdays. Now, more often, it’s a funeral. Or the news of one. People my own age. Sometimes younger. You start to notice the ratio shifting, and you […]
Something in you is ripening
It’s the first week of June and on my evening walk I stopped at a tree I pass most days without really seeing it. The blossom is long gone now, and in its place are small, hard, green fruits — no bigger than a marble. Sour, unready, easy to overlook. And it struck me, standing […]