I was listening to a lecture by Bernie Clarke, the well-known author and Yin Yoga teacher. He shared a story about his student, Fred*, who, for years, was instructed to “bring his feet together parallel” in a yoga pose. But every time Bernie looked up, there was Fred—feet firmly splayed like a ballet dancer in first position, heels together, toes out. Despite Bernie’s relentless efforts to nudge him into the “correct” position, Fred’s feet just wouldn’t cooperate. The answer, it turns out, lay in the unique twists and torsions of Fred’s bones. But this raises many questions: Why was Fred’s body doing this? Why do feet have to be parallel? And what makes a yoga pose “correct”?

If I said “engage your pelvic floor”- who knows what would happen. You might squeeze the front as if trying to stop yourself from peeing. Or you might squeeze the back as if trying to stop a sneaky fart. Or you might squeeze the whole caboodle- everything from the waist down, (Like driving down a country lane praying that the oncoming lorry won’t squish you. You clench like crazy, hold your breath and shut an eye too)

So, which is it? The front? The back? The middle bit? Something else?

Love is such a big topic. But what sparked this week's musings isn't the fact that next week is Valentine's day, nor me hearing Tina Turner asking 'What’s love got to do with it?' or even Dolly Parton / Whitney Houston promising to always love me, but Arthur Aron, a 20th-century social psychologist, who came up with 36* questions designed to gradually make 2 people fall in love.

My premise here is ‘do yoga, it’s good for you’.

I could leave it at that, but I think you might feel a tad short changed. Instead, I’ve gone to the opposite extreme and have sought out evidence: research papers, yoga texts, and even cues from nature as proof for 4 alleged benefits of yoga.

I set out to craft a piece extolling the benefits of yoga. I began by outlining the benefits and then proceeded to research PubMed and Google Scholar to find substantiating evidence. However, in this process, I soon realized that I had fallen into the confirmation bias* black hole. Allow me to explain.

Meditating with a mandala can be a transformative and calming experience. Here's a simple guide to try.

As we massage the feet, I realised I couldn't remember a single thing to say about the feet, except they are 'kinda useful'. (In my defence the whole class was a last minute decision and feet are kinda useful.)

So to put that right, here are somethings I could have said...

According to Harvard Health Publishing, individuals committed to daily gratitude practices report a 25% increase in happiness levels. (Let’s be honest -who wouldn’t want to be happier?)

Our knees are remarkable joints, like bridges connecting two mighty structures - the thigh bone (femur) bone and the lower leg (tibia). Unlike the skull or pelvis, there are no big bony walls in the knees, instead, they rely on ligaments, tendons, muscles, and fascia.

I feel I may have to write ‘spoiler alert’ if you are planning on watching the documentary on how to live longer as I am about to break it down and give away all the secrets.

And although all these benefits are fabulous, the main thing I want to say about inversions is that they are fun.

I defy for anyone to tell me they didn’t have a whale of a time as a kid trying to do a cartwheel, handstand, wheel, rollie-pollie…