I’ve just finished a 20 minute yoga practise, at the end of a mentally taxing day. In 20 minutes I’ve moved from being slightly stressed and tired, to being relaxed, and happy. You might consider that bollocks, and wonder if I’ve had a beer, but I’ve been practising yoga for little over a year now, and I’d consider it one of the great discoveries of my life.

Let me share a little about why with you.

I was terrifed I’d fail, and look stupid. If you find a good teacher, they’ll help you realise that you can’t actually do that. It might sound like hippy nonsense but its true. I’ve been lucky to find a teacher who manages to teach a class of people at all ages, shapes and sizes, with everyone learning and improved a little more each and every time. What else can you do regularly that does that?

I have to cope with not naturally being good. I’ve been lucky. A lot of things have come naturally to me, but complicated physical stretches, chanting in Sanskrit and meditating do not. The only person you compete with when you practise Yoga is yourself — and if you’re your own worst critic, like me, then it forces you to criticise yourself a hell of a lot less.

The hardest parts are not the poses. The hardest part is the mental attention. As someone who can find managing their mood extremely hard, the discipline of sitting totally still, attempting to keep your mind entirely focussed on one thing for 15 minutes is excruciating. Accomplishing it for 5 minutes, and feeling the sense of calmness that no quantity of Adnams can provide ¹ is exquisite.

You can always come back to it. I’ve been meaning to write a post about this for a while, but for a while I almost stopped practising. I find it really easy to make an excuse before unrolling my mat, but this evening, I’ve gotten back on the horse. If its something you can never master then you’ve got all the time in the world.

So, my urge to you: try it, you might like it…