Hello everyone,

I just wanted to say well done on dedicating that hour yesterday purely to yourselves through yoga—connecting to your body through breath and movement. In a world full of distractions, taking this time isn’t just a break; it’s a powerful practice for your health and well-being, both physically and mentally.

Science increasingly backs what yoga has known for centuries: regular, focused time for ourselves enhances mental clarity, reduces stress, and even strengthens our immune response. Studies show that practicing mindfulness through breathwork and poses can lower levels of cortisol (the stress hormone) and increase the brain’s grey matter, which supports memory, emotional regulation, and resilience against stress.

It’s no small thing to give yourself this gift of presence, and it’s especially meaningful in today’s world. By simply being there, focusing on your breath, and staying connected to each movement, you’re cultivating a healthier mind and body.

Thank you for your energy and dedication! Let’s keep showing up for ourselves in this way.

Warmly, Paul

A few GoodGym members came together to do online yoga.

Yoga talk

Don’t take your health for granted. Don’t take your body for granted. Do something today that communicates to your body that you desire to care for it.

When these run reports are late appearing it's almost always because I'm suffering from pun paralysis! That is to say we're supposed to add a pithy headline, preferably involving a clever pun of some sort. Or at the very least add a headline of any kind at all.

And some days they just won't pop in to your head. GoodGym writers' block is a real thing, you know!

Embarrassingly, this time I went to an AI chatbot for help. "Give me an apple themed pun", I lamely asked of it.

"What do you call an apple that's been bitten? A half baked idea" it came up with. Half-baked indeed!

I pointed out that this was a joke, not a pun, and learning from its mistake the chatbot did indeed offer a (terrible) pun this time.

Encouraged by this I asked "give me a few puns to pick from" and, noticing my accidental punnage in this, added "do you see what I did there?"

Chatbot did indeed pick (sorry!) up on this and offered a few lame picking-related puns this time. But the work was done by now. My own creative juices (sorry!) were once more flowing. This was my story. My scoop. Chatbots have their place, they're out of the box now and they won't be going back ... but we must use them wisely - not as creators to do the creative work for us, but as a sounding board to help spark our own imaginations.

Back to the task. Grow For Life have an orchard next to the Walled Garden we all know and love. Being an orchard of course, it's rather low maintenance. So I never even knew it was there.

But today they've invited their fans and friends - and there were indeed dozens of people in attendance - to come along and help in picking some of the apples, and also joining in the full end-to-end process of washing and sorting, mashing, and pressing juice.

A proper old-fashioned community of real humans getting together to help each other do something good and get something dome. Chatbots will never be able to do that (he writes...)

A pressing task indeed...

A few GoodGym people came together to do online yoga.

yoga talk

Yoga could reduce the risk of relapses among cancer patients, said scientists. A team of US researchers told the American Society of Clinical Oncology’s annual meeting in Chicago that taking two yoga classes a week for a month significantly cut inflammation and therefore “clinicians should consider prescribing yoga for survivors experiencing inflammation, which may lead to [. . .] increased risk of progression, recurrence and second cancer”. The research, at the University of Rochester, New York state, involved more than 500 patients, mainly women who had recovered from breast cancer

goodgym members came together online to do some yoga.

Yoga talk

Yoga is well known for its infinite benefits. Whether they’re physical; improving strength, and flexibility, building a sweat, recovering from injuries, or more on a meditative level promoting calmness, stillness, and relaxation. Through the use of asana, you become more aware of your body and by incorporating breathing you create a moving meditation that brings awareness of your spiritual self. The strengths and flexibility that come from dedicated yoga practice will at one point translate into your everyday lives, changing the way you deal with problems and situations. By practicing yoga, you’ll learn discipline and challenge yourself on and off the mat without taking anything too seriously.