Inspiring Stories

To get motivated for 2023

Looking back at last 12 months, I’ve realised how much happened. It was a great year. We got to know wonderful people who came to stay with us for various periods of time to help Peter on the farm to or escape war. I’ve enjoyed teaching on average 15 yoga classes a week. We had a wonderful Yoga Holiday in France. I completed an Advanced Training in Breathwork … but one thing I didn’t manage is to to get back to my 2021 running form. I train but my body feels heavier, and I struggle with pins and needles after a few kilometres.

‘Everything negative - pressure, challenges - are all an opportunity for me to rise.’ Kobe Bryant (Basketball legend)

I know from past experience that the best solution is to keep training. Little by little, it will get better (as long as I don’t overdo it).The pins and needles might still appear but later as my body adapts.

But knowing it is not always enough, and we sometimes need inspiration. Here are two documentaries and one movie that I find inspiring.

Autumn Gold (2010)

Last weekend, we watched Autumn Gold, a German documentary about 5 track-and-field athletes aged between 82 and 100 who train for the 2009 World Masters Athletics Championships in Finland.

It was really inspiring to follow these athletes as they prepared for the World Championships, but also as they fought against time and ‘degeneration’. In this battle, sport was clearly their ally. They all wanted to beat their Personal Best or even the World record but they also wanted to stay healthy. I guess we were touched by these amazing athletes as we’ll both turn 57 this year…

Limitless (2017)

Another inspiring documentary I watched earlier in the year is called Limitless. It follows eight Indian women ‘who are faced with self-doubts and expectations from society and how they rediscover themselves through running’.

The documentary was commissioned by the India Amateur Runners Trust to encourage women to take up running as the proportion of women runners in India was quite low.

What I loved about the documentary is that it clearly shows there is not ‘one’ profile of runners. You could be 30 or 60, fit or unfit… and still benefit from starting to run. One of the women, Arora, who took up running as she was going through a divorce said “Running changes your day; you have a positive mindset, and you interact with positive people.” I agree with her.

100 meters (2016)

This is not a documentary, but a movie based on a true story, the story of Ramon Arroyo, a man diagnosed with multiple sclerosis (MS) at the age of 44 who decided to train to compete in an Ironman triathlon ( that is 3,8 km (2.3 miles) swimming, 180 km (112 miles) cycling and 42 km (26 miles) running). As Ramon Arroyo stressed in an interview with the Spanish MS society, MS affects everyone differently and not everyone with MS can run a triathlon! But it’s great to see that someone with MS could do it!

I also love the title of Ramon Arroyo’s book: Rendirse no es una opcion, which translates as Giving up is not an option!

I hope you’ll find these stories inspiring too and that you’ll start 2023 full of energy.

See you on the mat

Much love