This week’s full moon marks the end of festivities surrounding the Lunar New Year. Predominantly celebrated throughout Asia, the festival is more regularly known as the Chinese New Year, which evolved from the 3500-year-old Chinese lunisolar calendar.

Traditionally, the calendar defines the month containing the winter solstice as the eleventh month of the year meaning that the Chinese New Year usually falls on the second new moon after the winter solstice. It is considered the advent of spring and is therefore also known as the Spring Festival. The partying lasts for a fortnight, culminating at the following full moon.

Lunar New Year observance attributes one of twelve zodiac animals to the entire year in a repeating twelve-year cycle. Each year is said to take on the dominant characteristics of its animal. 2025 is the year of the snake and specifically the wood snake, which comes around every 60 years. As someone born in the year of the snake in 1965 (the last occurrence of a wood snake year) and celebrating my 60th birthday this year, I’m apparently as wooden and snakelike as they come.

And what are those inherent wood snake characteristics? There’s variance and nuance, but Jonathan Lee, professor of American and Asian studies specialising in Chinese folklore at San Francisco State University, suggests this year is expected to exhibit traits of positive transformation as people shed symbolic skins and grow into new beginnings—providing they’re ready to move on. “It’s shedding the ego, letting go of the past, letting go of anger, letting go of love lost,” Lee says. “This is the year where that kind of growth—personal and macro, internal and external—is very much possible.” He added that the snake is an auspicious sign for inner work, with particular focus on releasing unrealistic expectations of loved ones or simply getting rid of restrictive bad habits.

The snake which cannot shed its skin has to die. As well the minds which are prevented from changing their opinions; they cease to be mind.

(Friedrich Nietzche)

More specifically, the wood element in wood snake apparently holds profound meaning across the three major organised Chinese religions. Confucianism says it symbolises the development of a more polished, complete person. The Buddhist tradition suggests it’s about letting emotional stuff go as a precursor to growth, while Daoism typifies wood as a sign of returning to one’s natural state or true nature (something on which I focused in my last article).

The snake also tends to be associated with love. Lee tells the Chinese folktale of an immortal white snake who, disguised as a young woman, falls in love with a man. Upon discovering her true reptilian identity, he falls down dead, much to her dismay. She attempts to steal fruit from the tree of immortality in order to revive him but is caught red-handed by a disapproving emperor whose job it was to guard the tree. She emotionally explained her motive: that her love for the dead man extended over many thousands of years and incarnations because he had saved her life in the past. The Emperor was so impressed and moved by this love story of “cosmic connection lifetime after lifetime” that he gave her the fruit of immortality to save her beloved. Lee adds, “For people that grow up in this kind of cultural landscape with these types of stories and folklore, the snake is a primary representation of love.” As a snake, I’m obviously happy to hear this.

So perhaps a snakey theme to explore in 2025 might be that of challenging ourselves to move out of our comfort zone and readily undertake new challenges as they present themselves. Could this be the year to consciously find excuses to say ‘Yes’ to challenging opportunities rather than reasons to say ‘No’? Naturally, all in the serpentine cause of growth toward our true self and always pursued with love.

Just as a snake sheds its skin, we must shed our past over and over again.

(Gautama Buddha)

I had the great privilege last week of operating way outside my comfort zone in front of 700 teenagers at Cranleigh School in the UK. In recognition of Children’s Mental Health Week, I was asked to address the entire senior school on the practice of mindfulness.

One of the few bugbears in my life is that mindfulness and meditation are often depicted as difficult, solemn affairs that require dedication and discipline. This has never been my experience, and having practiced various methods for over forty years, I now feel more confident in passing on a slightly different message—one that I hope is more palatable to young minds but also to those people who, without being presented with a new perspective on this invaluable tool for well-being, might never give it a go.

The following paragraphs are the transcript of my ten-minute presentation that culminated in three minutes of beautifully observed mindfulness from everyone present. I can’t adequately express my relief and gratitude that the Cranleigh students were open to moving outside their own comfort zones alongside me to sit in silence, attention fully focused on their breath for that short period at the start of their working day. The immediate positive feedback I have received, from both students and staff, has been richly rewarding.

“Good morning, Cranleigh."

I’m here to talk very briefly about mindfulness because this is Children’s Mental Health Week.

When you leave here in just a few minutes, I’d like you to have two sentences lodged in your fabulous, some say dangerous, young minds.

First sentence: silence is my friend.

That’s a sentence no self respecting teenager wants to hear but bear with me before you stuff those EarPods back in your ears. This is headline news. Silence is actually good for you. A 2023 survey involving loads and loads of mice proves it apparently. Some neuroscience researchers at the prestigious John Hopkins University put a load of rodents in sound proof spaces and exposed them to various stimulating sounds, including total silence, for two hours a day.

Turns out that the sounds, which ranged from Mozart concertos to baby mice squealing, stimulated the first stages of potential brain cell growth - called Neurogenesis. However, after just one week, the only new cells that had become full blown neurons (the vital constituent of brain function) were those in the mice that had experienced periods of total silence. What does this tell us? Potentially, periods of silence in between stimulating stuff can actually encourage brain growth and regeneration.

So there you have it.

Sentence one: silence is my friend.

Everyone got that?

Sentence two: mindfulness is easy.

OK, self disclosure up front.

I’ve been practicing mindfulness for forty years or so and it works for me. But I’m not here to sell it to you, I merely want to present a little bit of evidence about the potential benefits of the practice so that you can make your own informed choices about its relevance and use as you develop into fabulous, dangerous adults.

So what is mindfulness?

Very simply it’s the process of developing awareness of what’s going on in the mind. Science still doesn’t really know what ‘the mind’ or ‘consciousness’ are, but for the sake of this talk, let’s just say that your mind is made up of thoughts…whatever they are and wherever they hang out.

Mindfulness practice is easy. Most exercises start and end with the process of focusing your attention on your breath and nothing else. Sounds simple but unfortunately all sorts of distracting thoughts have a habit of getting in the way. Mindful practice involves maintaining concentration on the breath so that the whirlwind of thoughts spinning round our minds have the opportunity to slow down and, with a bit of practice, occasionally stop.

Imagine that. A space in your mind with no thought. Just full concentration on the breath. Just you, your mind (whatever it is) focused entirely where you want it to be. Mindfulness enables you to focus your full attention on whatever you want, whenever you want to. At work, in conversations and relationships, on the performance stage or sports field, even just relaxing - as a life enhancer it’s probably a no brainer.

Scientific studies back this up. Mindfulness has been shown to improve concentration, reduce anxiety, and encourage better sleep patterns. Only this week a Cranleigh teacher stopped me in the lunch queue to thank me for introducing them to a simple breathing exercise that has revolutionised their ability to switch off their mind and get to sleep at night. This stuff works.

And get this. The benefits of mindfulness have been so successfully trialed in inner-city New York schools that from last September it has become mandatory to teach the practice in ALL schools in Manhattan and surrounding boroughs. The trials were conclusive. 10 minutes of mindfulness at the start of each school day reduced violence, anxiety, and disruptive student behaviour. Concentration, academic grades, student resilience, and positive social behaviours increased.

Now, we are all privileged enough to realise we are not an inner-city college with related social issues, but nonetheless, it’s my conviction that a little caring mindfulness would also go a long way to making Cranleigh a kinder place for everyone to inhabit.

So where does the silence bit fit in? Well, mindfulness works best in silence. It allows us to listen more closely to our inner thoughts, to become more aware of where our valuable attention is directed or wasted, Although it sounds unfeasible, the plan here and now is to share with you a short mindfulness exercise that proves just how simple mindfulness can be.

A little recap.
Remember sentence one: silence is my friend.
Remember sentence two: mindfulness is easy.

Ok, everyone ready? Let’s create a little window of silence. I invite you all to sit comfortably with a straight back, your hands in your lap, and your eyes closed.

Now that you’re relaxed but still in a state of alert awareness, do your best to focus your attention solely on your breath.

(Pause)

Mindfulness really is as simple as that. Find your own natural rhythm of breath. There’s no right or wrong way to breathe—believe it or not, you’ve been breathing since the day you were born, so you’re all naturals.

When distracting thoughts interrupt your concentration, as they surely will, don’t give yourself a hard time about it; just acknowledge the thought, let it pass, and immediately return your focus to your breath. Let’s try for thirty seconds in silence. If it helps to maintain concentration, you can count 5 to yourself on your in-breath and 5 on the out-breath.

(Pause)

Brilliant. Stay with it. Keep your eyes closed. The vast majority of you are actually, at this moment, retraining your mind to do what you want it to do so that you are no longer subjected to the negative thought spirals the mind sometimes creates.

(Pause)

Let’s keep going with your eyes shut. Check that your back is straight and continue to focus on your breath. When your thoughts begin to slow down, see if you can locate a space in between those thoughts, however fleeting. This space of no thought is where calm and peace reside. Each of you individually has created that calming space here and now for yourself. It’s your space. It’s a safe space, a healthy space. It can be a happy space. But above all, it’s a peaceful space, and you can return to this space at any time you wish just by focusing on your breath.

(Pause)

In your own time, return your attention from your breath to the room in which you sit and open your eyes.

Now that you know that silence is your friend and mindfulness is easy, you don’t need me to guide you through the process; you can explore the experience on your own. Generally speaking, a couple of minutes in the morning and evening can make a huge difference in your life.

So remember those two sentences:
Silence is my friend!
Mindfulness is easy!

Thank you for your silence and patience.
This has been fun. I hope you have found it informative.