Pregnancy is a relatively rapid period of transformation – of the body, of the mind, of life in general. While this process for some is a beautiful phase, with excitement and joy, for others this time can be riddled with anxiety, with fear and with uncertainty.

What comes to your mind when you hear the word ‘meditation’? Perhaps a monk in orange robes sitting cross legged? Or a room of women sitting around a circle of cards and crystals burning sage? Perhaps you think of religion. Certain parts of the world. Yoga. Hippies. Certain types of clothing.

In Saturday’s online meditation class, I talked particularly about one of the pillars of mindfulness: letting go. This refers to the fact that when practising mindfulness – maintaining non-judgemental awareness of the present moment – we are often attached to certain ideas or thoughts we may have about the practice, and so we need to let go of these in order to be truly present, and to enable us to see the moment for what it is.

Thanks to the lovely (or not, depending on how you see it) hot weather we’ve been having lately, there have been a lot of little sailing boats and yachts going past my flat on the river. Day to day, this stretch of river is relatively busy with Uber boats going up and down as well as tug boats pulling barges which get moored together here.