HTSI editor’s letter: how to feel good in 2025
Roula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter.
What makes you feel good? The new year extends another opportunity to re-evaluate our lives. At the age of 81, designer Yohji Yamamoto has offered us a feelgood template: 10 wisdoms that he has learnt to cherish over the years. These include doing 50 press-ups daily, meditating while walking and finding inspiration while sitting at the traffic lights. Not mentioned in our feature is his love of smoking – when the master of fashion was photographed in Paris shortly after his SS25 show in September, it was near-impossible to capture him without a cigarette hanging from his lip. We wondered whether such activities should be promoted on our pages, especially in an issue dedicated to wellness and good health. Arguably, smoking does make some people feel terrific. We decided, however, that perhaps this wasn’t quite the message we wanted to go out with while the year is young.
This issue is rich in other sources of diversion: our “wellness journey” special is dedicated to all sorts of healthy tips and trips. This month, we unveil Jemima Kelly’s Adventures in Woo-Woo, a quarterly column in which the FT columnist, used to surveying the culture wars and crypto, will turn her customary cynicism on the more unusual facets of the wellness world. Then again, Jemima may be less of a cynic than I first realised. When discussing future columns she divulged that she was part of a coven, loves a bit of tarot and may believe in supernatural things…
We’ve also made an appointment with Ross J Barr, London’s favourite acupuncturist, to find out why his needles have everybody in a fizz. It doesn’t hurt that he’s impossibly handsome and married to a famous actress; but as one of the most in-demand practitioners in the UK, he’s got everybody talking – and crying, it turns out, when Ellie Pithers gets the treatment on his couch.
I loved reading author Megan Nolan’s account of her relationship with SoulCycle, the spin class that has inspired a cult-like following since its foundation in 2006. Megan doesn’t especially enjoy the class, its attitude nor its expensive price tag. Neither does she find herself thinner or stronger as a result. “It just mattered that it made me feel good,” she writes in her essay about the revelations she has enjoyed since sitting on the static bike. And that’s what this issue is all about.
Tarquin Cooper, meanwhile, is bounding into his sixth decade with a fistful of adventures aimed to challenge the preconception that 50 might mark the start of slow decline. His bucket list includes paragliding, taking part in some godforsaken Scottish sailing and running race, and going on a dog-sledding safari somewhere near a Pole. To each his own, I say of his ironman ambitions. Although I do quite fancy hiking Corsica’s GR20, if not completing the entire 180km track.
For many, feeling good is less about acceleration and more about the simple things. In our cover story, we head to Sardinia in the off season, to enjoy a bit of sunshine and soak up some Mediterranean life. Food writer and chef Letitia Clark lives on the island year-round and writes that it has a special charm in winter. Her evocative descriptions of the olive harvest, climate and clear blue water in January are totally transporting. As is Jeremy Everett’s shoot with Bibi Breslin, the model of the hour.
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