There is a particular sound that many people recognise before they see the table: the click and clatter of tiles being shuffled. Mahjong, the tile game with roots in China, is played around the world by grandmothers, friends, and families. It looks like a pastime, but it asks a lot of the mind. It is also one of the more researched games in the study of healthy ageing. A game that keeps your whole mind busy Mahjong is played with a set of 136 to 152 tiles. Players draw and di

Chess looks like a game of pieces, but it is really a game of attention. Two people sit in silence, and every move comes down to one question: what is actually happening here, and what will happen next? That question is the same one we face in everyday life, when we plan a week, handle a difficult conversation, or try to stay calm in a crowded schedule. Chess makes the process visible, which makes it a useful training ground for mindfulness and clear thinking. Your first move

Some women arrive at a retreat carrying two burdens. The first is what happened to them: a missed diagnosis, a surgical complication, a birth that went wrong, a risk no one mentioned. The second is the long process of trying to have that recognised. Many women say the second burden is the one that wears them down. The injury has a beginning and, sometimes, a slow recovery. The legal process has neither. It arrives in letters, deadlines, and phone calls, and it is rarely over