how to feel good in 2025

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FT editor Roula Khalaf selects her favorite stories in this weekly newsletter.

What makes you feel good? The new year offers us another opportunity to reevaluate our lives. At the age of 81, designer Yohji Yamamoto has offered us a feel-good template: 10 wisdoms that you have learned to value over the years. These include doing 50 push-ups a day, meditating while walking, and finding inspiration sitting at a traffic light. There’s no mention of his love of smoking in our article: when the fashion maestro was photographed in Paris shortly after his SS25 show in September, it was nearly impossible to capture him without a cigarette dangling from his lip. We wonder if these types of activities should be promoted on our pages, especially in an issue dedicated to well-being and good health. You could say that smoking makes some people feel great. We decided, however, that perhaps this was not the message we wanted to convey while the year is young.

This issue abounds in other sources of fun: our special “wellness trip” is dedicated to all kinds of healthy tips and trips. This month, we feature Jemima Kelly’s. Adventures in Woo Wooa quarterly column in which FOOT The columnist, accustomed to analyzing culture wars and cryptocurrencies, will focus her usual cynicism on the most unusual facets of the world of wellness. On the other hand, Jemima may be less cynical than I first thought. When talking about future columns, he divulged that he was part of a coven, loves tarot a little, and may believe in supernatural things…

We have also done a date with Ross J BarrLondon’s favorite acupuncturist, to find out why his needles get everyone excited. It doesn’t hurt that he’s incredibly handsome and married to a famous actress; but as one of the most sought-after doctors in the UK, he gets everyone talking and crying when Ellie Pithers receives the treatment on his sofa.

Ross J. Barr’s Needles Have Everyone Buzzing

I loved reading the author. Megan Nolan’s story about her relationship with SoulCyclethe spin class that has inspired a cult following since its founding in 2006. Megan doesn’t particularly enjoy the class, its attitude or its high price. As a result, she is neither thinner nor stronger. “It just mattered that it made me feel good,” she writes in her essay about the revelations she has enjoyed since getting on the stationary bike. And that’s what this topic is about.

Meanwhile, Tarquin Cooper is entering his sixth decade with a handful of adventures was intended to challenge the preconceived notion that 50 years could mark the beginning of a slow decline. His bucket list includes paragliding, taking part in some godforsaken Scottish sailing and athletics race and going on a dog sled safari somewhere near a pole. To each his own, I say about his ironman ambitions. Although I really want to travel the GR20 of Corsica, even if it doesn’t mean completing the full 180 km of the route.

For many, feeling good has less to do with acceleration and more to do with the simple things. In our cover story, we head to Sardinia out of season to enjoy some sun and soak up Mediterranean life. Food writer and chef Letitia Clark lives on the island year-round and write that it has a special charm in winter. His evocative descriptions of the olive harvest, the weather and the clear blue water in January are totally transporting. Like Jeremy Everett’s photo shoot with Bibi Breslin, the model of the moment.

@jellison22