There is no more poignant illustration of the power of yoga to manage solitude and balance self in adverse situations. The Sunday Times Golden Globe round-the-world yacht race trophy offered to the first sailor to complete a solo non-stop circumnavigation of the globe. In 1968, it started with nine starters. Bernard Moitessier, an ascetic Frenchman participant, practised yoga on deck and fed cheese to the shearwater birds that shadowed him. Moitessier found the experience so fulfilling, and the idea of returning to civilisation so distasteful, that he abandoned the race despite a good chance of victory and just kept on sailing, eventually landing in Tahiti after travelling more than halfway round the world again. “I continue non-stop because I am happy at sea,” he declared, “and perhaps because I want to save my soul.”