Editor,

RE: New age practices - hype or need? (The New Times, November 23).

I’m in my 70s and if in the last near 30 years I hadn’t had my daily dose of Aikido training (a discipline I have recently introduced here in Kigali as well that I just can’t live without), simply, I wouldn’t be with you by now, writing this comment...

No question indeed, "mindfulness and gratitude journaling”, just being conscious even a short moment that you are there thanks to a certain concurring order in your body and mind, and among things and people around you, it just is a living, not "need” but a basic necessity; like air, food, etc.

Francois-X. Nziyonsenga