February – always a hard month, in the words of the philosopher Hobbes, “nasty, brutish and short”. It’s dark, cold at least in the northern hemisphere, and it can be hard to motivate ourselves to get out of bed and onto the mat. It’s been especially hard for people in the US this winter with some of the coldest temperatures in 30 years – Chicago experiences wind chill temperatures of -47C! At that temperature you get frost bite in a few minutes. This unusual weather is yet another sign of the changing climate and the damage we are doing with our high consumption, throw away fashion, cheap package holiday, single-use plastic lifestyles.
February is an easy time to get depressed about these things. But to quote another wonderful philosopher, Pema Chodron our greatest learnings come when we “lean into the sharp points”.
We can take two very practical steps to “be the change we want to see in the world” [Gandhi]. Firstly we can choose sustainable products wherever we can and that includes cork yoga products as cork is a carbon-negative product. Secondly we can not lose heart. The one thing the world does not need right now is more pessimism!
Small changes from all of us can add up to make a big difference.