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Taking back some control
Bridget Walsh on 21 September, 2011 |

As someone who does a lot of community and education work, every day I try to impress on people of all ages the importance of making good choices. Our choices affect our actions, our actions create consequences. The consequences lead us to new choices and so the cycle goes on.

If you are a sucker for conspiracy (which usually just means you like to question the face value of things), here are some ideas to ponder: Our governments are mostly tainted by corporations. Our doctors are probably tainted by pharmaceutical companies. Our farmers are very likely tainted by supermarkets. Our agriculture is definitely tainted by profit. Our media is pretty much tainted by greed. Our information is generally tainted by propaganda… So, what’s the point of trying to make decent choices when we have all these people pulling the strings for us? Surely it’s just easier to hand over the reigns and go along for the ride, right? WRONG.

Whether it’s our vote, our dollar, our image or our mind: we need to take back control. Every time you buy something, you are voting. Every time you make a choice and spend your money, you are enterprising by proxy. By giving a company, organisation or community your custom, you are saying: “I support how you run your business. I agree with your ethics and how you do things. So much so that I am going to support your organisation with my hard earned money, and encourage you to keep doing business this way”.

Unfortunately our ‘developed’ society has pretty much become a society of sheep. We complain about the price of things, the government, our jobs. (We write articles for websites discussing potential conspiracies). But essentially we are the cogs that keep this machine of our ‘developed’ society going, and even our most intellectual friends and family are probably guilty of living their lives on one bandwagon or another.

Most of us are guilty of detachment in some form (and unfortunately I’m not talking about positive, yoga detachment, or even the independence of self-sustainability). Perhaps it’s better to describe this detachment as a disconnect: living inside our own little bubbles of lifestyle choices and consumption, with little to no concern for the consequences of our choies and how they fit into the proverbial bigger picture.

In my own yogic philosophy, I consider the potential of yoga in helping to save the world to be paramount. “With bodies that are physically more healthy and functional, minds that are calmer, systems that are better nourished and consciences that are expanded, yoga students of all levels are better placed to contribute to the solutions the world needs…” (www.yoganerd.co.uk)

As Rebecca Ffrench, internationally renowned yogi and teacher of teachers, puts it, yoga is an ideal bridge for people to pop that bubble and start to reconnect their lives to the world around them. In it’s physical, Hatha form, yoga offers tangible benefits to individuals who are then more likely to be open to wider yogic concepts (ultimately leading to enlightenment, world peace, case closed, thank you very much, have a nice day, we’ve saved the world. Namaste…!)

But seriously, we need to harness the technology, resources and power available to us to do GOOD for the world, making better choices and questioning the status quo.

“We can make good choices, and we can make rubbish ones. But the most powerful thing we possess both as individuals and as a community, is our ability to MAKE choices at all.” (www.fancysavingtheworld.com)

Think about your life. Stand up for what you believe in. Use yoga a bridge for others in your life who perhaps need a bit of small scale enlightenment to make better choices themselves. Use your power for good.