Stepping Up

I have written before about how I leave some yoga classes brimming with energy and positiveness. This was one of those classes, and God knows I needed it. The past week has been rough and the class was exactly what I needed. It was less crowded than usual because many people were presumably at the Extinction Rebellion protest against inaction on climate change. XR was clearly on the instructor's mind and in her discourse she invited us to step up to something that we were holding ourselves back from (or step down/away if we were forcing ourselves to do something that didn't feel quite right). At the end of the class, as we were soaking in the nutrients of the practice she played a clip of Greta Thurnberg, the 16-year-old Swedish climate activist with Asperger's. The clip gave me goosebumps. I haven't been to the protests yet, mainly because I don't have any company and I find the protesters too white and too middle-class. I fully support the protest and I would rather them protest climate change than shop at Marks and Spencer, or whatever it white middle-class people do for leisure. But, I felt I didn't need to join them and put myself through another experience where I  am the only brown face, especially if I didn't have any company. I feel differently now. There are always a lot of excuses to not do something, to sit out. Stepping up takes some amount of courage as well as time and energy. But, stepping up for something you believe in, if nothing else, gives you the satisfaction of living by your beliefs.  I have never let a lack of company stop me from doing something I like or believe in so why start now?